Commentary: Work as a Promoter Sign

The three chapters in Part II point out the influence of culture on human subjectivity, in the family context, stressing the importance of work for the individual’s identity construction. To have a job emerges as a promoter sign, which guides person’s life trajectory. Also, in a nonnormative situation, such as disability or unemployment, this mechanism can be observed more clearly, precisely because it can be viewed as an unusual situation.

Culture, as seen by Valsiner (2007), consists of processes through which persons relate to their social worlds. It is a mutual interaction between individual and environment, which characterizes their constitution. Culture can be approached as an organizer of human development. One cannot consider the object without taking into account cultural context. We create meanings for our relationships with the world primarily through our feelings, which are themselves culturally organized by the creation and use of signs.