For many (if not most) artists, their work is a key part of who they are. Their creative efforts help shape their identity and how they see themselves in the world. It is not just the generic notion of “being an artist,” but rather their specific field, style, and project that define their self-concept. Some discuss the parallels between creating art and creating an identity; both involve generating different possible ideas and ultimately choosing the best one. They also talk about the process of learning to think of themselves as artists.

Networks, which are defined as groups or systems of interconnected people or things, can be formal and informal in nature and can be applied for different purposes. The capability to network can build influence in groups and organisations to support change or generate new ideas. The process of networking can be seen as a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals, groups and organisations with a common interest. Networking can be applied at a personal level for career and leadership development, at an intraorganisational level for organisational development and at an interorganisational level for research, knowledge management, process improvement and relationship development.

While exploring how specialist medical publishers and regular practitioners worked together to publish and advertise medical works on sexual matters, Chapter 3, Publishing for Professional Advantage, shows that the boundaries between communicating knowledge, promoting expertise, and trading on medical eroticism were not just blurry in contexts of the pornography trade and irregular medical practice. They were also blurry in regular medicine. Works on reproduction and sexual health issued by medical publishers were often textually similar to those issued by pornographers and irregulars, worked up using similar techniques, advertised, and distributed to non-medical readers in similar ways, and, regular practitioners often argued, for similar purposes. The chapter explores how and why these overlaps aroused particular concern among groups that advocated radical reforms to the medical profession. Rather than seeking to discipline regular medical publishing, however, reformers initially took a different route: they launched campaigns aimed at stamping out irregular practitioners’ trade in sexual health manuals.

This chapter is an introduction to your teaching degree. It provides opportunities to explore different understandings of education as a career and also serves as an introduction to tertiary study with information to prepare you for successful tertiary study and experiences. You can reflect on your learning through activities, and also critically engage with the ideas presented in this chapter. First, we will look at the university experience for pre-service teachers. There is no one, exclusive or all-encompassing university experience that everyone will undergo in the same way; it is impossible to essentialise student experiences.

What next for autistics in the academy? In this chapter participants reflect on their career aspirations: the roles they aspire to and their expectations as to whether they will achieve their career goals. For those goals that seem out of reach, this chapter tries to answer the question of whether the barriers are intrinsic to being autistic or are systemic and structural.

Accordingly, the inquiry endures as to what specific art galvanized the modern world’s original treatise on painting. How Alberti’s remarkable journey through the art of his past and present is both reflected and refracted in De pictura demands examination of the lines of transmission through education and career in Alberti’s decisive locales before Florence.

Aside from its intellectual content, the essay provides a space for contemporary British novelists to enhance their career prospects. This takes the threefold forms of intertexual affiliation by co-publication within the same title as other writers; of creating a space in which to generate prestige-enhancing controversy; and of enabling novelists to hold academic affiliations. This chapter examines these features through a network analysis of the publications in The London Review of Books over the past two decades and then through case studies of Hilary Mantel, Will Self, Tom McCarthy, and Zadie Smith.

Chapter 1 details the major events in Goethe’s long and varied life, from its beginning to its end, and explains their significance for his development. The scope of the account ranges from intimate details of Goethe’s life to the impact of major political events on him and his work. It follows Goethe from location to location, examines the many strands of his career and considers particularly important relationships, professional, literary, intellectual and personal. The chapter also explains the circumstances of the composition of all his most significant works.

This brief chapter examines how narratives are useful in work psychology. Narratives can be used for everything from career planning to worker relations and ideas around job identity. People often want to identify with the organisation they work for, and successful identification can be positive in terms of satisfaction and productivity. If there is a shared narrative between workers and managers, then the organisation is likely to be more successful. Narrative is a useful device for examining the nature and progress of careers, and activities such as appraisal can enhance these narratives.

The introduction recounts the life and writing career of Jonathan Swift, centred on his authorship of Gulliver’s Travels (1726). It provides an overview of the action of Swift’s masterpiece, placing the adventures of Lemuel Gulliver in parallel to the events of Swift’s life: his education, early career as secretary to William Temple, forays into satire, political writings during Anne’s reign, and Irish writings in the decade before he published Gulliver. The introduction establishes the circumstances of its publication, the different states of the text (and its paratexts), and some of the main critical attitudes to the work. It summarises the chapters within the volume.