When seafaring is (or was) a calling: Norwegian seafarers’ career experiences

Abstract

Careers are seen as important to individuals, organizations and to the world at large. As globalization processes continue to transform seafaring careers, David Cockroft's ‘Editorial’, published in the 30-year issue of this journal, calls on the maritime community to recover fundamental aspects of the human element that made seafaring an attractive career option 1. Norway has historically been the ‘essence of maritime things’; where seafaring may be considered an ‘ancestral ‘calling’. Due to the current public and academic attention placed on the Norwegian ‘maritime cluster’, there exists a dearth of academic studies focused on the experiences of the highly qualified Norwegian seafarers who helped to shape the maritime industry. Drawing upon the literatures in both career research and maritime studies, in-depth conversations with 41 Norwegian seafarers attempt to redress this imbalance; to unpack some of the human ‘elements’ connected with seafaring careers. The qualitative method of career narratives is used in order to explore the richness of experiences associated with seafaring as a calling; to identify both contextual facilitators and contextual hinderers associated with going to sea. Norwegian scholars are encouraged to participate in future conversations with multiple maritime stakeholders to continue the process of recovering the call to seafaring careers.