Despite serious criticism, the boundaryless view of careers still heavily influences research. This article aims to do more than just challenge the claim that careers are becoming more boundaryless: our goal is to make clear that careers need to be thought of in alternative terms. To this end, we build on an analysis of academic careers to explain why regarding careers as either bounded or boundaryless is too simple and why more attention should be paid to the scripts that influence career choices. We draw from an empirical study carried out in two French universities that shows that promotion scripts operate under three conditions — credibility, legibility, and legitimacy of promotion models. We conclude that scripts are potentially very useful in understanding a wide range of careers.

Bile salt-dependent lipase (BSDL, E.C. 3.1.1.-) is a digestive enzyme secreted by the pancreatic acinar cell. Once in the duodenum, the enzyme, upon activation by primary bile salts, hydrolyzes dietary lipid esters such as cholesteryl esters and lipid-soluble vitamin esters. This enzyme is partially transferred from the duodenum or pancreas to the circulation where it has been postulated to exert a systemic action on atheroma-generating oxidized-low density lipoprotein (LDL). In the present study, sera from 40 healthy normolipidemic volunteers were used to investigate the possible linkage between circulating BSDL, lipids, and lipoproteins. We showed, firstly, that pancreatic-like BSDL activity can be detected in these serums. Secondly, BSDL activity increased significantly with the level of LDL-cholesterol and was also positively linked to the serum concentration of Apo B100 and Apo A-I. Thirdly, we also established that BSDL was associated with LDL, in part by a specific interaction with Apo B100, while no interaction was found with Apo A-I. No linkage with other recorded parameters (triglycerides, phospholipids, and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol) was detected. Because an increase in LDL-cholesterol represents an important risk factor for atheroma, the concomitant increase in BSDL, which can metabolize atherogenic LDL, suggests for the first time that this circulating enzyme may exert a positive effect against atherosclerosis.

Debates about the form and nature of changes in the management of public systems have for some time now been articulated under the theme of governance. All definitions of governance are related to the problems of securing convergence among a diversity of actors and organizations, of redistributing power in an organizational or social field characterized by a high level of heterogeneity and of gaining sufficient legitimacy to act in the name of the collectivity. This paper concentrates on the dynamics involved in the emergence of new governing capabilities in public systems. More precisely we study the implementation of regionalization policies in the health care field (in this case of Canada) conceived as one major attempt to renew the governance structures in a large public system.Our study draws on the comparative analysis of empirical regulation in three health regions as contrasted with three ideal type models of governance in regionalized systems. The first model is inspired by an economic approach to organizational behaviour and focuses on mandate-giving, execution and control. The second model is based on a political interpretation of behaviours and focuses on negotiation processes between actors. Finally, the third model is based on the theory of deliberation as well as the institutional school of policy analysis and focuses on direct public participation in public affairs. Evidence for this article is primarily derived from interviews with key informants and documentary analysis.Our analysis shows that none of the three models is sufficient in itself to grant regional structures the authority and legitimacy they need to create added value in terms of regulation that could ensure their survival. Regional Boards are thus forced by environmental constraints to conceive and implement original mixes of these models. The two predominant logics in regional action are inspired by the first two models although the last one also has an influence. Overall, our study also suggests that the implementation of new sources of governing authorities in a public system is rather fragile because of dependence on existing institutions. Clearly, the attempt to modify the dynamics of governance in a given system must be conceived as a political exercise and not just as a technical problem consisting of the rational adjustment of policy instruments.

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This article examines the career scripts held by individuals working in clusters by studying the careers seen as desirable and possible by 42 micro-nanotechnology and computer science researchers in the 'Minalogic' cluster, the French equivalent of Silicon Valley. We consider the links between the researchers' career scripts and their social positions and identify six discrete career scripts that we label organizational nomad, entrepreneurial, organizational extension, cloister, escape and conversion. Central social positions in the cluster are linked with boundaryless career scripts (organizational nomad and entrepreneurial scripts), but individuals also use the resources associated with their central social positions to envisage both extending their careers and the range of tasks they undertake (organizational extension script) within their employing organizations. Others − those holding peripheral social positions − may be unable to match the cluster's expectations, and so feel trapped in involuntary immobility (cloister script), constrained to leave the cluster (escape script) or to change their occupations or broaden their skill sets to advance their careers within it (conversion script). Our article goes beyond simply using scripts as descriptions to propose a more comprehensive approach by highlighting the social dimension of career scripts. Our results qualify the supposed predominance of the boundaryless career notion by confronting it with the wider generic notion of the career script, so proposing a more complete description of how a cluster shapes individuals' career definitions and aspirations, as well as a more complex theorization of how those careers are influenced by the cluster context.