This book has brought together authors from different countries, disciplines, traditions, and fields of practice to take a view of the future of career. From their different perspectives, they address various aspects of career, of what it is and has been. They point to actual and potential changes not only in career paths and patterns, and in individuals' experiences of career, but also in the construct and discourse of career, and consider issues for theory, practice, and policy arising from them. The book thus presents a kaleidoscopic view of career and its future. Implicitly, some chapters challenge others, interrogate others, or resonate with others. While the juxtaposition within this book of their differing angles and perspectives has the potential to stimulate new understandings of and questions about career, it also fragments and refracts any glimpse of its future they may afford. However, there are also common themes and issues running through the book. The challenge of this closing chapter is to celebrate these multiple interpretations, yet draw their various messages into a greater whole.

We open by highlighting the key themes of the book, and then set out to join-the-dots of our contributors' perspectives within a long-term view of the context of career. This enables us to draw out how career is multi-layered, and intertwined with other significant social constructs and processes, and to highlight the stakeholders in it, such as employers, individuals, and the career ‘industry’ as a whole. Having discussed some of the key issues for its stakeholders, we then propose a reframing of career that captures and makes sense of the issues raised in the book, and ways forward in the twenty-first century for those concerned with career.