Visualising and conceptualising sustainable third-space careers

Universities are navigating a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment, prompting staff to collaborate thematically across traditional boundaries to address wicked problems. Within this context, the ‘third space’ has emerged, blending academic and professional expertise to connect disparate parts of the academy. As this space expands, future higher education workforces must embrace matrix working, supercomplexity and complex collaboration. This raises questions about how third-space careers are visualised, conceptualised, and sustained. Van der Heijden and De Vos define sustainable careers as sequences of experiences across social spaces, shaped by agency and meaning. De Vos highlights growing scholarly interest in this perspective. This article explores visualisations and conceptualisations of third-space careers, arguing that they exemplify sustainability through the dimensions of time, social space, agency, and meaning.