Knowledge production as identity expression: a third-space perspective on sustainable careers

This conceptual paper advances our understanding of sustainable careers by focusing on the knowledge creation activities of third-space practitioners in higher education. Specifically, we apply and extend the Process Model of Sustainable Careers to examine how different forms of knowledge production in three different institutional and national contexts – writing for publication, practice-based expertise, and curriculum development – contribute to career sustainability at the intersection of academic and professional/administrative roles and domains. The critical element of this extension is ‘identity expression’ in the form of knowledge production, which acts as an integrating mechanism that flows through and connects the original model's three dimensions of person, context and time. The paper responds directly to the calls for research on conceptualising sustainable careers by showing how varied knowledge production activities enable third-space practitioners to navigate the complexities of career pathways in boundary-spanning roles.