In the course of a degree in almost any liberal arts subject, students will be taught about the three Copernican Revolutions; Copernicus’ telling the world it is not the centre of the solar system, Darwin telling humanity they are not at the centre of the world, and Freud telling every individual they are not even at the centre of themselves. This Economist article seems to point to a fear of another, economic Copernican Revolution; the discovery that the citizens of a country are not necessarily the centre of their own countries economy.
This bears the hallmarks of the other Copernican revolutions; the main fear is that of being sidelined, of not being able to take part in a system in which dominance had seemed assured. Unlike the theories of Copernicus, Darwin and Freud, however, globalisation and immigration have a palpable effect on the employment of many workers in almost all industries.
Herminia Ibarra seems to have identified another such revolution, positing that changing jobs can cause professionals to feel powerless over their own lives; she found “a strong link between the kind of networks you build and your sense of who you are professionally”. Changing careers, even if the new career seemed to be the right step, could cause a major shift in the way individuals views themselves. Professor Ibarra’s solution to this problem is what, in the end, allayed fear of the other Copernican revolutions – to “ditch reflection and self-analysis in favour of action”. But the fears of economic migration and globablisation cannot, it seems, be untangled quite so glibly; the discontents of this Copernican Revolution are still to be solved.
