‪Le temps des coachs ?‪. Trajectoires typiques d’une figure du « nouvel esprit du capitalisme »

Born in the USA in the 1980s-90s, shortly after introduced in France, executive coaching led to the development of a new professional segment, which boomed in the consulting field in the 2000s. Identifying the social conditions and the reasons why a set of actors turn to this activity enables to show how this new professional segment strengthens, beyond the action of the first activists who devoted themselves to the promotion and recognition of this activity. Our inquiry shows two main paths to become a coach: coaching first attracts consulting and training experts, and psychologists, who want to unify the numerous activities they have led in their ?bushy? professional career; and secondly, executives who turn to this practice as a new job after a professional breakdown that occurred in a pretty stable career. Studying coaching helps to understand better the elective affinities between the ?new spirit of capitalism? (Boltanski, Chiapello, 1999) and professional careers which reveal the forced appeal of hybrid employment statuses that are growing in the grey area between salaried status and self-employment.