Conceptualising youth entrepreneurship in EU policy discourse

Abstract

This article will examine the formation of young entrepreneurs as subjects in EU policy and the roles that they have been accorded in policy discourse. The analysis traces the critical lines of policy thinking through select policy documents that portray the evolution of the EU's particular conceptualisations of youth entrepreneurship as well as young entrepreneurs as policy subjects -focusing primarily on the overlapping policy arenas of entrepreneurship and youth. The discussion also examines the normative connotations ascribed to youth entrepreneurship in EU policy discourse, focusing on the links made between youth entrepreneurship and the economic crisis in EU policy.This paper is open access and may be further distributed in accordance with the provisions of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 HR licence.