Critical entrepreneurship studies

Abstract

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Editorial: Planning and Critical Entrepreneurship

“…A third route to take to renew planners' engagement with economic thinking is to establish cross-disciplinary dialogues between planning and the relatively young scientific field of 'critical entrepreneurship studies'. As Essers et al (2017,) indicate, "entrepreneurship research has become increasingly more hospitable towards alternative theoretical influences and methodological procedures" (p. 1). The mainstream of entrepreneurship research focuses on entrepreneurship as a rather market-based phenomenon or as a special form of conduct which triggers accumulation and venture creation that causes economic growth (ibid).…”

“…Post-colonial aspects of entrepreneurship studies challenge "how entrepreneurship research is largely bound by Western organisational discourses" (Essers et al, 2017, p. 3) with the purpose "to call into question the hegemonic performativity of conventional discourse about heroic (white male) styles of leadership in entrepreneurship" (ibid., p.3). In this respect, it seems particularly interesting to look at the work of so-called policy entrepreneurs (Kingdon, 1995) who in the field of (global) urban policy purposefully look for new paths and mobilize other actors for their case.…”

“…While the concept of ethnic entrepreneurship thus needs to be analysed by paying attention to its inherent ambivalences, it may also bring about empirical evidence of innovative search for new solidarities (Meeus, 2017). In this type of research, it is of key relevance to learn how other entrepreneurs construct their entrepreneurial identities in relation to their particular identities, and how this challenges public discourses about certain minorities (Essers et al, 2017). Scholars in this tradition also problematise prevailing tendencies to view entrepreneurship as an unfettered route to social mobility for ethnic minority and immigrant groups.…”

A suitable woman: The coming-of-age of the ‘third world woman’ at the bottom of the pyramid: A critical engagement

“…might contribute to the problems they are trying to eliminate' (Calas et al, 2009: 566). In this sense, the exploration undertaken here adds to the ongoing critical dialogues on entrepreneurship (among others, see Calas and Smircich, 2014;Calas et al, 2009;Essers et al, 2017) where scholars emphasize the contingent and contested nature of entrepreneurial activity; along with the need to locate it within historical and social contexts so as to resist the tendency to universalize entrepreneurship as a panacea for redressing all manner of trials and tribulations.…”

Climbing to freedom on an impossible staircase: Exploring the emancipatory potential of becoming an entrepreneur-employer

“…Furthermore, our research responds to calls to challenge the ideological foundations of entrepreneurship (Essers, et al, 2017). Research has been criticised for failing to unpack the ways in which ideologies rooted in neoliberalism and entrepreneurship interact (Ahl and Marlow, 2019;Baker and Welter, 2020).…”