Entrepreneurship: Geographies and Social Context

Abstract

For a long time entrepreneurship has been of great importance for society. Consequently its role in society has been of great interest. It is significant for the research in this area that it is multidisciplinary and there has been a struggle finding an explicit definition of the concept of ‘entrepreneurship’. Now, entrepreneurship has made its entrance to more arenas than the economic ones and has become a concern for schools and education as is evident from national as well as international policies. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the concept of ‘entrepreneurship’ has been an item on the agenda of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as well as the European Commission. The report Towards an ‘Enterprising’ Culture: a challenge for education and training states that schools should ‘go in for an enterprising culture’ and that, at the same time, this implies a challenge for education (OECD, 1989, pp. 21-22). The European Commission also states the need for developing enterprising people and the importance of starting at early ages and to be a natural part of the whole school system. Children and young people are supposed to acquire an entrepreneurial attitude through teaching and learning. In this way entrepreneurship has more and more become a concern for schools and education. Schools have therefore a big responsibility for fostering and developing young people’s enterprising abilities (European Commission, 2002, 2004).