Critical Perspectives on Entrepreneurship: Challenging Dominant Discourses

Abstract

The various authors question and critique the practice and dominant discourses of entrepreneurship through the adoption of a variety of critical perspectives, listening to excluded voices and acknowledging the darker aspects of entrepreneurial activities. In developing this debate, they highlight the importance of alternative discourses, for example through advancing indigenous perspectives, for which the authors provide examples through case studies of activities undertaken within disenfranchised communities in Argentina and Zimbabwe. Importantly, they also suggest the need for a more critical consideration of family and community ties and informal practices, for example to counteract the obscuring of “the invisible work of women and children within the ethnic economy” (Jones, Ram and Villares) and greater consideration of racial, class and gender inequality processes.