“Doing one's work” in entrepreneurship studies: interpellation, distraction, disruption and transformation
International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship
ISSN: 1756-6266
Article publication date: 14 September 2021
Issue publication date: 23 September 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This paper takes seriously the feminist adage that “the personal is political” by critically exploring my experiences as an early career scholar of gender and entrepreneurship studies to offer vital context for the contributions of my work and future research agenda, in light of the current historical moment of interconnected political, public health and environmental calamity.
Design/methodology/approach
The author presents reflections on her positionality, philosophical and political commitments, and theorises from her experiences of racist distraction and intersectional marginality in contemporary academia, considering their implications for incoming and aspiring gender and entrepreneurship scholars whose research agendas are still in development.
Findings
Racism functions as a persistent distraction from overall research agendas and activities, and delimits the lane of perceived contributions. However, collectively challenging it in work and study presents a vehicle by which intellectual and affective experiences of academic work may be enriched, and a spacious and expansive legacy of critical scholarship built that will be resonant for years to come.
Originality/value
The paper argues that although racism will doubtlessly continue to cause immense distraction, it presents an invitation to create positive social change, through collectivising with a community that aims to shape a liveable, equitable and imaginative academic future.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author sincerely thanks the IGJE Editors and the anonymous reviewers of this paper. The author would also like to acknowledge some of the people whose ‘hails’ have been deeply generative for her experience of academia thus far: the author's mother, Maria del Carmen Martinez-Patterson, Lee Martin, Susan Marlow, Dilani Jayawarna, Mike Caine, the ISBE Gender and Enterprise Network Committee, ICMS 2017 Stream 45 Convenors, Decolonizing Alliance, BARC Collective past and present, community members who joined BARC workshops or connected virtually, student anti-racist leadership including Rhodes Must Fall, Why is My Curriculum White, Goldsmiths Anti-Racist Action, Decolonize University of Kent, POC Squared, and Collective on Anti-Racism ANU. Thank you all for your invitations, inspiration, energy and support. The author is grateful to the Loughborough University BAME Staff Network especially James Esson and Veronica Moore, LU anti-racist student leaders, the Race Equality Charter teams and Richard Taylor for the chance to combine an academic career with building an anti-racist university. The author stands on the shoulders of ancestors, thinkers, scholars and activists without whom this work would not be possible. Any errors are the author's own.
Funding: Although no specific funding supported the writing of this paper, BARC Events 2018-2019 were funded by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS); Queen Mary University of London–School of Business and Management Environment Fund and Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity; Middlesex University London; University of Kent–Centre for Sexuality, Race and Gender Justice and Postgraduate Community Experience Awards; the Re-imagining Attainment For All 2 (RAFA2) collaboration between University of Roehampton and Queen Mary University of London, and sliding scale participant registration fees. Any profits were redistributed to student anti-racist projects via the BARC Bank initiative, Autumn 2019.
Citation
Martinez Dy, A. (2021), "“Doing one's work” in entrepreneurship studies: interpellation, distraction, disruption and transformation", International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 207-224. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJGE-01-2021-0016
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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