Enacting (New) Possibilities of Living: Entrepreneurship and Affirmation

Abstract

Motivated by the need to reflect upon the role of entrepreneurship in the economy and society, we seek to understand entrepreneurship as having the potential to “produce” new possibilities for living when departing from a critical awareness. We consider existing critical entrepreneurship research as necessary but insufficient in adequately bringing about new perspectives of entrepreneurship as it often tends to be a position “against entrepreneurship,” discrediting the phenomenon from the many possible values it may invoke. We suggest affirmative critique (Dey & Steyaert, 2018; Weiskopf & Steyaert, 2009) to “turn critique into creativity,” thus making critique productive and exploring how actual transformation (e.g., alternatives) can be invoked when adopting such a stance.

Citation

Berjani, D., Verduijn, K. and van Burg, E. (2022), "Enacting (New) Possibilities of Living: Entrepreneurship and Affirmation", Eberhart, R.N., Lounsbury, M. and Aldrich, H.E. (Ed.) Entrepreneurialism and Society: Consequences and Meanings (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 82), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 149-159. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20220000082007