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Dear ENT colleagues (apologies for cross-postings),

Call for papers: 10^th International Critical Management Studies (CMS) Conference – CMS 2017

July 3 – 5, Liverpool, UK

Stream: Critical Entrepreneurship Studies

Conveners:

Caroline Essers (Radboud University, c.essers@fm.ru.nl)

Eeva Houtbeckers (Aalto University, eeva.houtbeckers@aalto.fi)

Miguel Imas (Kingston University, j.imas@kingston.ac.uk)

Banu Ozkazanc-Pan (University of Massachusetts-Boston, Banu.Ozkazanc-Pan@umb.edu)

Piritta Parkkari (University of Lapland, piritta.parkkari@ulapland.fi)

Deirdre Tedmanson (University of South Australia, deirdre.tedmanson@unisa.edu.au)

Critical Entrepreneurship Studies

Critical Entrepreneurship Studies (CES) forms a diverse community united by the desire to think entrepreneurship differently, transgressing the boundaries imposed by dominant paradigms (Tedmanson et al., 2012). Specifically, CES questions hegemonic notions of entrepreneurship in academia as an epistemology of knowing/representing individuals and as the practice of particular social and economic activities. For instance, we have seen the shift from critique of enterprise discourse (du Gay, 2004) to the critique of the "dark side" of entrepreneurship (Jones & Spicer, 2009) and onto more affirmative critiques (Weiskopf & Steyaert, 2009).  

This critical shift requires not only a radical re-imagining of entrepreneurship theory and research but re-imagining entrepreneurship from communities that so far have been unable to contribute to these dialogues. Such conversations, we believe, may provide not only a voice but the radical alternatives required to re-shape the meaning of entrepreneurship.

Henceforth, to this end, we ask the following bold questions, "Why should we use the concept of entrepreneurship?" and "Who benefits from its use and who is left out?" and "How do we re-imagine entrepreneurship?"

For this purpose, we invite here radical papers that could, for example, try to renounce the idea of entrepreneurship – even to realize its usefulness. Equally, we promote ideas that are not configured within the epistemological western traditions but from other regions and cultures that  challenge the perpetuation of entrepreneurship. We also encourage contributions that do not 'frame' entrepreneurship under our traditional academic language but add value through other meaningful communicative sources, such as short films, photography, and short stories. We also invite studies making use of various theoretical approaches, including but not limited to post-colonial and feminist perspectives and critiques.

The persistence of the Critical Entrepreneurship Studies stream (since 2009) and most relevant the inequalities experienced currently around the world by various communities tells the urgent need for critical thinking on entrepreneurship. Hence and in line with the 10^th Critical Management Studies conference's aims, we would like to add a stream triggering revolutionary breakthroughs in our ontological, epistemological and methodological repository in critical entrepreneurship studies.

 The deadline for submitting the paper abstract is: 31^st January 2017. Decision for acceptance to the stream will be communicated to the authors latest by 15^th February 2017. Abstracts should be between 500-700 words (excluding references) and should be submitted to Banu Ozkazanc-Pan at banu.ozkazanc-pan@umb.edu and Piritta Parkkari at piritta.parkkari@ulapland.fi

 References

Armstrong, P. (2005). Critique of Entrepreneurship: People and Policy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Du Gay, P. (2004). Against 'Enterprise' (but not against 'enterprise', for that would make no sense). Organization, 11(1): 37-57.

Essers, C. & Benchop, Y. (2007). Enterprising identities: Female entrepreneurs of Moroccan or Turkish origin in the Netherlands. Organization Studies, 28(1): 49-69.

Imas, J.M., Wilson, N. & Weston, A. (2012). Barefoot entrepreneurs. Organization, 19, 5, 563-585.

Jones, C. & Spicer, A. (2009). Unmasking the Entrepreneur. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Rehn, A. & Talaas, S. (2004) 'Znakomstva I Svyazi' (Acquaintances and connections) - Blat, the Soviet Union, and mundane entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 16(3): 235-250.

Ogbor, J. (2000). Mythicizing and reification in entrepreneurial discourse: Ideology critique of entrepreneurial studies. Journal of Management Studies, 37(5): 605-635.

Ozkazanc-Pan, B. (2014). Postcolonial feminist analysis of high-technology entrepreneuring. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 20(2): 155-172.

Steyaert, C & Katz, J. (2004). Reclaiming the space of entrepreneurship in society: geographical, discursive and social dimensions. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 16: 179–196.

Tedmanson, D., Verduyn, K., Essers, C. & Gartner, W.B. (2012). Critical perspectives in entrepreneurship research. Organization, 19(5): 531-541.

Verduijn, K., Dey, P., Tedmanson, D. & Essers, C. (2014). Emancipation and/or oppression? Conceptualizing dimensions of criticality in entrepreneurship studies. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 20(2): 98-107.

Weiskopf, R. & Steyaert, C. (2009). Metamorphoses in entrepreneurship studies: towards affirmative politics of entrepreneuring. In: Hjorth, D. & Steyaert, C. (Eds.) (2009). The politics and aesthetics of entrepreneurship. A fourth movements in entrepreneurship book. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.