| 1. |
- Berglund, Karin, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Conceptualising feminist resistance in the postfeminist terrain
- 2023
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Ingår i: Gender in Management. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1754-2413 .- 1754-2421. ; 38:2, s. 183-199
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: In this paper, women entrepreneurs are seen as leaders and women leaders as entrepreneurial, making both groups an easy target of postfeminist expectations, governed by calls to embody the entrepreneurial self. Acknowledging that the entrepreneurial self has its roots in the universal, rational and autonomous subject, which was shaped in a male form during the Enlightenment, the purpose of this study is to conceptualise feminist resistance as a process through which the autonomous subject can be de-stabilised. Design/methodology/approach: Empirically, this study draws on an extensive research project on women's rural entrepreneurship that includes 32 in-depth interviews with women entrepreneurs in rural Sweden. This study interpreted expressions of resistance from the women by using an analytical framework the authors developed based on Jonna Bornemark's philosophical treatise. Findings: Feminist resistance unfolds as an interactive and iterative learning process where the subject recognises their voice, strengthens their voice and beliefs in a relational process and finally sees themselves as a fully fledged actor who finds ways to overcome obstacles that get in their way. Conceptualising resistance as a learning process stands in sharp contrast to the idea of resistance as enacted by the autonomous self. Research limitations/implications: This study helps researchers to understand that what they may have seen as a sign of weakness among women, is instead a sign of strength: it is a first step in learning resistance that may help women create a life different from that prescribed by the postfeminist discourse. In this way, researchers can avoid reproducing women as "weak and inadequate". Originality/value: Through the re-writing of feminist resistance, the masculine entrepreneurship discourse including the notion of the autonomous self is challenged, and a counternarrative to the postfeminist entrepreneurial woman is developed. Theorising resistance as a learning practice enables a more transforming research agenda, making it possible to see women as resisting postfeminist expectations of endless competition with themselves and others.
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| 2. |
- Ahl, Helene, 1958-, et al.
(författare)
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Women's contributions to rural development : implications for entrepreneurship policy
- 2024
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Ingår i: International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1355-2554 .- 1758-6534. ; 30:7, s. 1652-1677
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposePolicy for women's entrepreneurship is designed to promote economic growth, not least in depleted rural areas, but very little is known about the contributions of rural women entrepreneurs, their needs or how the existing policy is received by them. Using a theoretical framework developed by Korsgaard et al. (2015), the authors analyse how rural women entrepreneurs contribute to rural development and discuss the implications for entrepreneurship policy. This paper aims to focus on the aforementioned objectives.Design/methodology/approachThe authors interviewed 32 women entrepreneurs in rural Sweden representing the variety of businesses in which rural Swedish women are engaged. The authors analysed their contributions to rural development by analysing their motives, strategies and outcomes using Korsgaard et al.'s framework of "entrepreneurship in the rural" and "rural entrepreneurship" as a heuristic, interpretative device.FindingsIrrespective of industry, the respondents were deeply embedded in family and local social structures. Their contributions were substantial, multidimensional and indispensable for rural viability, but the policy tended to bypass most women-owned businesses. Support in terms of business training, counselling and financing are important, but programmes especially for women tend to miss the mark, and so does rural development policy. More important for rural women entrepreneurs in Sweden is the provision of good public services, including for example, schools and social care, that make rural life possible.Research limitations/implicationsTheoretically, the findings question the individualist and a-contextual focus of much entrepreneurship research, as well as the taken-for-granted work-family divide. How gender and how the public and the private are configured varies greatly between contexts and needs contextual assessment. Moreover, the results call for theorising place as an entrepreneurial actor.Practical implicationsBased on the findings, the authors advise future policymakers to gender mainstream entrepreneurship policy and to integrate entrepreneurship and rural development policy with family and welfare state policy.Originality/valueThe paper highlights how rural women respond to policy, and the results are contextualised, making it possible to compare them to other contexts. The authors widen the discussion on contributions beyond economic growth, and the authors show that policy for public and commercial services and infrastructure is indeed also policy for entrepreneurship.
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| 3. |
- Alkhaled-Studholme, Sophie, et al.
(författare)
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And now I’m free’ : Women’s empowerment and emancipation through entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia and Sweden
- 2018
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Ingår i: Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0898-5626 .- 1464-5114. ; 30:7-8, s. 877-900
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Critical perspectives have called for the study of women’s entrepreneurship as a route to social change. This ‘social turn’ claims women are empowered and/or emancipated through entrepreneurship with limited problematisation of how these interchangeably used concepts operate. Using an institutional perspective in combination with a narrative approach, we investigate women entrepreneurs’ life stories on their ‘road to freedom’ where entrepreneurial activity enables them to ‘break free’ from particular gendered constraints. Through juxtaposing women’s narratives in the contexts of Saudi Arabia and Sweden, the relationship between empowerment and emancipation is disentangled and (re)conceptualised. The findings distinguish between empowerment narrated as individual practices to achieve freedom for the self within institutional structures and emancipation as narrated as a wish to challenge and change structures of power and reach collative freedom. The yearning for collective emancipation propels women’s stories of entrepreneurship by raising expectations for entrepreneurship as a vehicle for institutional change. Such stories may fascinate and inspire others to engage in entrepreneurial endeavours to become empowered, but whether they reach emancipation remains an empirical question to be answered. The performative dimension of entrepreneurial narratives is, however, their ability to turn emancipation into an (un)reachable object of desire, with a quest for even more individual empowerment and entrepreneurial activity, at the same time excluding other forms of human conduct as conducive for change.
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| 4. |
- Berglund, Karin, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Constructions of Entrepreneurship: A Discourse Analysis of Academic Publications
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Enterprising Communities. - : Emerald. - 1750-6204 .- 1750-6212. ; 1:1, s. 77-102
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose of this research paper is to investigate opposing versions of entrepreneurship and to introduce a metaphor to stimulate a dialogue about the diversity and complexity of enterprising communities.Design/methodology/approachA discourse framework is developed in order to describe dominating – and even new and challenging – versions of entrepreneurship. The discourse analysis is presented in three steps: the introductory text to a handbook of entrepreneurship is deconstructed to expose some basic assumptions of entrepreneurship; drawing on several research articles, some dominating versions of entrepreneurship are analysed; drawing on research articles which have recently been published in two special issues in entrepreneurship journals, alternative versions of entrepreneurship are analysed.FindingsThis paper compares three dominating and three alternative versions of entrepreneurship. All the versions are related to the idea of entrepreneurship as a story of creation for our times, where it is implied that entrepreneurship appears to be something inherently good for society and for people. The versions share a common denominator but are also distinguished by different ontological and epistemological assumptions that make a dialogue between the versions problematic.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of this research paper have obvious limitations because of the methodology employed and due to the limited number of texts analysed.Originality/valueThe concept of a discursive web to analyse the world of entrepreneurship is introduced.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Berglund, Karin, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Entrepreneurship Education in Policy and Practice
- 2013
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Ingår i: International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing. - 1742-5360 .- 1742-5379. ; 5:1, s. 9-27
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article pays interest to the intersection between policy and practice when implementing entrepreneurship in the educational system. Taking a point of departure in Mahieu’s (2006) call for knowledge of the interplay between different policy levels and Backström-Widjeskog’s (2010) conclusion about tensions occurring when teachers are introduced to the concept, the intention is to develop knowledge about conflicts and tensions at the intersection between policy and practice. From analysing policy documents and narratives from entrepreneurship education implementation projects during a time when entrepreneurship education started to be promoted in Sweden three figures of thought are found (economic/humanistic, biological/social, and individual/collective) which are proposed to be involved in creating tensions and conflicts in the intersection between policy and practice. Theoretically, these figures of thought can be seen as a contribution to understanding processes in which the concept of entrepreneurship education has deliberately been moved, by way of policy, to the educational practice. Reflecting on these thought figures may enhance teachers’ translation processes when starting to work with entrepreneurship education in practice.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Berglund, Karin, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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To play or not to play: that is the question : entrepreneuring as gendered play
- 2015
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0956-5221 .- 1873-3387. ; 31:2, s. 206-218
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- How can play be used to unravel the discourse of the gendered hero entrepreneur and instead describe mundane entrepreneuring? Further, how can the doing of gendered social orders be problematized when entrepreneuring is equated with play? In this article we answer these questions by engaging with the French social theorist Caillois’ (1961) conceptualization of play as being at the heart of all higher culture. Two ethnographic cases act as our vehicle in analysing play as entrepreneuring. From a rich description of these cases we find that it is not a question of playing or not playing, but about how to play. All four forms of play described by Caillois are present, which illustrates the variation of entrepreneuring and the richness of activities conducted in the ‘doing of entrepreneurship’. Further, both ways of playing discussed by Caillois are found. Whilst these two ways are interrelated on a continuum in the theory of play, they have been separated in entrepreneurship discourse, where they underpin the tendency to differentiate between the hero entrepreneur and ordinary people. Finally, we engage in a more interpretive and reflective discussion on entrepreneuring as performative acts through which social orders can be not only reproduced but also transformed.
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| 9. |
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Promoting innovation : policies, practices and procedures
- 2012
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This anthology uses a gender perspective to analyse constraining structures in innovation systems. Focusing on mainstream policies as well as regional and organizational practices, it presents procedures, methods and methodologies to develop genderaware, innovative organisations.Fostering innovation requires ability to question what is taken for granted and perceived as the natural order. Challenging this order often requires a critical mind where a gender perspective can be useful. The experience of integrating a gender perspective can be likened to turning a kaleidoscope; the resulting shift in perspective causes new images and highlights new opportunities.This anthology is the result of more than ten years’ research and development work funded by VINNOVA and aimed at establishing a research field in gender and innovation. Ten years ago, there were few researchers and limited research focusing on this area. Today, the picture is different and this anthology presents the analyses of 31 researchers on how gender is a constraining structure within innovation systems. There is little doubt that integrating a gender perspective helps promoting innovation.
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| 10. |
- Redmalm, David, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Möbius Management : The Internal Dynamics of Business Ethics Programmes
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present study draws on the theoretical framework of Giorgio Agamben to conceptualize the dynamic that business ethics programmes create within companies—an area of study that is underexplored in organization and management research. We suggest that the “ethical” corporation can be regarded as a machine that dissolves the boundaries of the firm and conflates the goals and values of management, employees and the corporation—a process we call Möbius Management. Using ethnographic methods, we have studied the American-Hungarian IT company Prezi’s engagement in the Budapest Pride Parade, in a Roma settlement, and in a mission to help Syrian refugees. These different situations can be regarded as what Agamben calls “zones of indistinction”: places where seemingly contradictory values and categories are merged, and where the value of life is momentarily challenged. Entering these zones, employees’ personal engagement is encouraged and developed, which in turn strengthens bonds between employees and sustains an atmosphere of openness at the office. To make the interventions into company events that are also individually rewarding, management and employees downplay the political specificity of the situations in favor of emotional aspects and general references to humanist universalism. In this way, corporations with social visions can themselves also be regarded as “zones of indistinction” where idealism and economic gain, as well as individual and employee identities, are merged. In conclusion, the contrast between Prezi and the present political situation in Hungary, characterized by a rhetoric of inside and outside, accentuates the process and effect of Möbius management.
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