تئوری‌پردازی کارآفرینی برای آینده: داستان‌هایی از مرزهای جهانی

Presenting a new interpretation of entrepreneurial behaviour, this book focuses on how entrepreneurs consider the future, looking at their social practices, language and rituals through which they neutralize or smoothen future unknowns. The study theorizes entrepreneurial behaviour as ‘future-work': the social practices, language and rituals through which entrepreneurs neutralize or smoothen future unknowns. The study is grounded in ethnographic case material from global frontiers: second-hand car dealers in West Africa; exporters of fresh fish from Lake Victoria, East Africa; farmed fish entrepreneurs in Greece; and investment bankers in Financial America. It targets students and scholars from the social sciences and economics, and it has theoretical and practical implications. Contents 7 List of Illustrations 8 Prologue 9 Acknowledgements 15 Introduction. The Problem of the Future in Studying Entrepreneurship 17 Chapter 1. Time and Entrepreneurship in Social Theory: Barth, Schumpeter and Keynes 39 Chapter 2. The Social Construction of Individualism: Fish Entrepreneurs on Lake Victoria, Uganda 60 Chapter 3. Profit-Making and Dreaming of Fortunes: Second-hand Car Dealers in Cotonou, Benin 84 Chapter 4. Telling Stories with Numbers: The Social Life of Investment Bankers 113 Chapter 5. The Relevance of the Policy Context: Aquaculture Entrepreneurs in Greece 139 Conclusions 169 Epilogue: Value and Validity of the Case Study Method 186 References 209 Index of Subjects 223 Index of Key Thinkers 231