Suchergebnisse

Life can be seen as an ongoing process of identity construction, where individuals try to understand herself from the various identity bases to which she is exposed. Here, we focus on the identity construction of women who have started independent schools in Sweden. The independent school sector emerged after a political reform in 1992, allowing privately owned schools to operate with public funding. The women are subject to gendered expectations on how they are supposed to behave, and they are teachers, part of a profession with strong traditions. They have also become entrepreneurs through starting new independent schools. From a narrative analysis of their individual identity construction, we identify four different narrative strategies used to combine identity bases with differing norms and expectations. ; An earlier version of this paper was presented to the EIASM workshop on Female managers, entrepreneurs and the social capital of the firm, Nov 17-19, 2004, Brussels, Belgium QC 20111118

In this article, our interest is in what subjectivities are fostered among schoolchildren through the recent introduction of entrepreneurship initiatives in primary and secondary school. The educational terrain is but one example where entrepreneurship has been discursively transformed during recent decades from the notion of starting businesses into a general approach to life itself in the advancement of neoliberal societies. The inherently elitist and excluding position of the entrepreneurial subject is now offered to all and sundry. While entrepreneurship pedagogy is explicitly intended to be gender neutral and inclusive of all such identities traditionally suppressed in the entrepreneurship discourse, we ask what kind of enterprising selves are mobilised and de-mobilised here. Second, in what way are these seemingly 'gender-neutral' enterprising selves gendered? Our analysis of three recent and dominating entrepreneurial initiatives in the Swedish school system emphasises the need for activation, performativity and responsibility. The analysis also shows that gender is indeed silenced in these initiatives but is at the same time productive through being subtly present in the promotion of a 'neo-masculine', active, technology-oriented and responsible subject. Entrepreneurship is presented as being equally available for all and something everyone should aspire to, yet the initiatives still sustain the suppression and marginalisation of women and femininities. The initiatives specifically promote a responsible and adaptive masculine subject position while notions of rebellious entrepreneurship and non-entrepreneurial domestic positions are mobilised out of the picture.

In this article, we study emotional processes associated with the project management discourse. Employing a constructionist approach where emotions are experienced within an ordering discursive context, the study identifies four distinct emotional processes associated with the invocation of the project management discourse in daily work practices. From a study of theatre and opera house employees, we suggest that the project management discourse tends to normalize feelings of rigidity and weariness in project-based work, while emphasizing projects as extraordinary settings creating thrill and excitement. Moreover, we argue that this discourse is invoked in ways that lead individuals to internalize emotional states related to chaos and anxiety, while ascribing feelings of certainty and confidence to external organizational norms and procedures. The study highlights how employees construct project-based work as a promise of exciting adventures experienced under conditions of rational control, but also how the negative and suppressed aspects of project-based work are constructed as inevitable and to be endured. Through these emotional processes, the project management discourse is sustained and reinforced.

Presented within the stream "The gendered politics of entrepreneurship" organised by Carin Holmquist, Anne Kovalainen, Barbara Poggio and Elisabeth Sundin. QC 20170313

A gender gap in entrepreneurship and innovation can be discerned across Europe – often portrayed as a statistical pattern showing differences in prevalence of entrepreneurial and innovative activities between the categories of men and women. The gender gap can be traced back to the general perceptions of gender in society, where entrepreneurial venturing and innovation work are culturally defined as masculine activities. A situation in which dominating policy models for regional entrepreneurship and innovation – such as the Triple Helix model – sustain the gender gap by being blind to gender issues imply both practical and theoretical challenges for critical management research. In this paper, we intend to analyse the gendered norms and consequences of dominating innovation models, such as the Triple Helix, and to identify roles and challenges of NGO's in the alternative conceptualization of Quadruple Helix. Based on an exploratory case study of an EU-financed project intentionally set up as a Quadruple Helix innovation system, we find that NGOs may fill four roles in bridging the gender gap: (1) collaborative platforms for women-led SMEs, (2) legitimating and linking women-led SMEs to governmental and academic actors, (3) developing competences and process innovations related to entrepreneurial venturing outside traditional Triple Helix constellations, and (4) carrying individual and societal aspects of entrepreneuring ; QC 20111208 ; Quadruple Helix Central Baltic

A gender gap in entrepreneurship and innovation can be discerned across Europe – often portrayed as a statistical pattern showing differences in prevalence of entrepreneurial and innovative activities between the categories of men and women. The gender gap can be traced back to the general perceptions of gender in society, where entrepreneurial venturing and innovation work are culturally defined as masculine activities. A situation in which dominating policy models for regional entrepreneurship and innovation – such as the Triple Helix model – sustain the gender gap by being blind to gender issues imply both practical and theoretical challenges for critical management research. In this paper, we intend to analyse the gendered norms and consequences of dominating innovation models, such as the Triple Helix, and to identify roles and challenges of NGO's in the alternative conceptualization of Quadruple Helix. Based on an exploratory case study of an EU--‐financed project intentionally set up as a Quadruple Helixinnovation system, we find that NGOs may fill four roles in bridging the gender gap: (1) collaborative platforms for women--‐led SMEs, (2) legitimating and linking women--‐led SMEs to governmental and academic actors, (3) developing competences and process innovations related to entrepreneurial venturing outside traditional Triple Helix constellations, and (4) carrying individual and societal aspects of entrepreneuring. ; QC 20111118