Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Aggressors; winners; victims and outsiders
T2 - European schools' social construction of the entrepreneur
AU - Anderson, Alistair
AU - Drakopoulou Dodd, Sarah
AU - Jack, Sarah
PY - 2009/2/1
Y1 - 2009/2/1
N2 - This article explores how people in the European schools' environment understand entrepreneurship, by tapping into the metaphors that they employ to describe entrepreneurs. Metaphors, where the characteristics of one thing are attributed creatively to another, have previously been shown to be a rich repository of socially constructed meanings. We find that across the European Schools' environment, the entrepreneur is a conflicted social archetype, simultaneously perceived as an aggressor and a winner, a victim and an outsider. Most transnational homogeneity existed in relation to the perception of the entrepreneur as a predatory aggressor, while positive constructions of the entrepreneur were more likely to be diverse between the six countries studied. These social constructions within European schools must be taken seriously if enterprise education is to be effective. We must take account of national divergence in understandings of the entrepreneur, as well as recognizing the pan-European suspicion of their predatory potential.
AB - This article explores how people in the European schools' environment understand entrepreneurship, by tapping into the metaphors that they employ to describe entrepreneurs. Metaphors, where the characteristics of one thing are attributed creatively to another, have previously been shown to be a rich repository of socially constructed meanings. We find that across the European Schools' environment, the entrepreneur is a conflicted social archetype, simultaneously perceived as an aggressor and a winner, a victim and an outsider. Most transnational homogeneity existed in relation to the perception of the entrepreneur as a predatory aggressor, while positive constructions of the entrepreneur were more likely to be diverse between the six countries studied. These social constructions within European schools must be taken seriously if enterprise education is to be effective. We must take account of national divergence in understandings of the entrepreneur, as well as recognizing the pan-European suspicion of their predatory potential.
KW - Education
KW - Entrepreneur
KW - European
KW - Metaphor
KW - National
KW - Social construction
U2 - 10.1177/0266242608098349
DO - 10.1177/0266242608098349
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:62349123896
VL - 27
SP - 126
EP - 136
JO - International Small Business Journal
JF - International Small Business Journal
SN - 0266-2426
IS - 1
ER -