Jakten på Entreprenörer : Om öppningar och låsningar i entreprenörskapsdiskursen

Entrepreneurs are expected to play a crucial role in times of unemployment and economical regression. A “hunt for entrepreneurs” can thus be said to be occurring as they appear to be people who can save nations, societies, and companies in troublesome situations. The project Diversity in Entrepreneurship (DiE) aimed to introduce a broad view of entrepreneurship in a regional context. Three development areas are emphasized that are strategically important to transforming a traditional industrial community into an entrepreneurial region: paying attention to the spirit of enterprise among underrepresented groups; stimulating entrepreneurship among young people; and considering the importance of culture in stimulating a diverse and entrepreneurial society. An equality discourse is introduced through DiE that – emphasising social and mundane occurrences - stands in contrast to the historically rooted enterprise discourse that proffers companies as productive apparatus, where a few competent people – often men – have been, and still are, in charge. In the equality discourse, all people in the region make a difference, not merely a few. The encounter of the two discourses has resulted in confusion, and thus conflicts and collisions; but also in new possibilities. A new perspective of entrepreneurship and regional development is developed where conflicts are put forward as constructive. That the two discourses met on the same regional scene is therefore seen as positive as many people have been made aware of the social, political, and economic contradictions which restrain some groups in society from creating a (working) life. Hence, the contradictions have enabled the inhabitants to see themselves, and others, as entrepreneurs in regional development processes. Openings have thus emerged to view entrepreneurship from a broader perspective that includes people, to create practices through which a more diverse working life is becoming discernible