This book asks what lies behind the friendly face of the entrepreneur. It challenges the widespread idea that entrepreneurship is a necessary and good thing, subjecting 'the entrepreneur' to critical analysis. Unmasking the Entrepreneur demonstrates the socially embedded nature of entrepreneurship and considers the history, ethics and politics of entrepreneurship. Drawing on a range of ideas from critical social theory and philosophy, it investigates entrepreneurship in unusual places such as among illegal immigrants and revolutionary France. Ultimately, this book offers a unique and powerful critique of the very idea of the entrepreneur.
Campbell Jones, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki, Finland and André Spicer, Dean, Bayes Business School, City St George’s, University of London, UK
Contents: 1. ‘I Am An Entrepreneur’ 2. For a Critical Theory of Entrepreneurship 3. The Sublime Object of Entrepreneurship 4. The Birth of the Entrepreneur 5. Entrepreneurial Excess 6. Is the Marquis de Sade an Entrepreneur? 7. Every Age Gets the Entrepreneur it Deserves 8. Enterprise of the Other 9. What Remains References Index
'Jones and Spicer have articulately organised the text to engage in a process of creative destruction that truly succeeds in the theoretical and philosophical unmasking of the entrepreneur. Very few books in management or economics have as broad a scope or as profound a reach as Jones and Spicer's analysis. Whatever criticisms it may provoke, especially from scholars with specialised interests and concerns, Jones and Spicer's book is nothing short of "top-drawer". Unmasking the Entrepreneur is an important, thoughtful and thought provoking analysis of the topic of entrepreneurship. This book is sure to have an enduring impact on the way we think about and study entrepreneurship.'