In discussions of economics, development, employment, and politics, the figure of the entrepreneur has become a kind of master-signifier that structures the fields of economic and political possibility within the global North. Although entrepreneurship has been investigated from business, management, and organizational perspectives, there has been little sustained investigation from a cultural studies, humanities, and social science perspective since Foucault’s work in The Birth of Biopolitics. This issue seeks to close this gap by interrogating the ways in which the idea of entrepreneurship and the figure of the entrepreneurial subject function politically, economically, and aesthetically. Essays examine the expanding role entrepreneurship plays in structuring behavior for individuals and communities, the relationship of entrepreneurship to modern journalism and social media, and how the entrepreneurial mindset is redefining the modern university experience.
Imre Szeman is Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies and Professor of English, Film Studies, and Sociology at the University of Alberta. He is the author and editor of several books, including Canadian Cultural Studies: A Reader, published in 2009 by Duke University Press. Dan Harvey is a doctoral candidate at the University of Alberta.
Contributors: Nicole Cohen, Joanna Figiel, Matt Flisfeder, Melanie Gilligan, Dan Harvey, Miranda Joseph, Leigh Claire La Berge, Andrew Pendakis, Stevphen Shukaitis, Imre Szeman, Marina Vishmidt
