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Against Entrepreneurship

A Critical Examination

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Provides a comprehensive, critical critique of the concept of entrepreneurship from an interdisciplinary perspective
  • A counterbalance to the prevailing pro-entrepreneurship narrative
  • Provides various perspectives against entrepreneurship such as lexical semantics, Marxism, philosophy of science and psychology

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxiii
  2. Notes on a Fetishist War Machine

    • Daniel Ericsson
    Pages 37-55
  3. Keep the Machine Running: Entrepreneurship as a Practice of Control in the Neoliberal Economy

    • Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Ann Starbæk Bager
    Pages 57-76
  4. Fetishizing the Entrepreneurship

    • Frederik Hertel
    Pages 77-91
  5. Entrepreneurship ad absurdum

    • Anna-Maria Murtola
    Pages 93-110
  6. Against Entrepreneurship: Unveiling Social Inequalities for Minority Entrepreneurship

    • Kiran Trehan, Priyanka Vedi, Alex Kevill
    Pages 111-131
  7. From Entrepreneurship to Eco-preneurship

    • Ove Jakobsen, Vivi M. L. Storsletten
    Pages 153-165
  8. In Defense of the Comfort Zone: Against the Hegemony of Creative Destruction

    • Jerzy Kociatkiewicz, Monika Kostera
    Pages 203-216
  9. Back Matter

    Pages 267-286

About this book

This book explores whether there is reason to be against entrepreneurship. Just like literature on the darker sides of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, the book is an answer to the one-sided, overly positive and uncritical image of entrepreneurship. The “twist” in this book, in comparison with literature on dark sides of entrepreneurship, is to explore being against entrepreneurship. From various perspectives such as lexical semantics, Marxism, philosophy of science and psychology, the contributors contemplate on why there may be reason to be against entrepreneurship discourse as well as entrepreneurship practice. Some chapters are based on first-hand empirical data, others are conceptual. The main overall conclusion is that there are some strong arguments for being against entrepreneurship discourse, as well as for being against certain aspects of entrepreneurship practice. Before it is reasonable to be against entrepreneurship practice in total, a convincing and practicable alternative needs to be developed. This book will be valuable reading for entrepreneurship scholars, as well as academics working in the fields of business ethics, (critical) management, and international business.


Editors and Affiliations

  • School of Business and Law, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway

    Anders Örtenblad

About the editor

Anders Örtenblad is Professor of Work Life Science at the University of Agder, Norway. He has edited books for, e.g., Edward Elgar Publishing, Oxford University Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge and Sage. He is the founder of the book series Palgrave Debates in Business and Management.    

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Against Entrepreneurship

  • Book Subtitle: A Critical Examination

  • Editors: Anders Örtenblad

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47937-4

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Business and Management, Business and Management (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-47936-7Published: 29 October 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-47939-8Published: 29 October 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-47937-4Published: 28 October 2020

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXIII, 286

  • Number of Illustrations: 4 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Entrepreneurship, Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Ethics, Faith, Spirituality and Business

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access