I’d thought I’d start this blog with a call for papers that I am editing along with my great colleague Rob Smith from Aberdeen Business School (RGU). It’s for the journal Tamara, and I’m very proud that David Boje, the Editor, has asked us to do this.  I now see we have a bit of pulicity too!

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=408061

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business/People-Lederer-flies-flag-for.5600030.jp

Special Issue on “Restorying entrepreneurship in a changing world”

Guest Editors: Dr Lorraine Warren and Dr Robert Smith

For Tamara Journal of Critical Organization Inquiry http://tamarajournal.com

Call close date: January 31, 2010

Lewis and Llewellyn (2004) suggest that the enterprise culture prevalent in Western society is a moral crusade that validates the power and capacities of individual entrepreneurs to change institutions and organisations in accordance with a belief in the modernist project of improvement through economic growth. As a result, there is a long tradition in the Western media of valorising entrepreneurs as mavericks, hero figures and lone wolves admired as much for their cunning as for their qualities as serious self-made (usually) men (Nicholson and Anderson, 2005). Consequentially, entrepreneur stories are circulated widely in the public consciousness, as heroic tales of obstacles overcome and bureaucracies toppled in pursuit of new market landscapes. For some entrepreneurs this storying brings with it an acceptance of what might be deemed brutal behaviour were it not for the magic cloak of entrepreneurial licence. For example, Alan Sugar’s catchphrase ‘You’re Fired!’ has become part of the lexicon in the UK and the US; Dragon’s Den programmes, notionally about the funding of ideas from business neophytes descend into sneering and mockery if the unfortunate inventor’s ideas are deemed unsuitable; Michael O’Leary, the hardline cost-cutter of Ryanair still attracts respect, albeit that his cost cuts can impact negatively on his own customers.

However, it is interesting to consider how long such accounts of entrepreneurial identity remain legitimate now that they are increasingly associated with the kind of reckless practices that have caused the current economic crisis. It could be argued that the current situation has arisen through a combination of deregulation and the validation of buccaneering or ‘entrepreneurial’ behaviours at all levels of industry, from CEO to home-owner. The climate may now be right therefore, for a re-storying of entrepreneurship.

Of course, there are already ante-narratives that challenge this perspective, such as notions of philanthropic endeavour (Bill Gates), those who are perceived as un-heroic for whatever cultural reason (Mohammed Al fayed or Vance Miller), values-driven entrepreneurship, (such as Innocent drinks) and lesser-known tales of local activities that bring about social and community change albeit on a small scale. Thus, this special issue invites contributions that consider how alternative accounts of entrepreneurship may shape or be shaped by a changing economic order.

Topics might include:

• Corporate theatrics and spectacles
• Globalisation
• Modes of communication
• Technological change
• Expressions of humour
• Leisure and play
• Modes of resistance
• Cultural movements
• Social upheaval

Contact for submissions: myself, lw4@soton.ac.uk, or Rob, r.smith-a@rgu.ac.uk