‘ Just Add and Stir ’ ? i A Critical Appraisal of the ‘ Social ’ in Entrepreneurship Studies

Prior Work: Two broad perspectives reconceptualise entrepreneurship as social change, namely the movements spearheaded by Hjorth and Steyaert (2003, 2004, 2006, 2009), and the feminist perspectives of Calás et al., (2009). In the former case, empirical examples have been cited to illustrate the activity of ‘public entrepreneurship’ and the ways in which individual citizens have created new civic spaces of sociality (Hjorth and Bjerke in Hjorth and Steyaert, 2006). In the latter case, feminist perspectives, have demonstrated how entrepreneurship can counter gender inequality (Blake and Hanson, 2005). In reviewing these empirical studies we affirm a growing body highlighting the positive social outcomes (e.g., social capital enhancement, empowerment, raised aspirations) of entrepreneurship.