Social bricolage in the aftermath of war

ABSTRACT

While social bricolage has emerged as a key theoretical frame for understanding how social entrepreneurs mobilize and deploy resources to create social value under situations of resource scarcity, there is scant knowledge about social bricolage in post-conflict settings characterised by extreme resource paucity and adversity. Drawing on field research in post-conflict northern Uganda, we show how groups of disenfranchised young people use social bricolage to create social change in a volatile situation marked by extreme resource deprivation and a plethora of challenges arising in the aftermath of war. Based on empirical data, we outline three key practices of social bricolage employed to cope with resource scarcity, extended crisis and volatility. First, we unravel the practice of securing resources and creating social value by mobilizing peers. Second, we show how pluriactivity is used to stretch and make the most of scarce resources in a shifting environment. Third, we illuminate the practice of rekindling pre-war cultural resources to reunite fragmented communities. By illuminating these practices and showing how the context of the post-conflict developing country setting influences the dynamics of ‘making do with resources at hand’, we seek to extend social bricolage theory.     

Waste Livelihoods Amongst the Poor – Through the Lens of Bricolage

This paper examines two social enterprises and 25+ informal economy micro‐entrepreneurs in Kenya who utilize waste materials to generate income, considered through the conceptual lens of bricolage. Waste materials can all be considered as sources of free or discounted materials that in resource‐constrained and poor communities might be leveraged to generate income in the absence of employment. This paper explores three key themes that emerge from the research findings, namely the various strategic dimensions of the cases, the networks and social capital they leverage and how these livelihood models relate to various dimensions of bricolage such as improvisation, making do and the process of ‘fiddling’ or recombining resources. The findings also suggest that differing waste livelihoods have different rates of return, or profitability, and differing input requirements of capital, skills and knowledge. The paper also stresses the role of boundary spanning organizations such as NGOs and hybrid/social enterprises. © 2016 The Authors. Business Strategy and the Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

创业拼凑与机会开发过程模型--基于大学生创业的单案例分析

在"双创"教育的指引下,越来越多的大学生投身到创业活动之中,如何提高大学生创业存活率成为理论界与实践界关注的焦点。本文以一家大学生新创企业为例,采用纵向案例研究构建了大学生创业情境下"机会-资源一体化"过程模型,揭示了大学生新创企业利用创业拼凑进行机会开发的微观机制。研究发现在探索期,新创企业以资源为导向,采用物质拼凑和技能拼凑,实现"发现型机会"的开发;在稳定期,新创企业以机会为导向,采用网络拼凑和技能拼凑,实现"发现+创造型"机会的开发;在发展期,新创企业以顾客为导向,采用客户拼凑和技能拼凑,实现"创造型机会"的开发。研究结果可为揭示创业拼凑内部机理的形成提供方向,也可为从校园走出的大学生新创企业利用手边资源、开发有潜力的创业机会、实现企业可持续发展提供有益的借鉴和启示。     

Entrepreneurship through Bricolage: a study of displaced entrepreneurs at times of war and conflict

ABSTRACT

War and conflict brings about adverse changes for those who are displaced. How do entrepreneurial individuals respond to such adversity to either set-up, or continue with their existing entrepreneurial endeavours that would improve their own livelihood or that of others who have been affected? Whilst previous studies have found local knowledge, networks and resources to be crucial in the development of ventures in the war and conflict context, alienation from mainstream society within the host location often means that to succeed, those who are displaced require alternative strategies and approaches. Through examining the entrepreneurial ventures of six internally displaced entrepreneurs in Pakistan, our study identifies that entrepreneurial individuals find different ways to adapt to the new order, with both internal and external bricolage becoming the key strategies deployed to either re-establish their previous businesses or to develop new endeavours in the host location. To compensate for lack of local knowledge, networks and resources, we found that entrepreneurs followed closely their previous paths in their bricolage attempts, relying on reconfigurations of their pre-existing competencies, as well as utilizing pre-established and clandestine networks.     

Bricolage,collaboration and mission drift in social enterprises

Abstract

Increasingly, social enterprises are relying on collaboration with partners to tackle the resource constraints that they face. In this research we focus on the strategy of bricolage to explore whether and how the different types of partner becoming involved may impact on the mission of social enterprises. Grounded in resource dependency and transaction cost theories, we explore how power asymmetry and the nature of involvement may impact on the outcomes of bricolage. Our findings demonstrate that in the more integrated relationships with high power asymmetry, more instances of mission drift might be observed compared to when social enterprises develop the more collaborative or complementary nature of partnerships with symmetrical power dependency, or when the partners’ involvements are mainly transaction-based.     

关于城市文化特色塑造的思考——以山东省菏泽市为例

认为城市文化特色是长期以来由城市的物质生活、文化传统、民俗风情、社会风气、地理环境、气候条件等诸因素综合作用的体现,是城市的灵魂.分析了城市文化特色的特性及在城市经济社会发展中的作用,并以山东省菏泽市为例,对塑造城市文化特色进行了探讨.     

Mixed Embeddedness: (In)formal Economic Activities and Immigrant Businesses in the Netherlands

Immigrants from non-industrialized countries have become part and parcel of the social fabric of many advanced urban economies, including those in the Netherlands. A significant number of these migrants opt for setting up shop themselves. Lacking access to large financial resources and mostly lacking in educational qualifications, they are funnelled towards the lower end of the opportunity structure of these urban economies. To survive in these cut-throat markets, many migrant entrepreneurs revert to informal economic activities that are strongly dependent on specific social networks – mostly consisting of co-ethnics – to sustain these activities on a more permanent basis. To understand the social position of these migrant entrepreneurs and their chances of upward social mobility, one has to look beyond these co-ethnic networks and focus on their insertion in the wider society in terms of customers, suppliers and various kinds of business organizations. To deal with this latter type of insertion, we propose the use of a more comprehensive concept of mixed embeddedness that aims at incorporating both the co-ethnic social networks as well as the linkages (or lack of linkages) between migrant entrepreneurs and the economic and institutional context of the host society. We illustrate this concept by presenting a case study of Islamic butchers in the Netherlands. — Les immigrants des pays pas industrialisés sont devenus une part intégrale du tissu social de nombreuses économies urbaines développées, y compris celles des Pays-Bas. Un nombre significatif de migrants choisissent de s’établir à leur compte. N’ayant pas accès à des ressources financières importantes et ayant peu de qualifications académiques, ils sont entraînés vers le bas des structures de débouchés de ces économies. Pour survivre dans ces économies très dures, beaucoup d’entrepreneurs immigrants retournent aux activités économiques informelles qui dépendent fortement des réseaux sociaux spécifiques – principalement co-ethniques – pour soutenir ces activités de façon plus permanente. Afin de comprendre la position sociale de ces migrants entrepreneurs et leurs possibilités de mobilité sociale vers le haut, il faut regarder plus loin que ces réseaux co-ethniques et explorer leur insertion dans la société en général par rapport aux clients, fournisseurs et divers types d’organisation commerciales. Pour traiter de ce type d’insertion, nous proposons d’utiliser un concept d’incorporation mélangée plus compréhensif qui a pour but d’intégrer à la fois les réseaux sociaux co-ethniques et les liens (ou manque de liens) entre les migrants entrepreneurs et le contexte économique et institutionnel de la société d’acceuil. Nous illustrons ce concept par un cas d’étude de bouchers islamiques aux Pays-Bas.     

Urban Distinctions: Class,Culture and Sociability in the City of Porto

This essay employs Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice and the methodology of Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to extend the mapping of the dynamic relations between class and culture presented in Bourdieu's Distinction to encompass urban space, drawing on data from a multi‐method research project on the city of Porto, Portugal. We present a detailed analysis of the formation and structure of local social space and show its relevance for the study of the (re)production of urban lifestyles. Differences in the volume and composition of the capital of city residents are identified and shown to underpin the relations between social positions, dispositions and position takings in various realms of cultural consumption. Meaningful configurations of ‘lifestyle modalities’ have clear roots in the city's social space, which in Portugal, as in France, can be interpreted in terms of distinction, pretension and necessity.     

Improvised internationalization in new ventures: The role of prior knowledge and networks

How do entrepreneurs identify foreign market opportunities and how do they identify foreign market(s) and customers? We draw on the concepts of effectuation, improvisation, prior knowledge and networks to study the early internationalization of new ventures operating in the Irish Shellfish sector. We argue that the internationalization process was strongly influenced by two ‘resources to hand’: the entrepreneurs’ idiosyncratic prior knowledge and their prior social and business ties. We observe an effectuation logic and extensive improvisation in the internationalization process of these new ventures.     

基于再制造视角的创造性拼凑研究

文章梳理了创造性拼凑易型再制造的全生命周期基本流程,剖析了其中的关键环节,对提高创造性拼凑效率,促进绿色循环经济发展具有较强实践意义。     

Cacao Capitalism and Extended Urbanization: On the Contradictory Origins of Bounded Urbanism in Nineteenth‐century Coastal Ecuador

This article challenges both contemporary and classic urban theory by analyzing the historical case of coastal Ecuador. Working from primary and secondary sources, I track the urbanization of coastal Ecuador during the long nineteenth century, when cacao exports determined not only the economic wellbeing of the city of Guayaquil, but of the entire tropical lowland region. I argue that this extended urban geography was both experienced and practiced as an unbounded economic and cultural region. As the value of cacao exports skyrocketed, capitalists in the city invested in infrastructural projects and financial instruments, divorcing money‐making from cacao production. After the Gran Incendio (great fire) of 1896, the city was rebuilt according to the ideals of modern liberal planning that further separated the city from the country symbolically, despite their continued material interconnection. This work suggests that long histories of capitalist urbanization provide material and theoretical support for critiquing bounded urban theory both past and present, by moving beyond the city and highlighting the processes undergirding spatial production under capitalist social relations. Likewise, this historical case study argues that city‐centrism, rather than being constituted epistemologically, was tied to liberal notions of the urban based on nineteenth‐century ideologies of modernization and progress.     

Contextualizing the career success of Arab women entrepreneurs

ABSTRACT

Drawing on institutional theory, this study gives voice to Arab women entrepreneurs. Through contextualization and in-depth, semi-structured interviews, I examine Lebanese women entrepreneurs’ conceptualizations of career success, the mechanisms they use to realize it and their overall awareness of it. According to the findings, the entrepreneurs experience career success as an act of disobedience against socially imposed cultural and gender mandates. Furthermore, career success evolves as a contextual, dynamic process that is culturally dependent but individually negotiated, interpreted and constructed using external and internal conceptualizations. In turn, these conceptualizations are intertwined with agency and unfold as a process at the intersection of gender, patriarchy and cultural values. Accordingly, I argue against reducing career success to static, objective and subjective criteria. Doing so undermines the complexity and processual nature of the construct and neglects the importance of cultural values in shaping the understanding and experience of career success in different societies. I also stress the importance of contextualizing women’s entrepreneurial experiences and demonstrate that Lebanese women entrepreneurs’ conceptualizations of career success reflect both Arab social-cognitive and normative institutions and their own agency.     

The importance of ‘fitting in’: collaboration and social value creation in response to community norms and expectations

Abstract

This article explores the effects of embeddedness in communities upon entrepreneurial practices. Based on the lived experiences of 10 craft entrepreneurs, this study reveals that within certain contexts, such as craft communities, entrepreneurs are expected to exhibit high levels of camaraderie and generosity, which leads them to create social value by supporting their peers and freely sharing their resources. Entrepreneurs achieve ‘fitting in’ not only by learning accepted norms, but also by performing strategic actions which allow them to temporarily adapt their conduct to meet the expectations of community members. Thus, this study exposes a largely concealed element of social entrepreneurial practice. This article also reveals that embeddedness in communities can lead entrepreneurs to collaborate with potential competitors. Craft entrepreneurs share their economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital in order to support and help revitalise their communities, to perpetuate their respective industries and to sustain a genuine interest in hand-crafted products. They consider such supportive behaviour a social responsibility that is shared among community members and a task that is passed from one generation to the next. Thus, this article reveals that collaboration and social value creation can be embraced in response to community norms and expectations.     

Urban entrepreneurship through art-based interventions:unveiling a translation process

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the conditions under which urban entrepreneurship can develop through art-based interventions. Drawing on two contrasting case studies (Civic City in France, Fieris Fééries in Belgium) and taking actor-network theory (ANT) as a starting analytical point, we outline the tensions involved in the implementation process of such interventions. We focus on the capacity of urban entrepreneurs to engage different relevant stakeholders (artists, local government and citizens), establish connections between disconnected worlds that are likely to challenge existing institutional structures and eventually create novelty. We identify these actors as ‘translators’. The paper shows that when urban entrepreneurs play an active translation role consistently over time, art-based interventions can have a substantial impact on urban regeneration.     

Beyond Urban Subcultures: Urban Subversions as Rhizomatic Social Formations

The article discusses what we term urban social formations and expands on prior work that predominantly examines urban ‘subcultures’ as opposed to the world city paradigm and homogeneous cityscapes. We describe the process of ‘subculturalization’ through which urban social formations, after they have been marginalized and illegalized, become formalized as subcultures and incorporated into the fabric of consumption and profit making. The article proposes that these ossified moments of crystallized practice are only part of wider rhizomatic territories that remain open fields for urban engagement, inviting fluid urban identities and creative states of becoming. The article concludes by exploring the challenges and opportunities of conceptualizing urban social formations as rhizomes.     

关于城市发展和城市化的十个问题

在综述了国外城市政治学核心文献的基础上,通过对中国城市化过程的深入评估和分析,依次从城市发展的主体性、城市服务对象、城市空间观、城市社会结构、城市生长、城市文化、城市建设、城市管理与服务、城市边界和城市内部结盟十个方面探讨了中国的健康城市化问题。     

Innovation for Inclusive Business: Intrapreneurial Bricolage in Multinational Corporations

It is often argued that multinational corporations (MNCs) are in a unique position to innovate business models that can help to alleviate poverty. This empirical study into intra‐organizational aspects of pro‐poor business innovation in two MNCs suggests, however, that certain elements of their management frameworks – such as short‐term profit interests, business unit based incentive structures, and uncertainty avoidance – may turn into obstacles that prevent MNCs from reaching their full potential in this respect. We introduce the concept of intrapreneurial bricolage to show how middle manager innovators may promote pro‐poor business models despite these obstacles. We define intrapreneurial bricolage as entrepreneurial activity within a large organization characterized by creative bundling of scarce resources, and illustrate empirically how it helps innovators to overcome organizational constraints and to mobilize internal and external resources. Our findings imply that intrapreneurial bricolage may be of fundamental importance in MNC innovation for inclusive business. In addition to the field of inclusive business, this study has implications for the study of bricolage in large organizations and social intrapreneurship, as well for managerial practice around innovation for inclusive business.     

Urbanization and the City Image in Lowry at Tate Britain: Towards a Critique of Cultural Cityism

This article explores cultural cityism at a time when a more expansive, ‘planetary’ urbanization is argued to have superseded ‘the city’ as the dominant urban form. It takes an essentially Lefebvrian problematic and works this through an examination of one aspect of contemporary metropolitan culture, the L.S. Lowry exhibition at Tate Britain, held in the summer of 2013. The article scrutinizes the juxtaposition of Lowry's images of the industrial city with the image of ‘global’, corporate London provided by Tate Britain itself. The exhibition is presented as evidence of Lefebvre's argument that although the urban core has imploded and exploded, through images the city ‘can perpetuate itself, survive its conditions’. Taking stock also of the preponderance of city images in culture more widely, it is argued such images make a fetish of the city, producing also an ‘urban pastoral’ that obscures the defining characteristics of urban life today. Finally, Benjamin's concept of the ‘dialectical image’ and Rancière's notion of the ‘sentence image’ are invoked to capture the flashing together of past and present city images and the opportunities for critical reflection this constellation presents.     

Contextualizing the subjectivist-objectivist debate in entrepreneurship using engineering,art, craft,and bricolage

The debate regarding the degree to which opportunities and resources are social constructions risks stagnation because it is difficult to argue that opportunities are either entirely constructed or entirely objective. In this paper we seek to contribute to this debate by introducing some overlooked aspects of the work of Lévi-Strauss (1962) as they relate to the discussion of entrepreneurial opportunities and resources. A categorization scheme of entrepreneurs based on Lévi-Strauss’ categories of art, craft, engineering and bricolage can be used to help differentiate the ways in which entrepreneurs view opportunities and resource acquisition, and how those views impact entrepreneurial action and ultimately entrepreneurial success. This contrasts with the more traditional entrepreneurship literature, which views opportunities as objective phenomena and opportunity identification and exploitation as completely rational.