Refugee Subentrepreneurship: The Emergence of a Liquid Cage

Deema Refai and Gerard McElwee
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Deema Refai: University of Leeds, UK
Gerard McElwee: York St John University, UK

Work, Employment & Society, 2023, vol. 37, issue 4, 1032-1051

Abstract: This article conceptualises refugees’ endeavours for upward social mobility through subentrepreneurship. Subentrepreneurship refers to various self-employment forms that are undeclared to relevant authorities to escape superimposed historical, temporal, spatial, institutional and social contexts, which constrain actors’ entrepreneurial activities. Using a mixed theoretical underpinning combining Mixed Embeddedness (ME) with Weber’s Iron Cage of Rationality (ICR), we signify liquidity of refugee subentrepreneurship, which is neither linear nor long-term rational. A liquid cage is envisaged to allow more freedom as refugees become embedded within intersections between transformative journeys and Constrained Institutional Contexts (CICs). This new theorising signifies a pronounced emphasis on agency whereby refugees cleverly contemplate implicit skills (i.e. unrecognised or downgraded skills), opportunities and processes to escape CICs. The article adds clarity as to how contexts become part of the production of entrepreneurial actions through two-way interactions that promote liquidity, enabling a strong foundation for future research exploring subentrepreneurship.

Keywords: administration based on discipline; agency; constrained entrepreneurship; Iron Cage of Rationality; Max Weber; Mixed Embeddedness; refugees; subentrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:4:p:1032-1051

DOI: 10.1177/09500170211062817

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