Entrepreneurship and the future

Joost Beuving

Chapter 7 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Economic Anthropology, 2025, pp 167-171 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Studies of entrepreneurship originated in economic anthropology, which inspired various social science disciplines, but anthropology shifted to critiquing entrepreneurs as a neoliberal project and, consequently, entrepreneurship disappeared as an independent topic. There is, however, a need for an anthropological understanding of entrepreneurship, as global capitalism with its central promise of sustainable growth and inclusive mass prosperity remains regrettably elusive. This contribution advocates a new anthropological perspective on entrepreneurship that foregrounds the future, especially how entrepreneurs socially construct the future in the making. Viewing entrepreneurship through the lens of the future has three consequences: first, it considers the social performativity of entrepreneurial behaviour by focusing on stories, images, and rituals that animate the future; second, it focuses on the physical and mental energies expended in these social performances – entrepreneurs’ ‘future-work’; and, third, it scrutinizes how the stories and rituals function as self-fulfilling prophecies that trigger collective entrepreneurial action.

Keywords: Anthropology of the future; Socio-cultural embeddedness; Social performance; Substantivism; Temporalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035312566
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