A Manifesto for Anarchist Entrepreneurship : Provocative Demands for Change and the Entrepreneur

Sammanfattning: This manifesto takes a broad and critical approach to entrepreneurial research. The author consciously uses a provocative way of arguing for the importance of challenging received academic wisdom about entrepreneurship.It is a manifesto that spells out why we should question the idea that entrepreneurship research is neutral. It is the academic's privilege to ask questions; hence the appeal here to critical theory, familiar from other traditions than business management, and a useful corrective when considering the dominant and hegemonic perspectives in entrepreneurship research.The manifesto presents entrepreneurship as something that goes far beyond market-oriented business to an enterprising spirit that could keep society self-reflecting and self-critical by questioning what it takes for granted; mobilizing the entrepreneurial energies of those who voluntarily marginalize themselves–individuals and groups who are not afraid to stand out, channeling their self-confidence to defend values that contrast the dominant ones. They are to be found among performance artists practising social art, "extreme" entrepreneurs, and creative anarchists who take society itself as their target when trying to instigate change.When the entrepreneurial focus is not the market per se, but rather the social norms and values in which economic activity is embedded, the entrepreneur's task becomes to challenge whatever is taken for granted–an incitement that is as much social as economic. Thus, the entrepreneur as a provocateur takes on the most established institutions, her only guiding principle being to question whatever principles that society unthinkingly espouses, whatever is taken for granted. Unlike market entrepreneurs, who appreciate institutions since they provide an otherwise unknowable environment with basic "rules of the game", provocative entrepreneurs question even the most formal, long-standing institutions. Their motivation is a generic obstinacy, and their vision is to be recognized for making people aware–and for their actions, even as they rub saltpetre in society's wounds.Entrepreneurship in the form it is presented in this manifesto asks the awkward question or presents the uncomfortable truth, forcing all to take a long hard look at themselves in a cold, self-critical light. The essays here cover a variety of forms of anarchist entrepreneurship–all with a strong driving spirit. The manifesto aims to stimulate entrepreneurs and researchers, as well as politicians and citizens, to engage, to initiate, and to act, all in the name of the society.