RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2014
London: 26th to 29th August 2014
Call for papers
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Entrepreneurship in peri-urban villages: Understanding empowerment and marginalization in the urbanizing global south
Organizer: Rohit Madan (Cardiff University)
In the global south urbanization is changing the nature of villages, and rural entrepreneurs play an important part in this. Entrepreneurial success requires good roads, labour, communications, technology, skills and (relatively) cheap land (Buciega et al 2009, Tacoli 2006), and these are readily available in the peri-urban fringe, where urbanization is most rapid. This is considered “modernization” and “progress” – a neo-liberal mindset within which the private entrepreneur is embedded.
Private entrepreneurship has been traditionally seen as vital in achieving poverty alleviation – there are several examples of this in studies from: China (Lin 2006, Ma 2002), Tanzania (Lanjouw et al 2001), Indonesia (Leinbach 2003), and India (Eapen 2001), amongst many others. Often government policies have tried to increase the proportion of non-cultivation employment in rural areas to achieve this (Rigg 2006). On the surface entrepreneurship suggests innovation, collaboration and partnerships between the state, civil society and private sector, however, de-regulation gives entrepreneurs increased access over human/natural resources. In the peri-urban fringe therefore the entrepreneur has greater capacity to affect both empowerment and marginalization of rural communities (Kay 2002, Xu and Tan 2002).
In this session we aim to theorize relationships between rural-entrepreneurship and urbanization, shifting the spotlight away from solely the “urban” or the “rural”, but also away from simplistic preconceptions that see urbanization within binary frameworks. We aim to converge strands addressing how entrepreneurship transforms individuals and the community, but also at national/global levels – on how both governance and everyday life are transformed.
We welcome papers connecting urbanization with rural entrepreneurship that deal with (but are not limited to) the following themes:
v How environmental and social justice are linked with entrepreneurship in the global south?
v How entrepreneurship shapes (and is shaped by) multi-level governance and policy?
v How can we theorize the agrarian dimensions of entrepreneurship (i.e. food, labour, multifunctionality, etc.)?
v How is entrepreneurship co-produced (through the nature/type of individual – institutional interactions)?
v How can we theorize the relationships between learning/education and entrepreneurship?
v How does entrepreneurship relate to rural-urban linkages and urbanization?
v Typologies and wider discussions / debates around entrepreneurship?
Please email abstracts of 150 words (max) with full contact details by Friday, 31st January 2014 to Rohit Madan (MadanR@cardiff.ac.uk).