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Ethnic Entrepreneurship Studies in Geography: A Review 1
Author(s) -
Wang Qingfang
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
geography compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.587
H-Index - 65
ISSN - 1749-8198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2012.00482.x
Subject(s) - entrepreneurship , ethnic group , plea , economic geography , scale (ratio) , elite , immigration , perspective (graphical) , sociology , geography , political science , anthropology , cartography , archaeology , artificial intelligence , politics , computer science , law
Although geographers have profound interests in place and spatial dimensions of entrepreneurship, the social‐spatial process of entrepreneurship is studied as fragmented due to the gaps between sub‐disciplines in geography. While the social identities of entrepreneurs are largely missing from most economic geographic entrepreneurship studies, existing urban and ethnic geographic inquiries are dominated by studies of small‐scale, low‐skilled businesses bounded by ethnic neighborhoods. This paper makes a plea to re‐conceptualize entrepreneurship by incorporating race, ethnicity, and gender. It calls for a broader, non‐elite perspective of entrepreneurship with a multiscaled spatial approach. For the ethnic minority labor force in particular, immigration, which has transformed urban labor markets in many advanced economies of the world, needs to be included in the analytical framework. Both economic and non‐economic dimensions should be examined in the interaction between people and place through ethnic entrepreneurship as a continuous process.