Abstract:

Cultural erasure, which describes how a domineering group systematically seeks to eradicate a peripheral group’s defining cultural elements, is a deeply dehumanizing phenomenon. This paper examines how historical and ongoing cultural erasure might be countered through entrepreneuring by members of peripheral cultural groups. We draw on a rich and prolonged urban ethnography to document the entrepreneuring efforts of Indigenous entrepreneurs in the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan. Despite centuries of exclusion and alienation from mainstream Canadian culture, these Indigenous entrepreneurs engage in what we call artifactual entrepreneuring, epistemic entrepreneuring, and ideological entrepreneuring to rehabilitate elements of their long- oppressed culture. Furthermore, we find that these Indigenous entrepreneurs pursue cultural inclusion despite the associated feelings of ambivalence by enacting key elements of an Indigenous ontology, which offers unique perspectives on the role of an expansive temporality and inclusive relationality as resources for counter-organizing and entrepreneuring practices. Our study extends the entrepreneuring perspective into the domain of pursuing cultural inclusion, sheds light on the underlying ontological roots nourishing and sustaining such pursuits, and points out how contemporary members of peripheral cultural groups can counter-organize against historical and ongoing cultural erasure attempts. In terms of implications for organizations and organizing, our findings help unpack the underlying processes and resources that facilitate individual pursuits of ‘tempered radicalism’.

General information:

Attendance to this seminar is possible by invitation only. Please send an e-mail to secbs-abs@uva.nl if your are interested in attending this seminar.