Making sense of self-employment in late career

Understanding the Identity Work of Olderpreneurs

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2373907
AutoresOliver Mallett (0000-0002-2327-3592, Durham University Business School, UK), Robert Wapshott (0000-0002-9462-0782, Sheffield University Management School, UK)
Año2015
Volumen29
Número2
Páginas250-266
Fecha de publicación2015-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaWork Employment and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0950-0170 • E-ISSN: 1469-8722
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0950017014546666
OpenAlexW2151924254
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas29
Referencias citadas31

The enterprise culture is a pervasive socio-historical discourse. This article adopts a narrative identity work approach to explore how individuals may exert agency to make sense of and negotiate with the structuring features of such discourses. Older entrepreneurs are an interesting case through which to explore these processes because ageing is predominantly portrayed as a form of decline to be resisted or hidden and as inherently anti-enterprise. Qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with two UK-based older entrepreneurs reveal how they engaged problematically with discourses around enterprise culture and ageing in constructing their identities. Sedimentation and innovation are proposed as valuable concepts for understanding how particular discourses become embedded in the understanding and identity work of individuals and how they seek to exert agency. The findings demonstrate the difficulties in innovative identity work for older entrepreneurs and this is discussed in terms of narrative resource poverty

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Identity (music · Identity negotiation · Narrative · Negotiation · Political science · Psychology of self · Public relations · Sense of agency · Social science · Sociology · Structure and agency · Structuring · Work (physics · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences · Family Business Performance and Succession · Gender Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology