Ethnic Entrepreneurship

Ethnic entrepreneurship is, by definition, located at the intersection of one sociocultural category, ethnicity, and one socioeconomic category, the status of self-employment. Although a useful concept to examine contemporary and historical urban societies from various perspectives, ethnic entrepreneurship is by no means clear-cut. Self-employment—operating a business as a sole proprietor, a partner, or a consultant—seems fairly straightforward. However, people can be part-time self-employed, or they can run their business without being officially registered. Who has to be labeled as self-employed or entrepreneur then becomes arbitrary. Since the demise of Fordism, nonstandard forms of employment have been increasing, and more people now have a portfolio of economic activities, often including some kind of self-employment. Ethnicity is even more problematic, as it results from the interaction between complex processes of labeling of others, on the one hand, and self-identification by different [Page 258]social groups on the other. The outcomes of such processes, defining borders between insiders and outsiders, are contingent. Ethnic entrepreneurship, then, can be delineated only within a concrete context, and this dependence makes cross-border comparison difficult.