Dolan_et_al-2018-Journal_of_the_Royal_Anthropological_Institute.pdf (281.69 kB)
Speculative futures at the bottom of the pyramid
Version 2 2023-06-12, 08:48
Version 1 2023-06-09, 11:41
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-12, 08:48 authored by Catherine Dolan, Dinah RajakDinah RajakCelebrated as creative, flexible catalysts of inclusive capitalism, urban youth are central to bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) models of development, which set out to repurpose the jobless as entrepreneurs in the making. We explore the multiple (at times conflicting) temporalities – the practices, technologies, and representations of time – which figure in a BoP initiative offering entrepreneurial opportunities to unemployed youth in Nairobi's slums: from the invocation of clock-time discipline to the professional time of entrepreneurial subjectivities and the enchantments of the not-yet. But the appeal of BoP, we suggest, does not turn either on the here-and-now of survival or on an impossible pipe dream of prosperity, but rather resides firmly in the medium term: a foreseeable future of modest desires, which nonetheless remain tantalizingly just out of reach for most. By examining how these temporal conflicts play out in attempts to fashion a cadre of self-willed, aspiring entrepreneurs, we reveal the limits to entrepreneurial agency, and the contradictions inherent in the mission of (self-)empowerment through enterprise upon which the ideology of inclusive markets is built.
Funding
Doing Good by Doing Well'.; G1720; ESRC-ECONOMIC & SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL; ES/L000636/1
Norwegian energy companies abroad: Expanding the anthropological understanding of corporate responsibility; G1748; RESEARCH COUNCIL OF NORWAY; 153400/240617
History
Publication status
- Published
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- Published version
Journal
Journal of the Royal Anthropological InstituteISSN
1359-0987Publisher
WileyExternal DOI
Issue
2Volume
24Page range
233-255Department affiliated with
- Anthropology Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2018-01-18First Open Access (FOA) Date
2019-07-17First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2018-01-18Usage metrics
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