Title: Observing community-based entrepreneurship and social networking at play in an urban village setting

Authors: Robert Smith

Addresses: Aberdeen Business School, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, AB10 7QE, UK

Abstract: Entrepreneurship as a manifestation of change is vital in terms of jobs and business dynamism. However, entrepreneurship as a social activity occurs in time and space and is seen as a natural, organic process. We assume this change will occur naturally, but this can be interrupted by planned change. This observational study examines the influence of socio-cultural factors on the evolution of community-based entrepreneurial activity in an urban village setting using the social metrics of home, habitus and habituation to examine how this activity develops within a planned monocultural middle class enclave. Studying social entrepreneurship in a fixed social setting permits us to investigate the embededdness of the entrepreneurial process in a naturally occurring environment. When the natural order is interrupted, entrepreneurial activity becomes disjointed and finds new avenues of emergence as community-based entrepreneurial activity in which business is facilitated by social networking and entrepreneurial identity is socially constructed through play.

Keywords: economic sociology; economic geography; social entrepreneurship; social networking; community-based entrepreneurship; urban villages; planned change; jobs; employment; business dynamism; cities; social activities; natural processes; organic processes; socio-cultural factors; social metrics; monocultures; home; habitus; habituation; monocultural enclaves; middle classes; embededdness; entrepreneurial processes; naturally occurring environments; emergence; entrepreneurial identity; social constructs; play; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; entrepreneurs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2011.037340

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2011 Vol.12 No.1, pp.62 - 81

Published online: 11 Oct 2014 *

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