Dark Sides of the Startup Nation

Dark Sides of the Startup Nation sheds light onto the problematic and sometimes contradictory myth that entrepreneurship is meritocratic and that neoliberal capitalism provides everyone with equal opportunities to succeed.

Israeli national neoliberalism has promoted innovation policies leading to an ostensible paradox: At the center is a startup nation with a vibrant and successful high-tech entrepreneurial ecosystem, accumulating resources and enabling constant growth. At the geographical and social periphery, there has emerged a parallel society with often-marginalized groups not able to keep up. In one of the most unequal countries with a high rate of poverty, entrepreneurial heroes are celebrated at the center, promoting a myth that all could be self-made successes. At the periphery, entrepreneurs are struggling to survive, often pushed into precarious working and living conditions.

Applying critical theory discourse, this book illustrates how neoliberalism and entrepreneurship are intertwined and how the startup nation has evolved in Israel. It explores how national neoliberal state policies have targeted technological innovation as a tool to obtain a competitive advantage in the international arena rather than aiming at increasing economic achievements and well-being for all. It will demonstrate that the Israeli entrepreneurship scene exemplifies the existence of parallel entrepreneurial societal spaces, analyze the positionality of entrepreneurs belonging to a variety of groups that characterize Israeli society, and uncover structural disadvantages and related levels of precarity as well as existing links between entrepreneurial advantages and disadvantages, mobility and varying degrees of social marginality.

Dark Sides of the Startup Nation sheds light onto the problematic and sometimes contradictory myth that entrepreneurship is meritocratic and that neoliberal capitalism provides everyone with equal opportunities to succeed. The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, policy makers and students in the fields of entrepreneurship and small business management, responsibility and business ethics, and technology and innovation.

Autorentext

Sibylle Heilbrunn is Full Professor of Organizational Sociology and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Kinneret Academic College on the Sea of Galilee, Israel.

Klappentext

Dark Sides of the Startup Nation sheds light onto the problematic and sometimes contradictory myth that entrepreneurship is meritocratic and that neoliberal capitalism provides everyone with equal opportunities to succeed.

Inhalt

Introduction
Chapter 1: Neoliberalism and Entrepreneurship
Chapter 2: National Neoliberalism and the Israeli Startup Nation
Chapter 3: Center and Periphery in Israel: Startup Nation and Parallel Economy
Chapter 4: Maybe Not the Startup Nation but Definitely a Startup Nation
Chapter 5: Introducing the Theoretical Framework: Contexts, Fields, Norm Circles and Positionality
Chapter 6: What You Look Like Is Important: Technological Entrepreneurs of the Ethiopian Community
Chapter 7: Former Elites Moving Away From the Center?
Chapter 8: Where You Come From Is Important: Migrant Entrepreneurship Between the Center and the Periphery
Chapter 9: Women Still Lagging Behind
Chapter 10: From the Periphery to the Center? Ultraorthodox Jews in High Tech
Chapter 11: Arab-Palestinian Technological Entrepreneurs in IsraelDouble Periphery?
Chapter 12: Comparative Analysis of Groups
Chapter 13: What Can We Learn From the Experts?
Chapter 14: Conclusion