Revisiting Entrepreneurship as Emancipation: Learning from subalternized women in post-revolutionary Tunisia
研究后革命时期突尼斯一家社会企业中的女性受益者如何通过微观政治策略实现解放，挑战了底层群体被动同质的刻板印象，对创业与解放理论有贡献。
In this article, we investigate how women beneficiaries in a social enterprise in post-revolutionary Tunisia are agents in their emancipation, including through infrapolitical tactics. We conceptualize their position as beneficiaries as a form of subalternity induced from social, economic and political injustice. We deploy the extended case method in a Tunisian ecotourism social enterprise, connecting the micro-level experiences of the women beneficiaries to the macro-level context. Our findings show how beneficiaries engage in three forms of emancipation: affirming their dreams; navigating gender relations; and defending their interests. We thus contribute to existing research by theoretically extending the emancipation–entrepreneurship locus beyond the lead entrepreneur. We also contribute by extending our understanding of subalternized people’s resistance repertoire beyond the hidden vs public resistance dichotomy. Finally, we challenge the representation of ‘subalterns’ as a homogeneous and passive category by showing the intersectional differences that affect these women’s agentic possibilities and, thus, their pathways to emancipation.