(Ethnic) Economy and Society. Immigration and Self-employment in Contemporary Sociology

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the most significant formulations and reformulations of contemporary sociology of ethnic entrepreneurship, analysing their capacity to provide an explanation in sociological terms for the entrepreneurial networks of minority ethnic groups. Our working hypothesis is that, despite the varying nature of their proposals, the main approaches of the sociology of ethnic entrepreneurship share certain features beyond the fact that they deal with the same area of study. These common features (affinity, communitarism, ethnic exception) involve major explanatory limitations (culturalism, ethnification and a focus on the present or presentism) and, although various reformulations have attempted to counteract them, they have not succeeded in eliminating them completely. The article concludes by insisting on the need for us to rethink the terms in which this field of study is defined and approached.