The impact of regional entrepreneurial contexts upon enterprise education

Abstract

Growing evidence demonstrates the significance of regional contexts in shaping entrepreneurship capital, and the importance of this for entrepreneurial knowledge and learning. We report the findings of a six-country study into enterprise education within schools, in less and more developed European regions. The fieldwork exposes differences by regional type, across enterprise education objectives, outcomes, resources and social constructions of the entrepreneur. Regional context can be seen as developing local narratives of entrepreneurial identities and careers. Context-setting within schools takes the form of storying entrepreneurship, of presenting credible local identities and expressing the meaning of entrepreneurship for these communities.

Keywords:

• enterprise education
• narrative
• regional context
• entrepreneurial identity
• habitus

Acknowledgement

This article has benefited very substantially indeed from the contributions and recommendations of the special issue editors, and two anonymous reviewers. We are very grateful indeed for their guidance.

Notes

Note

1. Full details of the project, its partners, and deliverables can be found on the project website, http://www.unipi.gr/socrates/europe/