En route to New York: diasporic networks and the reconfiguration of female entrepreneurship in Senegal

Abstract

This article examines the influence of migration and transnational social networks on female entrepreneurship. It interrogates shifting patterns of market development, juxtaposed to the lure of new economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs located at the periphery, Senegal. I critically analyse how a distinct and classed category of Senegalese women entrepreneurs navigates international spaces and legal restrictions in attempts to launch profitable economic ventures in metropolitan centres such as New York City and negotiate new forms of representation and agency in contentious socio-economic spaces. By interrogating the complex interplay between women entrepreneurs and diasporic communities, I weave an often-missing gender perspective into the analysis of the emergence of female transnational entrepreneurship and diasporic social networks. This article demonstrates that diasporic social networks, transnational markets and spatial interconnections, while contributing to market revitalisation and expansion, are nonetheless fraught with tension. Diasporic social networks embody paradoxical positions. They represent an enabling economic transactional space, while embodying an informal social space that nonetheless remains sites of power struggles deeply embedded in gendered, sociocultural and economic dynamics that transfer from local to transnational contexts.

En camino a Nueva York: redes diaspóricas y la reconfiguración del emprendimiento empresarial femenino en Senegal

Este artículo examina la influencia de la migración y las redes sociales transnacionales sobre los emprendimientos empresariales femeninos. Investiga los patrones cambiantes del desarrollo del mercado, yuxtapuestos al señuelo de las nuevas oportunidades económicas para las mujeres emprendedoras ubicadas en la periferia, Senegal. Analizo críticamente cómo una categoría de mujeres emprendedoras Senegalesas distintiva y marcada por la clase navega los espacios internacionales y las restricciones legales intentando lanzar proyectos económicos rentables en los centros metropolitanos como la ciudad de Nueva York y negocian nuevas formas de representación y agencia en espacios socioeconómicos contenciosos. Interrogando la compleja interacción entre las mujeres emprendedoras y las comunidades diaspóricas, construyo una perspectiva de género a menudo faltante dentro del análisis del surgimiento del emprendimiento transnacional femenino y las redes sociales diaspóricas. Este artículo demuestra que las redes sociales diaspóricas, los mercados transnacionales y las interconexiones espaciales, aunque contribuyen a la revitalización y la expansión del mercado, están sin embargo llenas de tensión. Las redes sociales diaspóricas encarnan posiciones paradójicas. Representan un espacio transnacional económico habilitador, al tiempo que encarnan un espacio social informal que sin embargo mantiene sitios de luchas de poder profundamente insertados en dinámicas de género socioculturales y económicas que transfieren formas locales a contextos transnacionales.

顺道去纽约：塞内加尔的离散网络与女性创业的再组构

本文检视移民与跨国社会网络，对女性创业所产生的影响。本文检视转变中的市场发展模式，该模式与吸引位于边陲的塞内加尔的女性创业者的新经济机会并列之。我批判性地分析塞内加尔女性企业家的特殊且阶级化之范畴，如何应对国际空间与法律限制，以寻求在诸如纽约市等大都会中心发展可获利的经济事业，并在争议的社会经济空间中，协商再现与能动性的新形式。透过探问女性企业家和离散社群间的复杂互动，我将经常被忽略的性别视角，整编进女性跨国创业与离散社会网络的兴起之分析。本文显示，离散社会网络、跨国市场与空间互联，儘管促进了市场的復甦与扩张，却仍然充满了紧张关係。离散社群网络，体现了矛盾的位置。它们呈现出有效实现的经济交易空间，却也同时体现了非正式的社会空间，该空间仍然持续作为从在地转至跨国脉络的深植于性别化、社会文化与经济动态的权力斗争场域。

Keywords::

• female entrepreneurship
• diasporic social networks
• gender
• transnational trade
• New York
• Senegal

Palabras claves::

• emprendimientos femeninos
• redes sociales diaspóricas
• género
• comercio internacional
• Nueva York
• Senega

关键词::

• 女性创业
• 离散社会网络
• 性别
• 跨国贸易
• 纽约
• 塞内加尔

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 18th Annual Conference: ‘Sisterhood is Global: From Theory to Practice’, University of Connecticut, Storrs. The author thanks the informants for their availability and insights, the three insightful reviewers and WID Michigan State University for their comments on an earlier draft.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marieme S. Lo

Dr Marieme S. Lo holds a joint appointment in Women and Gender Studies and African Studies at the University of Toronto. Her research projects coalesce around several overlapping and intersecting thematic foci including: the political economy of gender and development, gender and mobility, transnational trade, entrepreneurial subjectivities and female entrepreneurship at the intersection between changing ecologies in the Sahelian context, migration and the reordering of local economies in the neoliberal moment. A related foci weaves a feminist and critical race analysis of migration, interrogates the feminisation of migration, the spatial reconfiguration of livelihood and gendered livelihood circuits, as well as their implications for the household economy and gender ideologies. She is also motivated by the search for alternative epistemologies. In and outside academia, Dr Lo has worked as researcher, consultant and resource person for various international organisations and civil society organisations on gender justice and social change in Africa and beyond.