The New Entrepreneurs: How Race, Class, and Gender Shape American Enterprise - Softcover

Valdez, Zulema

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804773211 ISBN 13: 9780804773218

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 2011

Synopsis

For many entrepreneurs, the American Dream remains only partially fulfilled. Unequal outcomes between the middle and lower classes, men and women, and Latino/as, whites, and blacks highlight continuing inequalities and constraints within American society. With a focus on a diverse group of Latino entrepreneurs, this book explores how class, gender, race, and ethnicity all shape Latino entrepreneurs' capacity to succeed in business in the United States. Bringing intersectionality into conversation with theories of ethnic entrepreneurship, Zulema Valdez considers how various factors create, maintain, and transform the social and economic lives of Latino entrepreneurs. While certain group identities may impose unequal, if not discriminatory, starting positions, membership in these same social groups can provide opportunities to mobilize resources together. Valdez reveals how Latino entrepreneurs―as members of oppressed groups on the one hand, yet "rugged individualists" striving for the American Dream on the other―work to recreate their own positions within American society.

About this title

About the Author

Zulema Valdez is Associate Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University.

Review

"Valdez confronts the existing literature on 'ethnic entrepreneurship,' finds it wanting, and seeks to supplant it with an account of business formation more appropriate to the complexities of race, class, and gender in the United States."   -- Alfonso Morales, University of Wisconsin, Madison                                                                                                                       

"Valdez shows how women and minority entrepreneurs face greater challenges in establishing their businesses, especially when they come from lower socio-economic classes...Although entrepreneurialism holds the promise of 'making it' in America, differences persist among Whites, Latino/as, and Blacks."  -- Joe Kutchera, The Huffington Post

Valdez shows that entrepreneurs who run restaurants are deeply stratified along lines of class, gender, and national origin-- even when they share the same ethnicity or race...many of those who are most committed to the American dream of entrepreneurship are exactly those who are most excluded from its realization. -- Contexts Magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0804773211
• ISBN 13: 9780804773218
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 204