Constructing and Negotiating Entrepreneurial Agency

On the one hand, entrepreneurship has broad appeal to individuals in Western market democracies and resonates with their longing for an autonomous, personally tailored, meaningful, and materially rewarding way of life. On the other hand, entrepreneurship represents a tempting and increasingly popular means of governance as well as a model for the re-organization and diffusion of ‘entrepreneurship discourse’ in the context of farming and agriculture, which have long enjoyed state protection and have adhered to principles that seem at odds with aspects of individualistic ‘entrepreneurship discourses’. The study reviews the historical and political background fo the current situation and explores through a series of empirical studies the ways in which entrepreneurship is being brought to the realities of farming, how and why it can be fitted and rearticulated as well as resisted and rejected. The study shows that the relational and situational resources available to the agents are crucial in guiding such a diffusion and reception process.