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9781032795973

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'Did you know that African women start more businesses than men? Who are these entrepreneurs, and how do they navigate their gender roles while adapting to a dynamic and evolving economic landscape? This book provides clear and compelling answers. Grounded in extensive empirical research conducted primarily by African scholars, this multidisciplinary work—spanning anthropology, sociology, economics, gender studies, and management—offers a rich and nuanced exploration of female entrepreneurship. Moving beyond simplistic clichés that contrast informal survival businesses with high-powered transnational trade, it highlights the diversity and complexity of entrepreneurial journeys. The book delves into a wide range of sectors, including food processing, fashion, cosmetics, catering, natural health products, and beauty and wellness services. It also sheds light on lesser-known aspects of female entrepreneurship, such as highly educated women launching high-value enterprises and engaging in philanthropy. It further examines the influence of education, family structures, social networks—including religious and political ties—women’s associations, and public policies in shaping entrepreneurial success. Finally, the book underscores the ""glocal"" nature of this entrepreneurship, where local traditions and economic realities continuously evolve in response to globalization, migration, and the pursuit of innovation and modernity. Offering a fresh and insightful perspective on a longstanding yet ever-evolving phenomenon, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the African economy, gender studies, and entrepreneurship.' Isabelle Guérin, National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), France

Author Information

Ulrike Schuerkens studied at the Universities of Cologne (Germany) and Rennes (France). She has doctorates in both sociology, and social anthropology and ethnology, from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She received the diploma Habilitation à diriger des recherches from the University Paris V – René Descartes. Currently, she is a professor of sociology at the University Rennes 2, France. She taught in the master’s and PhD programmes of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France. She also taught as a lecturer at the University Lille 3 (France) and Humboldt University, Berlin (Germany). She was a visiting professor at the Universities Paris 1 and Paris V, the University of Cologne (Germany), Rouen Business School, Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar (Senegal), and others. Ulrike Schuerkens has served for many years in different functions as a member of the board of the Research Committee on Social Transformations and Sociology of Development, RC 09 of the International Sociological Association. She is on the editorial board of several international journals. She has published extensively on globalisation, glocalisation, socio-economic development, social change, transnational migrations, multiculturalism, and colonialism. Her latest monographs are Entreprises, entrepreneurs et travail au Sénégal, Pour une sociologie du management en Afrique et dans le monde arabe, Social Changes in a Global World, Soziale Transformationen und Entwicklung(en) in einer globalisierten Welt, Global Management, Local Resistances (ed., Routledge, 2014), The Socio-economic Outcomes of the Global Financial Crisis (ed., Routledge, 2012), Globalization and Transformations of Social Inequality (ed., Routledge, 2010), Globalization and Transformations of Local Socio-Economic Practices (ed., Routledge, 2008), Transnational Migrations and Social Transformations, Global Forces and Local Life-Worlds: Social Transformations, Changement social sous régime colonial: Du Togo allemand aux Togo et Ghana indépendants, Transformationsprozesse in der Elfenbeinkueste und in Ghana.

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