Global Entrepreneurship Imaginary: The Textual Construction of the Lebanese Startup Ecosystem

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/hq37vp99b

Abstract

This project analyses the discourse surrounding the construction and evolution of the Lebanese startup ecosystem in relation to the global entrepreneurship imaginary. Drawing upon the various promotional materials, texts, newspapers, blogs, and videos related to the emergence of the ecosystem, this study examines the different imaginaries, both global and local, that are embedded within visions of Lebanon containing a vibrant knowledge economy. Through a critical-interpretive analysis performed upon select materials, this study investigates the ways in which institutions, narratives, and imaginaries coalesce or diverge across varying attempts to manifest a Lebanese entrepreneurial society. In the process, the project explores the importance of the Lebanese exceptionalism narrative and how it relates to, encourages, or undermines entrepreneurship across different periods of time. The study concludes by reexamining the imperatives of the global entrepreneurship imaginary, especially in how it privileges the myth of the knowledge economy and what that might entail for the Lebanese entrepreneurial imaginary.

Creator