Critical Reflexivity as the Last Frontier to Uncover and Change the Ideologies Buried Behind Practices

Abstract

More pluralistic approaches have recently emerged in entrepreneurship, yet the discipline remains disinterested in the ideological influences underpinning its research and teaching practices. Following Louis Althusser’s work on interpellation, the process by which ideology enrols and consummates its subjects, the chapter examines the interpellation of entrepreneurship-as-practice researchers and draws attention to the powerful nature of ideology. Critical reflexivity is put forward as an exercise to explore the researchers’ beliefs and identity and to tease out their relationship with the discipline. Finally, using three autoethnographic accounts, the chapter argues that the boundaries of the entrepreneurship discipline can only be shifted if and when researchers learn to recognise themselves as ‘the person in the mirror’. The reflexive spotlight also allows researchers to spot ideological breaks and engage in acts of ‘ideological resistance’.

Citation

Gross, N. (2023), "Critical Reflexivity as the Last Frontier to Uncover and Change the Ideologies Buried Behind Practices", Higgins, D., Brentnall, C., Jones, P. and McGowan, P. (Ed.) Nurturing Modalities of Inquiry in Entrepreneurship Research: Seeing the World Through the Eyes of Those Who Research (Contemporary Issues in Entrepreneurship Research, Vol. 17), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 241-256. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2040-724620230000017015