Journal Article

Making sense of industrial decline: How legacies of the past influence the development of entrepreneurship cultures in formerly industrialized places

Abstract

This paper explores how local communities in formerly industrialized places make sense of industrial decline and how the historical experience of industrialism has influenced the subsequent development of local entrepreneurship cultures. Based on a study with entrepreneurs and policymakers in Doncaster, a post-industrial English town in South Yorkshire, the paper demonstrates how legacies of the past persist through local informal institutions and permeate local perceptions of place and opportunity, stymieing the development of an entrepreneurship culture in the locality. Drawing on Cresswell’s three-dimensional framework of place, the paper shows how place meanings can lag significantly behind material transformation and slow the adoption of new practices. The study reflects on these challenges and discusses the policy implications.

Attached files

Authors

Gherhes, Cristian
Vorley, Tim
Brooks, Chay

Oxford Brookes departments

Oxford Brookes Business School

Dates

Year of publication: 2020
Date of RADAR deposit: 2020-11-12

---

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

---

Related resources

This RADAR resource is the Accepted Manuscript of Making sense of industrial decline: How legacies of the past influence the development of entrepreneurship cultures in formerly industrialized places