The Civil Rights Movement and the Rebirth of Entrepreneurship

Historians and management researchers have become increasingly interested in the rise of entrepreneurship rhetoric and aspirations in the United States since the 1970s. Most of this work ascribes entrepreneurial discourse and aspirations to the growing influence of neoliberal ideas. In this talk, I will examine an alternative source for the rebirth of entrepreneurial values: the Civil Rights Movement and its influence of liberationist movements of the 1960s and 1970s more broadly. I will do so by focusing in particular on changes in a civil rights organization in Rochester, New York, showing how and why its agenda evolved from a focus on political rights to employment rights and eventually to entrepreneurship. The talk will consider the implications of the case for the broader ways we understand entrepreneurship in modern America.

 

Speaker: R. Daniel Wadhwani

Professor of Entrepreneurship, Marshall School of Business

Professor of History, Dornsife College of Arts and Sciences

University of Southern California

Dan's research and teaching examines how entrepreneurial processes drive socio-economic change. He has published in leading journals in management and business history, and is co-editor of Organizations in Time: History, Theory, Methods (Oxford University Press, 2014). He is former chair of the AoM Management History Division and past-president of the Business History Conference, the leading business history association in North America. He has received numerous research and teaching awards, most recently the Williamson Prize which is awarded every 2-3 years to a mid-career scholar "who has made significant contributions to business history."

Session will be Moderated by: Ihsan Beezer

Who can attend?

Open to the campus community, students, postdocs, research scholars, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Registration is required.