The narrative construction of the ideological identity of the social entrepreneur: the tension between juxtaposed discourses

This paper examines the process by which the social entrepreneurial identity can be constructed through narrative. In so doing, we employ a case study analysis of a social entrepreneur who started, and still operates, a refugee support centre in a major Australian city. This research is timely in light of the current state of academic development of social entrepreneurship (SE) which remains an emerging and under-researched field of academic inquiry (Austin, 2006). In a literature review covering the period between 1990 and 2004, Mair, Robinson and Hockerts (2006) were able to uncover only a handful of academic articles on SE in peer-reviewed journals. Johnson (2000) found similar results, with most references contained in journalistic and professional sources, including internet websites. As such the field remains under-theorised, extremely broad, and bedevilled by a plethora of varying definitions. Our review of the SE literature reveals that it is concentrated in four distinct topic areas: (i) the meaning and conceptualisation of SE (Mort, Weerawardena, and Carnegie, 2003; Thompson, Alvy, and Lees, 2000; Waddock and Post, 1991; Roper and Cheney, 2005; Dees, 1998), (ii) the difference between SE and business entrepreneurship (Austin, Stevenson, and Wei-Skillern, 2006), (iii) the characteristics, motivations, and personal values of social entrepreneurs (Plater-Zyberk, 2005; Hemingway, 2005), and (iv) the activities of social entrepreneurs (Thompson, 2002; Alvord, Brown, and Letts, 2004). [Introduction]