COLLECTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP - THE MOBILIZATION OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY RECYCLING COORDINATORS

Most theories of entrepreneurship have focused on explaining individua l actions, neglecting the extent to which entrepreneurs are embedded i n particular socio-historical contexts that shape both opportunity str uctures and the interactions that enable particular entrepreneurial re sponses to opportunities, Evidence from an ethnography of college and university recycling coordinators and programs is drawn on to extend t he concept of ''collective entrepreneurship'' to account for broader s ocial dynamics having to do with the construction of a recycling coord inator occupational identity and resource mobilization oriented toward s the defense of that identity. Social marginality and linkage to a wi der environmental social movement are argued to be the key conditions that made the collective efforts of recycling coordinators to safeguar d and increase the status of their nascent occupation possible.