D. Basu et P. Werbner, Bootstrap capitalism and the culture industries: a critique of invidious comparisons in the study of ethnic entrepreneurship, ETHN RACIAL, 24(2), 2001, pp. 236-262
A perennial debate in Europe and the United States has been about the cause
s of apparent black under-representation in self-employment, an implicit ra
cialization in scholarly discourse which arguably parallels prevalent commo
n-sense notions about cultural pathology. The present article challenges co
nventional definitions of African American entrepreneurship by examining in
detail the role of black entrepreneurs in the hip hop industry. The organi
zation of music as a mass cultural industry and its expansionary processes
is shown to be generated by networks of mutually interdependent, mostly sma
ll and struggling, music producers integrated vertically and horizontally.
Our analysis demonstrates, we propose, the need to conceptualize the struct
ure of ethnic enclave economies as organized around the flow of particular
goods produced by specific industries. By shifting our gaze onto those area
s of economic activity which African Americans are currently penetrating, w
e are able to show how their use of subcultural capital enables them to sup
ply and command a global market.