Bootstrap capitalism and the culture industries: a critique of invidious comparisons in the study of ethnic entrepreneurship

Abstract

A perennial debate in Europe and the United States has been about the causes of apparent black under-representation in self-employment, an implicit racialization in scholarly discourse which arguably parallels prevalent common-sense notions about cultural pathology. The present article challenges conventional definitions of African American entrepreneurship by examining in detail the role of black entrepreneurs in the hip hop industry. The organization of music as a mass cultural industry and its expansionary processes is shown to be generated by networks of mutually interdependent, mostly small and struggling, music producers integrated vertically and horizontally. Our analysis demonstrates, we propose, the need to conceptualize the structure of ethnic enclave economies as organized around the flow of particular goods produced by specific industries. By shifting our gaze onto those areas of economic activity which African Americans are currently penetrating, we are able to show how their use of subcultural capital enables them to supply and command a global market.