What Do Philosophers Know? (penultimate draft)

This study is focusing on race and 'urban' music. It is exploring whether black music is akin to Atlantic slavery in terms of representation, political economy and consumption. By comparing and semiotically analysing images of Lil' Kim and 50 Cent with blacks during slavery, longitudinal stereotypical themes were found. Foucault power/knowledge constructs and Said's Orientalism were applied as frameworks within discourse analysis methodologies. The findings suggest that construction of blackness in music, contributes towards systematic exclusion by denying black people equality in everyday life.

2010

Handbook on Ontologies, 2009

The main objective of the paper is to explore and explain the differences/similarities in personal networks of, and their use by, immigrant and British born Pakistani female entrepreneurs for business growth. A broad range of studies has explored the social context of ethnic minority and immigrant entrepreneurship by assuming all minority entrepreneurs as a cohesive group without taking into account intergroup (geographical categorisation) and intra-group (generational) differences. These differences are explained by socio-economic and cultural factors such as family background and support, ethnicity, religion, education, and more importantly personal network (Metcalf et. al., 1996; Basu, 1998). The blend of culture and religion depicted in entrepreneurial practices of Pakistani entrepreneurs is an interesting area to explore. Our particular interest is to explore the interactional dimension of the personal networks of Pakistani female entrepreneurs and its impact on the growth of their business. In order to explore the meaning and perceptions attached to relationships and the way they are being used for flourishing the entrepreneurial ventures, we use egocentric network analysis to take the ‘ego’s’ (Pakistani female entrepreneur’s) perspective to understand the individual entrepreneur's experiences of and with ties in personal networks. In-depth interviews are carried out with ‘name generator’ questions and sociograms were used to explore the nature of network ties and reasons for their formation. By generating an in depth understanding of the distinctive use of personal networks for growth of business by Pakistani female entrepreneurs the paper provides in depth knowledge and understanding of a particular ethnic minority group that will be of use to business owners (Pakistani female entrepreneurs), academic researchers and policy makers.

1987