Libro de Actas final_2

GT 13 GRUPO DE TRABAJO DE SOCIOLOGÍA DE LA EDUCACIÓN
Concluding remarks
In this paper we intended to test the heuristic value of entrepreneurial potential. Our research highlighted two analytical
vectors: i) the entrepreneurial potential according to scientific field/course, gender and social origin; ii) the meanings
and discourses of graduates on motivations and projects for entrepreneurship. The findings point to an important relation
between the entrepreneurial potential and the social origin, education field and gender of the graduates of the University
of Minho in this inquiry. The data suggest that the males with a higher social capital who belong to “Engineering” courses
have a greater disposition for the choice of self-employment or an entrepreneurial career; on the other hand, it is possible
to notice that the feminine options of “Social Sciences” and “Education” graduates are still based in the traditional model
of sexual division of labour (Bourdieu, 1999), with less young woman’s preferring to follow a self-employment career, as
previously shown. In other words, the disposition for entrepreneurship is a consequence of various factors and different
social capitals. These results also led us to question to which point the Academy, namely the academic trajectory, may
effectively break (vertical and horizontal) professional and occupational segregation or, in contrary, configure itself to
reproduce social inequalities in the labour market.
The diversity of discourses related to projects and motivations for entrepreneurship extracted from the in-deep interviews
leads us to consider different sources of how graduates describe their entrepreneurial projects and what it means to them
(Cope, 2005). These data enable us to capture additional information and present the entrepreneurial process having
both economic and social value. We argue that these choices made by the graduates throughout their academic paths can
contrast according to their individual preferences and social capital, which in turn allow us understand the way in which
they unequally position themselves in relation to entrepreneurship.
To conclude, it would be interesting for future sociological research to deepen the concept of entrepreneurial potential,
adopting new lens for seeing entrepreneurial process that, in parallel to social origin, consider the importance of differentiated
factors and contexts (social, educational, cultural, political, economic) and try to understand lived experiences and how
students/graduates creates frames of meaning for themselves. This will be especially appropriate to understanding the
configuration of new entrepreneurial and innovative trajectories in higher education.
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CRISIS Y CAMBIO: PROPUESTAS DESDE LA SOCIOLOGÍA
XI Congreso Español de Sociología (FES)