As our long autumn of discontent began, Rishi Sunak used his Conservative conference speech to conjure an image of a heroic figure capable of dispelling the gloom: the entrepreneur, freed from the stifling constraints of the bureaucratic state. The Chancellor’s vision – of the individual stimulating economic dynamism – is central to the neoliberal politico-economic imagination. Powerfully ingrained in the minds of the public, it is a vision that is nonetheless profoundly distorted.
If we really are to “build back better”, we will need thriving entrepreneurship. But in contrast to the prevailing ideal, this must be rooted in a radically different vision of enterprise: democratic, pluralistic, inclusive, and centred on meeting the needs of people, communities and the environment.
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