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Erika Andersson Cederholm.

Erika Andersson Cederholm

Professor

Erika Andersson Cederholm.

Att leva och sälja sin dröm - livsstilsföretagaren mellan familjeliv, marknad och politisk retorik

Author

  • Erika Andersson Cederholm
  • Carina Sjöholm

Summary, in English

The article focuses on lifestyle entrepreneurship, characterised by a balancing work between personal lifestyle motives and economic motives. It builds on a qualitative study of business owners who have realized a life dream of starting a countryside business in the tourism and hospitality industry in Sweden. Through the notion of "balancing work", the analysis focuses on the tension between a personal life sphere and a market. In particular, the analysis highlights how the notion of "the life dream" emerges as a narrative practice of self-realization, simultaneously as it is offered as an experience product. The analysis demonstrates how the entrepreneurs balance between personal stories of togetherness and marketing practices, between images of right and wrong commodification, and between constraining working conditions and a popular image of the successful entrepreneur, reinforced by a political discourse on rural entrepreneurship. It is concluded that balancing work between personal identities and economic practices is a practice of valuation, offering new insights into working conditions and markets situated in the intersection between markets and personal life spheres.

Department/s

  • Department of Service Studies

Publishing year

2014

Language

Swedish

Pages

137-156

Publication/Series

Sociologisk Forskning

Volume

51

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Sveriges Sociologförbund

Topic

  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Keywords

  • dream
  • life
  • self-realization
  • valuation
  • Lifestyle entrepreneur
  • rural tourism

Status

Published

Project

  • Den kommersiella vänskapens pris - sociala förhandlingar om värde i upplevelseekonomin

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2002-066X