UROP Project

Diversities of entrepreneurship: LGBTIQ* x migrant entrepreneurs in Poland

While minority entrepreneurs are key actors of economic integration and social cohesion, little is known about those who are at the intersection of gender minority and migrant communities. While minority entrepreneurs generally find support in their specific communities, the intersectionality of LGBTIQ* migrant entrepreneurs poses questions on their access to resources, availability of different capitals and marginalization in their own ethnic communities. We focus on the Polish case of Warsaw, where the entrepreneurial context has drastically changed with the post-socialist transformation and the EU-accession accompanied by novel institutional support systems for entrepreneurs and most recently by stronger anti-immigration and anti-LGBTIQ* polices. Focusing on LGBTIQ* migrant entrepreneurs in Warsaw, we aim to capture the experiences of these intersectional entrepreneurs and their multi-level contextual embeddedness. (Collaboration with Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Glasgow UK)

Task

Depending on your skills and interests, you will be assisting the international research team (collaborative project between scholars of RWTH and University of Strathclyde) but also be able to choose your own preferred project part within the multi-method project (e.g. qualitative interviews, survey, site surveys, cartographic visualization, lit. review). The student researcher can accompany the research team on a field trip to Warsaw/Poland during the excursion week 27 May-3 June 2023 and gain hands-on experience in empirical social research.

Requirements

basic knowledge of empirical social research methods; interest in diversity & intersectionality issues and minority entrepreneurship; diversity-sensitive and open-minded; open for students of business studies, human geography, sociology or any other social sciences