Finding a space between poverty alleviation and high growth – a model for youth enterprise development in South Africa

Abstract

Interventions promoting youth entrepreneurship in South Africa assume there is a central role for entrepreneurship in confronting a range of development challenges. This research interrogates such assumptions and offers an alternate approach towards systemic interventions. A theoretical framework of transformative learning to negotiate challenges of liquid modernity underpins the study. A qualitative case study design, comprising 24 interviews conducted in 2014, explored two enterprise support programmes in Mpumalanga and Gauteng, each comprising a majority of youth under 35. Findings show how assumptions embedded in policies promoting youth entrepreneurship are paradoxical, contributing to their failure. Youth entrepreneurship can contribute strategies to help navigate effects of liquid modernity and develop know-how if perceived as niche activities, achieved with appropriate support. It is not for everybody. Possible niched approaches include structured ones for levels above subsistence, and effectuation for potential high-growth technology start-ups. Recognition that entrepreneurship development must help transform individuals underlies both.