Varieties of urban entrepreneurialism

We revisit the concept of urban entrepreneurialism to highlight some of its variety. In particular, the present article refocuses discussion on: processes of innovation, bringing geography into dialogue with the literature on innovation in public services; normative questions surrounding the ends to which urban entrepreneurship is turned; and the need for analysis to go beyond the territorial traps of the nation and the city to consider how urban entrepreneurialism articulates with the national state and is projected internationally. We distinguish urban managerialism from the new urban managerialism, urban diplomacy, urban intrapreneurialism and urban speculation, drawing on international examples to highlight the mixed qualities and effects of these varieties of urban entrepreneurialism. In conclusion, we note the limitations of our framework and its relationship to the related ideas of neoliberalization, financialization and accumulation by dispossession.