The (enlightened) perspective of an anthropologist on entrepreneurship and the project

Jean-Pierre Boutinet is the author of Anthropologie du projet (2012) and Vers une société des agendas, Une mutation des temporalités (2004). The main focus of his work has been on the study of the project through the lens of his expertise as psychologist and anthropologist. This interview is quite relevant to project studies as it nurtures new thoughts on the relationship between entrepreneurship and projects. Boutinet influences in France on the understanding of the emergence and evolution of the word and the concept of project in the Western world has been tremendous. From this perspective, he offers a fresh critical look at the very central notion of time in the context of the project. He questions how the term project is used today and how we tend to dismiss the essence of its very nature for its creativity and meaning. As his work has been published only in French, it has not been discovered by the project management community at large with the exception of a few scholars (e.g. Garel, 2013; Scranton, 2015). We hence take the opportunity provided by this special section to introduce the important hidden elements of project studies to a larger audience. In short, we believe that Jean-Pierre Boutinet’s unique perspective enlightens the relationship between entrepreneurship and the project.

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