Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Ethics: Understanding Ai Weiwei as an Entrepreneurial Parrhesiastes

In the wake of calls for enterprise-led recovery amid Western economies, we critically investigate the enterprise discourse. Specifically, we challenge the association of enterprise and entrepreneurial activity. Using Foucault’s concept of parrrhesia - an ethical condition of brave speech - we argue that for many entrepreneurs the expressive creation of new organizational forms is itself sufficient as a rationalising logic, without association to the trappings of enterprise such as brand, profit or venture growth. We illustrate our argument using the case of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.