The Coloniality of the “Entrepreneurial Ecosystem” in the Obsession for Urban Global Competitiveness

The practice and theory of urban governance often compel governing coalitions to shape the right entrepreneurial ecosystem in response to the pressures of global competition. This contribution conceptualises such a demand within the framework of the “coloniality of power” introduced by the Peruvian sociologist Aníbal Quijano. We argue that coloniality operates through an “aspiration of being” or an obsession with international rankings, which necessarily entails an internal compulsion to racialise and classify localities and inhabitants. This aspiration turns low-skilled migrants into liabilities for the imagined competitive city as urban political economies change over time. We illustrate this through the discourse and practice of urban entrepreneurship in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) to elaborate on the implications of the “aspiration of being” and establish three conditions under which one could claim a case for the coloniality of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in urban governance.