This article sketches out a relational theoretical approach to the study of collective entrepreneurial action. For such purposes, we argue that both Mancur Olson’s methodological individualism as well as the sociological class analysis of Claus Offe and Helmut Wiesenthal - widely disseminated approaches to the study of entrepreneurial sectors - present strong essentialist tendencies. These approaches tend to substitute social conflict with various types of determinisms - economic, cultural, psychological, etc. In contraposition to such tendencies, we sketch out a relational approach in which collective entrepreneurial action is seen as the result of the existing correlation of forces, giving salience to historical and collective dimensions of building action and collective organization. For the study of entrepreneurial associations this perspective allows us to reflect upon the results and place of social conflicts.
entrepreneurs; collective action; entrepreneurial associations; associativism