Cultural entrepreneurship in fashion: Insights from an existentialist reading of Emily in Paris

Daniel Ericsson; Pär Vasko

doi:10.15626/ace.240105

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Authors

Daniel Ericsson School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3088-4738
Pär Vasko School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8120-0586

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15626/ace.240105

Keywords:

Sartre, existentialism, organization theory, Emily in Paris, top-down management, power, resistance, technology

Abstract

The Netflix rom-com series Emily in Paris revolves around Emily Cooper, who has been assigned by her Chicago-based employer to work for Savoir, a subsidiary marketing agency in Paris. In this paper, Emily in Paris is approached as a showcase of cultural entrepreneurship, and the existentialist reading of the series reveals a distinct symbolic universe that harbours the characters’ existential conundrums as they organize themselves and others in the course of their everyday lives. The revelation of this symbolic universe, it is argued, adds to the conversation about cultural entrepreneurship issues of power/resistance, management hierarchies, and technology.

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