Abstract
Abstract This paper presents a qualitative analysis of ten life-story interviews conducted with adolescents and young workers aged 15–27 years in Potosí, Bolivia, who participated in a social entrepreneurship training programme funded by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). Drawing on ethnographic methodologies and thematic coding of narrative data, the study examines how family context, early labour trajectories, educational experiences and socio-cultural environments shape their aspirations and entrepreneurial initiatives. Life stories, told in the first person, are a rich source of ideas, visions, interpretations, chronologies and emotions, shedding light on children’s current concerns, memories and short-, medium- and long-term aspirations. Within this small, purposively selected sample, the three participants who reported initiating entrepreneurial ventures also described relatively stable and emotionally supportive family environments. While this pattern suggests a possible association between family support and entrepreneurial initiative, the study does not establish causal relationships. The narratives further reveal the structural constraints affecting participants’ trajectories, including poverty, early exposure to labour, health vulnerabilities, gender-based violence and limited institutional support. Rather than presenting entrepreneurship as an autonomous individual choice, the findings situate it within household survival strategies and broader socio-economic conditions. The study contributes to debates on child and youth labour and social entrepreneurship in contexts of poverty by providing an exploratory, context-specific analysis of young people’s lived experiences.