entrepreneurs who not only service their community but aspire to bring pride and a sense of worth; we debated the emotional attachments of entrepreneurs to their locations; and all our discussions had one clear thread– the need to cherish the place of our business, consider local communities as co-creators of the socio-economic value, and involve them in solutions. Our local business leaders reconfirmed the themes of responsible entrepreneurship and the importance of regenerative business strategies. They emphasised that successful entrepreneurs are always curious. In the words of Jane Dalton, who runs Groundswell Innovation: “You’ve got to be constantly listening out for what’s happening around you and challenging your own assumptions.” Another importantmessagewas about the heterogeneous nature of places around us – one size simply doesn’t fit all. AndyWalker, Head of BusinessGrowth and Innovation at LancashireCounty Council, reminded us about the challenge of levelling-up policies ensuring that we truly support all communities “and do something that’smeaningful, not just making them look better.” We were also joined by Sarah Rees, Head of Stakeholder Relations at Lancaster University, who concluded: “It’s really important to remember where we’re from. We can be a global institution, but also think about how we can harness that research and our education and actually think about the problems and challenges locally.” The podcast guests sent strong and motivatingmessages to our students to encourage them “to really celebrate that at this particular point in time they are here and they are part of that history of Lancaster and of the University… and to consider what they would like their contribution to be to the story of the place they’re in.” (Jo Telfer) This helped us move to the second stage of building our vision of the future andmoving towards collective action, exploring howwemight get this important topic into the heart of our curriculum. We implicitly incorporate place in our students’ experience, but we do not always draw explicitly on the richness and resources of our city and region. This project takes us closer to practicebased and immersive learning, and moves us to co-creating our own material based on the direct interaction with our place. What enriched this project was a group of seven student project fellows, who worked with the academic and digital team co-creating the learning materials and developing closer connections between the city and campus. They looked at challenges on our own campus, making it more inclusive for students with disabilities; they addressed the issue of Lancaster High Street, and curated a partnership learning exchange with Lancaster Business Improvement District to contribute to the local business leaders’ value creation, and facilitate mutual learning about expectations and each other’s perspectives. Tony Johnson, who manages the BID, found a value in this collaboration: “It’s all right me telling businesses what students are saying, but it was eyeopening for the businesses to hear it for themselves.” WHAT NEXT? Good Place Innovators will have a longlasting impact on the future of responsible entrepreneurial education in Lancaster, and we hope to inspire many other institutions to incorporate their place into the curriculummore prominently through the EEUK network. Our students talk about Lancaster as their home, they take pride in showcasing the innovations they developed for the city, and most importantly they know they will never look at any place of business in the same way. Did we achieve what we wanted? Absolutely, as educators we learnt to be facilitators of learning, our students’ mindset shift and their pride in their contribution meant more than getting a first, and our city stakeholders became our partners and collaborators with energy for making our place even better. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 45 Dr Radka Newton is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy. She is the academic lead of the Good Place Innovators project Her scholarship focuses on innovation in education and adaptation of design thinking in management learning. She cofounded the global network Service Design in Education, encouraging educators to take a human-centred approach to their practice. Dr Newton is a board member to The Growth Company Workforce Development Advisory Board and a committee member of the Chartered Association of Business Schools Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Committee, influencing sector advancements. r.newton@lancaster.ac.uk The GoodPlace Innovators project contributes tomany priority themes demonstrating the importance of wider understanding of enterprise in the social context aligned with Lancaster University’s ethos as a civic university. Themain outputs of the project are: Digital learning resources for students GoodPlace Lab A place-based podcast series Regenerative curriculumdesign model characterised by high stakeholder engagement in practice-based teaching
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