Advancing Sustainability Education

Hi everyone!

I am a senior lecturer in marketing and entrepreneurship at the Liverpool Business School https://www.ljmu.ac.uk. My passion is to co-create and be part of communities of practice who are interested in being the change. Working with a wide range of people and using a broad definition of value my aim is to contribute to business education and practice by incubating change makers who can make a difference both in theory and practice.

In order to do this making connections between people, disciplines and place is vital. Inspired by the relational turn and social-ecological thinking my research contributes to view that business and management should be part of, and maybe facilitate, some of these large and complex issues facing us all globally. In order to do this a wide group of voices need to be included and heard…not just shareholders and not just the standard ‘stakeholder’ groups.

Our Story

At the Business School I have led the transitioning of traditional undergraduate student dissertations into business consultancy projects. These project facilitate student and local industry collaborations and learning and are based on the premise that students are emerging leaders. The projects are focused on a broad range of business disciplines, are supported and mentored by practicing professional business consultants and where possible based on sustainability principles. This academic year 300 final year undergraduate students worked with 60 organisations on 91 different projects to provide dialogues and value adds for both students and local organisations.

I also lead and chair a Thought Leaders in Education special interest group for Social Value UK which is part of the Social Value International Community https://socialvalueuk.org & https://www.socialvalueint.org. This network connects a wider range of academics and practitioners who are actively investigating the concept of social value and social impact. It’s a tricky concept and means different things to different people…but as it is such an important one it is a pleasure to be part of this group trying to understand what it means in education.