On 17th July, the EMES International Research Network Affinity Group on Education on Social Enterprise (SEEd) hosted an engaging and thought-provoking webinar titled:
“Rethinking Social Entrepreneurship Education: Contexts, Challenges, and Critical Perspectives.”
Bringing together 25 participants from across the globe—including India, South Africa, Denmark, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Colombia, The Netherlands, Croatia, Finland, and Mexico—the session served as a space for vibrant dialogue, cross-contextual learning, and new perspectives on how we teach and think about social entrepreneurship.
Expert Speakers and Key Takeaways
The webinar featured three expert speakers and long-standing members of the EMES Network, each offering unique insights grounded in both academic and practical experience:
Kerryn Krige from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) challenged mainstream approaches to teaching social entrepreneurship by drawing on historical inquiry. Using tools like Charles Booth’s notebooks, she encourages students to critically examine the complexities of social change and question the assumptions behind how we define and measure “impact.”
Malin Gawell from Södertörn University shared reflections from over a decade of teaching social entrepreneurship in Sweden. She emphasised how students navigate the field’s evolving boundaries and highlighted the importance of embedding critical perspectives and lived experiences into the learning process.
Danijel Baturina from the University of Zagreb explored the opportunities and barriers of embedding social enterprise and social innovation into university curricula in Croatia. Drawing on his own experience, he shed light on both the institutional challenges and the creative strategies needed to integrate these topics meaningfully into higher education.
Participants echoed a common need: to move beyond one-size-fits-all models of SE education and embrace more context-sensitive, interdisciplinary, and critical approaches.
This gathering reinforced the value of creating transnational spaces for dialogue, where educators, researchers, and practitioners can exchange practices and rethink assumptions together.
The SEEd Affinity Group will reconvene in October to continue this important conversation. If you’re passionate about the future of SE education and want to join the community, please join us: https://emes.net/membership-and-networking/
We welcome new voices and perspectives!