Ideally, we’d like entrepreneurship to be a driver of both individual and collective emancipation. But what does it take for that to actually happen in practice?
Entrepreneurship is often positioned as a way to increase freedom and agency, but at the same time it is embedded in systems that can reinforce constraints, inequalities, and expectations around performance and responsibility.
For educators, this raises a set of practical questions. What does it mean for entrepreneurship to be emancipatory? When and how does it support autonomy and agency, and where are its limits? And how can these insights inform the way we design and teach entrepreneurship?
These are the questions explored in this Educator Workshop.
In this context, emancipation is not treated as an abstract ideal, but as something that plays out in concrete situations: what choices students feel they have, what risks they are expected to take, and what kinds of futures are presented to them as possible.
The session is led by Michela Loi, whose research explores how educational environments, social contexts, and learning processes shape entrepreneurial mindsets and behaviours. Her recent work focuses on entrepreneurship as a potential driver of emancipation, which forms the basis for this workshop.
After the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Explain the concept of emancipation and distinguish it from related ideas such as empowerment and inclusion
- Analyse when and how entrepreneurial activity can support—or limit—emancipatory processes in different contexts
- Critically reflect on the assumptions underlying their own teaching of entrepreneurship
- Identify opportunities to design learning experiences that support autonomy, agency, and meaningful student engagement
- Apply selected approaches or tools to make their entrepreneurship education more reflective, inclusive, and context-aware
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Michela Loi is an Associate Professor of Organisation Studies and Entrepreneurship at the Department of Economics and Business Sciences, University of Cagliari (Italy). She holds a PhD in Organisational Psychology, and her research focuses on entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial learning, and the role of universities in fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Her work investigates how educational environments, social contexts, and learning processes shape entrepreneurial mindsets, intentions, and behaviours. She has published research on entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial universities, and the organisational dimensions of innovation, contributing to international conferences and leading scholarly outlets in the field. She currently serves as Research Editor for Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy. Publications: Link
Related reading: Nurturing Responsible Entrepreneurs, What to Teach in Entrepreneurship Education, and Making Entrepreneurship Feel Doable.
For related learning, see Entrepreneurial Mindset, Design Thinking, and Trendspotting and Future Thinking.
