Entrepreneurship and Place: How Entrepreneurs Manage Evolving Relationships Across the Life-cycle

Objective

"EPHEMERAL is designed to train a new generation of rural researchers with the interdisciplinary skills and knowledge to advance rural development theory and practice. Our interest in rural places and rural economies reflects Europe-wide calls for stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas and communities with huge potential to contribute towards economic, social and environmental goals. The project’s name reflects our novel contribution to theories and practices of rural place identity, rural entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems by introducing a critical time dimension - Ephemeral: ""lasting for only a short time; transitory; short-lived. ""Entrepreneurial opportunities are fleeting and transitory; places too are always changing. In this context, entrepreneurs create and develop enterprises that support the continuity of rural society. Building on the idea that entrepreneurs are agents of change and continuity in rural places, the fundamental premise of EPHEMERAL is twofold: i. Place influences opportunities differently at different stages of the entrepreneurial life-cycle, and ii. Entrepreneurs shape local places in different ways as their enterprises develop. EPHEMERAL brings together an interdisciplinary group of rural researchers in geography, economics, business and sociology. As such, it is ideally placed to support young researchers to generate new knowledge and insights for rural audiences by developing and testing new concepts and theories in different regions. To advance rural development in Europe tomorrow’s researchers must embrace interdisciplinary methods designed to reflect multiple and overlapping contexts of time, space, politics, inequality, technological advance and economic change. EPHEMERAL then train new researchers to understand and collaborate across disciplines and regions, and to work in diverse partnerships beyond academia to co-create new knowledge and share learning and best practices."