Class Community Development and Entrepreneurship

The course approaches tourism as a driver of community development and sustainable territorial enhancement, examining the relationships between communities, local resources and entrepreneurial initiative. Its scope integrates community development, participation and empowerment, stakeholder networks, tourism and social entrepreneurship, and place-based innovation. The course fosters a critical understanding of the opportunities and challenges involved in creating economic and social value through tourism, enabling students to diagnose local contexts, identify resources and opportunities, and design inclusive and sustainable community-based entrepreneurial proposals.

Not applicable

1. Tourism, community and territorial development: local and community development; territory, social capital, endogenous resources and local value creation. 2. Participation and collective action in tourism: participation, empowerment and social justice; stakeholders, collaborative networks and community governance. 3. Community and territorial diagnosis: identification of resources, actors, needs and opportunities; analysis of local contexts and initiatives. 4. Entrepreneurship and innovation in tourism: tourism entrepreneurship, lifestyle entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship; social innovation, entrepreneurial ecosystems and community-based business models. 5. Community-based entrepreneurial initiatives: proposal design; economic and social value creation; benefits, risks and impacts for communities and territories.

The course adopts active, student-centred methodologies, combining problem- and project-based learning, case studies, guided debates and simulations of participatory processes. A community-based learning approach connects students with real territorial and community contexts, fostering the identification of resources, actors, needs and opportunities. Engagement with stakeholders and the analysis of entrepreneurial initiatives connect concepts with industry practice. Throughout the semester, students develop a community-based entrepreneurial proposal through diagnosis, ideation, critical analysis and reflection on value creation and impacts. In-class guidance fosters autonomy, collaboration and reflective learning.

Aquino, R. S. (2022). Community change through tourism social entrepreneurship. Annals of Tourism Research, 95, 103442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2022.103442 Dias, Á., Silva, G. M., Patuleia, M., & González-Rodríguez, M. R. (2023). Developing sustainable business models: Local knowledge acquisition and tourism lifestyle entrepreneurship. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 31(4), 931-950. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1835931 Dias, A., Simonetti, B., & Bakas, F. E. (2022). Editorial: Developing lifestyle entrepreneurship for sustainable destinations. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 970005. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.970005 Kastenholz, E., Brites Salgado, M. A., & Silva, R. (2023). Resilient and regenerative rural tourism: The case of Travancinha village, Portugal. Cadernos de Geografia, 48, 81-97. https://doi.org/10.14195/0871-1623_48_6