Field of research

• Transdisciplinary Research
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Food Systems innovation

Profile

Following a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE), Ivan completed a PGdip in Sustainable Development. He is currently completing an MPhil in Sustainable Development. He is project manager of a CST Transdisciplinary Research project. He is interested in innovation and social entrepreneurship as catalysts for sustainable development on the African continent and hopes to continue working in the developmental field across Africa with the aim of supporting and managing a variety of projects that take a collaborative and bottom-up approach.

The focus of his research is to explore the different contextual dynamics that influence social entrepreneurs in Khayelitsha. The research objective is to develop contextually relevant recommendations for how different developmental stakeholders could contribute to creating an enabling environment for social entrepreneurs in Khayelitsha.

An Urban Living Lab was established with the aim of experimenting with different approaches for addressing the challenges faced by research collaborators. This included hosting local healthy lifestyle markets, social entrepreneurship capacity building workshops and establishing community gardens. He used qualitative data gathering methods such as interviews and conversation analysis which were primarily informed by participatory observation as his guiding method.