ISBE is sad to announce the death of a long-standing ISBE member, Professor Sue Baines, who has passed away following a recent cancer diagnosis.
Sue had a highly inter-disciplinary career. With Jane Wheelock, at Newcastle University, she produced ground breaking work on micro-enterprise households and livelihoods. Sue then joined the Centre for Enterprise at Manchester Metropolitan University, leading on the evaluation of multiple programme evaluations and specialising in projects on social innovation. She was awarded a personal Chair in Social Enterprise in 2014. In later years, Professor Baines worked in the Policy Evaluation Research Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University and focused on the co-creation of public services.
Sue was a well-loved colleague who was as happy to collaborate with researchers at the start of their careers as with professors from across Europe. She supervised multiple PhDs including those of ISBE members Mike Bull and Claire Baird. Sue was also an active member of ISBE, presenting papers at several conferences, contributing to Special Interest Groups and serving on the Board.
ISBE Fellow, Professor Julia Rouse said:
“Sue’s seminal work on micro-enterprise households can still tell us so much about how enterprising skills are developed in the family and about the tensions and precarity that enterprise can bring to family life. Her research on social enterprise, social innovation and knowledge co-creation was extensive and highly collaborative. There are many European and international partners who enjoyed working with Sue. Her affable, reliable and collaborative nature was a boon to these alliances.
I am sure that ISBE members will share my sadness that Sue’s career has been cut short and that she was not able to enjoy the next phase of life in retirement. I am sure that all of our thoughts are with her husband David, children Jack and Josephine, and grandchildren Rosie and Henry.”