Fourth Subsistence Marketplaces Bottom-up Immersion Conference

Travel:

Flight to Mexico City and Bus To Puebla (Mexico City Airport to Puebla Paseo Destino – Estrella Roja Bus Service recommended)

Location and Host:

In Partnership with Center for Social Impact and Social Innovation at UPAEP (UniversidadPopular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla). At InterContinental Presidente Puebla (Blvd. Hermanos Serdan # 141, Col. Amor.  C.P. 72140) and Holiday Inn Express, Puebla (Blvd. Hermanos Serdán 45, Amor, 72140 Puebla, Pue.)

Scheduling:

The conference is scheduled to allow a travel day of June 11 for those also attending the TCR conference in Washington, DC June 12 onward

Deadline For Required Application (Submissions for Paper Presentations Optional) – November 15, 2024 

Deadline For Registration – December 15, 2024 

Participation In Field Visits Within Tracks Required (Paper Presentations Optional)

Conference Description:

The stream of subsistence marketplaces has pioneered a unique, bottom-up approach to research, education, and practice at the intersection of poverty and marketplaces. Building on seven biennial conferences, two immersion conferences, and four virtual conferences in the last 17 years and accompanying publications, we now announce the third immersion conference on subsistence marketplaces, previously scheduled for before the pandemic. True to the bottom-up approach that characterizes the subsistence marketplaces stream, this conference is envisioned to take place in different continents over time, thus providing an opportunity for researchers, educators, practitioners, and students to engage directly with urban and rural subsistence marketplaces, through conversations and observations. The third immersion conference was held in Casablanca, Morocco, in May, 2024.

Our fourth immersion conference will be held in Puebla, Mexico, with field visits in rural, semi-urban and urban settings, as well as social enterprises and businesses.  It will also combine aspects of virtual and in-person conferences in having a call for paper submissions. The participants will meet at UPAEP for paper presentations and debriefs and after field visits.

How to Apply:

First, complete a simple form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdRr0RLeN1eBcJgPG7Od7j9Evn1avwc8fahiMY-_maU75c5AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link  

that asks the following:

• An overview of your interests (research, education, social enterprise, business, government, other) as they relate to subsistence marketplaces.
• An outline of how your topic enhances understanding of and well-being in subsistence marketplaces.
• A description of how/why immersive experiences will help you develop deeper insights into your topic of interest.
• Your prior experiences in subsistence marketplaces (if any). Note that prior experience in this area is NOT a requirement. In fact, we want to encourage those without prior experience to participate.

In addition to indicating your intention to participate which can be done right away, we will need you to complete a separate registration form to process your payment for the conference that will be open soon.

Even if you will participate in paper submissions, please complete the required application form.

Abstracts for individual presentations (1,000 words max) are due November 15, 2024 to subsistencemarketplaces@gmail.com. 

Background Information

For almost 20 years, the Subsistence Marketplaces Conference Series has been a leading biennial forum for evolving and sharing research, education, and fostering best practices for social and commercial enterprises in subsistence marketplace communities. Scholars and practitioners around the world have participated in these forums through conferences, publications, and educational initiatives, beginning with the first Subsistence Marketplaces Conference in 2006. Research by this community has appeared in a variety of outlets, sustained through a series of special issues/sections in academic journals (with more than 60 articles in conference-related special publications and many more in other outlets). Since its origin, subsistence marketplace research has accumulated a substantial body of knowledge paralleling other approaches to poverty, such as the capabilities approach and base-of-the-pyramid research, providing unique and complementary insights. The term “subsistence marketplaces” was deliberately coined to reflect the need to study these marketplaces across resource and literacy barriers in their own right, beyond being new markets for companies. Business and exchange happens in many different ways across the world. Such exchanges are worthy of study from the inside out as well as the outside in. The term “marketplaces” denotes this focus and emphasizes the need to understand preexisting marketplaces before designing or presuming solutions.

More information on the Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative can be found at www.subsistencemarketplaces.org