Fourth Subsistence Marketplaces Bottom-Up Immersion Conference
June 6-10, 2025
Puebla, Mexico
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
(Universidad Popular 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)
Scheduling
The conference is scheduled to allow a travel day (June 11) for those also attending the TCR Conference in Washington, D.C. starting June 12.
Conference Chairs
Radovan Perez Restovic, Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP), Puebla, Mexico
Charlene A. Dadzie, University of South Alabama, USA
Maria Cruz Merino Sanz, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), Mexico City, Mexico
Arcelia Toledo López, CIIDIR Unidad, Oaxaca, Mexico
Conference Convenors
Leticia Ivonne López Villarreal, UDEM, Monterrey, Mexico
Cristina Azuara, Neurofinanzas, Monterrey, Mexico
María García Fraga, Monterrey, Mexico
Luis Chavez, Honduras
Conference Directors
Cynthia Montaudon Thomas (UPAEP)
Gabriela Sánchez Bazan (UPAEP)
Madhu Viswanathan, Loyola Marymount University, Emeritus – University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA
marketplaceliteracy@gmail.com
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’re happy to announce the fourth 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 to 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. Participants will meet at UPAEP for paper presentations and debriefs and after field visits.
Why is this conference unique?
This is a bottom-up immersion conference, which means we emphasize field interactions. If we are truly bottom-up in the subsistence marketplaces stream, then our forums should push further and be spent in the field as well, gaining bottom-up insights.
What will happen at the conference?
We will spend much of the day in the field, then return to the UPAEP campus, Puebla, to reflect and regroup for the next day. We do so in groups or tracks with distinct interests. We remain fluid in allowing ideas from the participants and insights from the field to emerge and guide the process. Our process is bottom-up in this aspect but guided by much experience, which will provide an appropriate top-down structure. We will also have time allotted for paper presentations based on submissions.
What else can we do?
Feel free to explore Puebla! Learn more at visit-mexico.mx/puebla. We have built-in time for sightseeing. Participants can also arrange to extend their stay.
Who makes this happen?
A symbiotic relationship between the Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative pioneered at the University of Illinois and extended to Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, and local social enterprises. In Puebla, the Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative will collaborate with UPAEP. This is a unique model of symbiotic academic-social enterprise, and our partner entities are deeply embedded in communities, which will enable field interactions for conference participants.
What is the process building up to the conference?
Track chairs will lead small groups of 4-8 people to the field with a trained translator. Please email subsistencemarketplaces@gmail.com if you are interested in being a track chair. We envision rural and urban visits as the venues for observations and interviews, with a period in the spring when we align groups and encourage interactions based on interests and preferences. We aim for fluidity during the conference, for people to move between groups. We plan to seek initial preferences from each group regarding what they want to see and with whom they want to interact – the latter ranging from individuals to households, communities, leaders/experts, and enterprises.
What this conference is NOT
This conference is not a forum for conducting research, which, of course, requires a variety of procedures and formalities. Therefore, the focus instead is on field interactions, which are intended to stimulate discussion but do not constitute the basis for any formal research.
How to apply
All applicants must complete a simple application form that asks the following:
- An overview of your interests (research, education, social enterprise, business, government, etc.) related 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 encourage those without prior experience to participate.
In addition to indicating your intention to participate, which can be done immediately, we will need you to complete a separate registration form to process your payment for the conference, which 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.
Who can apply?
We invite academics, researchers, educators, practitioners, and students interested in gaining firsthand experience in subsistence marketplaces. Although prior research or professional experience in subsistence marketplaces is not required, we expect participants to have topics related to subsistence marketplaces that they plan to pursue in their future research, education, or practice.
Background Information
For almost 20 years, the Subsistence Marketplaces Conference 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 worldwide 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 various 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 happen 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 subsistencemarketplaces.org.
Conference Track Chairs (in progress)
Applicants interested in serving as a Track Chair should email subsistencemarketplaces@gmail.com.