Conferences, symposia, and other events

We have created forums to connect a community of researchers and practitioners in this arena through in-person, virtual, and immersion conferences that bring together researchers, educators, and practitioners from a variety of disciplines. We have created outlets for publication of research in this nascent area through a book and a special issue of a journal. We also sponsor campus visits by researchers and practitioners in this arena.

Subsistence Marketplaces Bottom-up Conference

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 conferences, accompanying publications, we hosted the second immersion conference on subsistence marketplaces. True to the bottom-up approach that characterizes subsistence marketplaces research, this conference took 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.

This conference conducted field visits in rural, semi-urban and urban settings, such as to tribal communities, as well as social enterprises thanks to Marketplace Literacy Project and OIKOS East Africa, who have worked together for more than five years with Maasai communities in the Arusha region.

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Subsistence Marketplace Conference

Subsistence marketplaces consist of consumer and entrepreneur communities living at a range of low income levels, and are concentrated in developing countries and regions such as Brazil, India, China, Vietnam, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, many individuals and groups in developed countries also live in subsistence. In the last decade, the

The Subsistence Marketplaces Conference has been a leading forum for evolving and sharing research and fostering best practices in these communities. The subsistence marketplaces approach is unique in examining the intersection of poverty and marketplaces with a bottom-up approach that begins with micro-level understanding of life circumstances of consumers, entrepreneurs, and communities. This stream has been reflected in five biennial conferences and almost 60 refereed articles in related special journal issues, as well as in dedicated session tracks at other conferences and refereed articles in a variety of journals.

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