Roland Gau ([log in to unmask]), University of Texas at El Paso
Overview
of Topic
The term “subsistence” connotes the
everyday struggle on the part of low-income individuals, households and
communities to meet life’s basic needs. Much of the world’s population exists
within subsistence marketplaces and a great deal of public policy has focused on improving the quality of life of individuals in these
settings. Specifically, subsistence marketplaces consist of communities of consumers
and entrepreneurs living at a range of low-income levels. Such communities are
concentrated in developing countries and economies around the world (e.g. Brazil,
India, China, Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa). Subsistence communities also
exist side-by-side with more affluent communities in developed nations. “Subsistence marketplace” as a term also represents a
mindset focused on understanding subsistence contexts in their own right, not
merely as markets to sell to or as contexts for policy initiatives but as individuals,
communities, consumers, entrepreneurs, and marketplaces from which to learn.
Distinct from macroeconomic
approaches, or relatively meso-level business approaches to poverty (such as
the Base-of-the-Pyramid approach), the subsistence marketplaces approach takes
a micro-level approach to gain bottom-up understanding of subsistence consumers
and entrepreneurs. Such a micro-level perspective has the potential to provide
insights into market and policy initiatives that complement perspectives from macro-level
and meso-level approaches.
By unpacking the life
circumstances of people living with low income with particular emphases on
marketplaces, economic systems, and related policy implications, this approach
has led to grounded insights on thinking patterns associated with low income
and low literacy; as well as affective elements, decision-making, relationships
and marketplace exchanges, consumption and entrepreneurship, and market ecosystems.
Such insights have been used to derive implications for product development,
enterprise models, public policy, and sustainable development. The work reflects
the bottom-up approach of deriving meso-
and macro-level insights based on a nuanced, micro-level understanding of the
phenomenon. Additional information is available at https://business.illinois.edu/subsistence/.
In keeping with the mission of the
Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, this special issue seeks papers that
identify policy implications of research and theory that focuses on and stems
from an understanding of micro-level phenomena in subsistence marketplaces.
While purely macroeconomic approaches to such marketplaces do not fit within
this call, papers at the meso- or macro-level that are explicitly linked to the
micro-level are welcome and encouraged. The goal of this special issue is to be
inclusive, but with an explicit emphasis on the bottom-up approach to
understanding marketplaces, policy, and the public interest that is often neglected
in the study of poverty.
Background
of Related Conference Series and Stream of Research
This call for papers especially
welcomes papers presented at the Sixth Subsistence Marketplaces Conference held
June 17-19, 2016, but it is open to any contributor(s) regardless of participation
in this conference or prior conferences in this series. In the last decade, the
Subsistence Marketplaces Conference has been a leading forum for evolving and
sharing research and fostering best practices in subsistence marketplace communities.
Specific themes of the sixth conference included:
·
Sustainability and Consumption from the Bottom-up
·
Disruption, Technology, and Innovation
·
Survival, Subsistence, and Transformative
Entrepreneurship
·
Institutional and Organizational Dimensions of
Enterprises and
Partnerships
·
Subsistence Narratives, Incentives, and Agency
·
Integration and Visioning in Subsistence Marketplaces
Research
·
Traversing Theory and Practice
·
Curricular Innovations
These themes span a number of
issues that impinge on day-to-day living and basic needs of members of
subsistence economies and the broader global community of which they are a part.
Additional information about the conferences is available at https://business.illinois.edu/subsistence/conferences/2016-conference/.
Suggested Topics
Potential topics may include the
following:
• Consumer behavior in subsistence
marketplaces
• Entrepreneurship in subsistence
marketplaces
• Substantive domains of subsistence
(e.g., water, sanitation, energy, food)
• Emergence of marketing systems
• Environmentalism of subsistence
consumers and consumer-merchants
• Issues of environmental justice
relating to subsistence marketplaces
• Sustainable product design for subsistence
marketplaces
• Inventing and re-inventing new
products and services for subsistence marketplaces
• Organization design and re-design
for operating in subsistence marketplaces
• Collaborative models for business
innovations
• Supply chain and distribution
challenges and opportunities
• Pricing for value and
sustainability
• Marketing communication and
education
• Innovative research methods
• Economic and financial perspectives
on subsistence marketplaces (e.g. financial literacy)
• Health, well-being and justice in
subsistence marketplaces
• Merging social and business
missions through social innovations
• Incorporating business practices in
nonprofit organizations developing social innovations
• Social innovation alliances and
partnerships among NGOs, governments, and businesses
Other topics are also welcome. As noted in the JPPM
guidelines for authors, papers submitted to Journal of Public Policy
& Marketing should be explicit about the contribution to marketing and
public policy (e.g., what
policies are informed, which policy makers would find results useful, what is
demonstrated or implied for policy decisions). In the context of this special
issue, as consistent with the mission of JPPM,
the term “policy” is used in a very broad sense and is not restricted to
government actions; it also includes policy implications for NGO’s,
corporations, professional associations, and religious organizations, among
others. Policy may also include encouraging or facilitating market or other
non-governmental mechanisms to work through regulation and/or de-regulation,
incentives, facilitation, social marketing, social entrepreneurship or other
approaches to improving quality of life and promoting public interest.
In order to
assure publication of the special issue of JPPM in the fall of 2017 the
timeline and deadlines for this special issue will be strictly followed. All
papers will be peer reviewed. Papers in the review process will be rejected if
the timeframe does not allow for timely revisions. However, such papers may be
referred to the editor of JPPM for further review through the Journal’s normal
review process.
October 1 to December 30, 2016: Deadline window for paper submission
February 28, 2017: Feedback
to authors after peer review
April 15, 2017: Deadline
for revised submission
June 30, 2017: Final deadline for subsequent
revisions
As per
JPPM guidelines, which may be found at:
https://www.ama.org/publications/JournalOfPublicPolicyAndMarketing/Pages/About.aspx
Madhu Viswanathan
Diane and Steven N. Miller Centennial Chair in Business
183 Wohlers Hall, 1206 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: 217-333-4550; Fax: 217-244-7969; email: [log in to unmask]
Homepage: http://www.business.illinois.edu/~madhuv/homepage.html Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative: http://www.business.illinois.edu/subsistence/
Non-profit website: www.marketplaceliteracy.org