Earlier this week, Yang Bong (2021 cohort) took part in the Subsistence Marketplaces Bottom-Up Immersion Conference, an event founded and chaired by Professor Madhu Viswanathan of Loyola Marymount University, USA, who is also an Honorary Professor of Marketing at Nottingham University Business School.
This unique conference focuses on understanding how business and exchange operate in contexts where people face significant resource and literacy barriers. Rather than viewing these communities simply as new markets, the field of subsistence marketplaces looks at them as complex and meaningful systems in their own right. The aim is to study these marketplaces from within, before designing solutions from the outside.
What sets this conference apart is its hands-on structure. Instead of traditional academic sessions, most of the conference involves field visits to rural, semi-urban and urban communities, as well as social enterprises and local businesses. This format encourages participants to engage directly with the environments they’re studying.
During the conference, Yang presented his work titled “Uncovering Digital Engagement in Subsistence Marketplaces for Digital Marketplace Design.” His research explores how people in these settings interact with digital platforms, offering insights that could help shape more inclusive and accessible digital marketplaces in the future.
Yang’s involvement in the conference shows how research can go beyond the classroom – sharing ideas, learning from real-world experiences and helping shape more inclusive digital solutions for communities that are often overlooked.
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