2019 Economics Students Regional Meeting – Brazil Southeast Region

The 2019 Economics Students Regional Meeting – Brazil Southeast Region (ERECO-SUDESTE 2019) is going to take place in the historical city of Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais during November 14th – 16th. Its theme is going to be “Regional Development and Urban Planning”. It aims to rescue and reinforce the importance of discussions in the context of urban and regional economics and planning, in various dimensions and scales, and the importance of thinking about the role of State. We hope to shed some light on how the perspectives of spatial equilibrium and automatic adjustments guided by the free-market invisible hand are not able to inform policy to prevent and to manage local economies devastated by natural resources extraction. Still, from the local point of view, we seek to reinforce the relevance of the debate of thinking about economic, social, institutional, territorial, historical and patrimonial development, hence the choice of the region of Ouro Preto and Mariana as elucidative.
The event is going to be divided into two thematic axes: Academic (with mini-courses, group discussions, workshops, talks, debate tables and work presentations) and Cultural (with local tourism and networking between students). Both axes are going to have scheduled activities throughout the event days.
Within the YSI Urban and Regional Economics Working Group, we planned a visit to Paracatu de Baixo – Mariana, MG, on November 15th. Together with the “Vim Ver” project, a local initiative on natural disaster consequences, we are organizing a guided visit to the areas that were stricken by the mining barrage ruptures in 2015. We hope to take 25 participants that will be select through an online form, which requires the creation of a profile on the YSD platform, and a motivation letter.
The participants that demonstrate more interested and engaged in multiplying knowledge acquired during the visit will be invited to participate. To make this visit happens, we need to hire a bus and a driver that will travel from Ouro Preto – MG to Paracatu de Baixo – MG from 08:00AM to 06:00PM. YSI organizers will be together with the students on the guided tour in order to strengthen the relationship between economics students and YSI. In the beginning of the trip, we will make a brief presentation about YSI and its guiding principles, explaining how working groups work, the importance of thinking on new paradigms for the economics profession, and how YSI may help young scholars. During the trip, participants will benefit of brainstorming on how the conventional economic theory is hardly able to cope with the challenges risen by natural economic disasters, and how critical perspectives are urgently need to advance economic thinking in a more comprehensive way. Specifically, we hope to shed some light on how the perspectives of spatial equilibrium and automatic adjustments guided by the free-market invisible hand are not able to inform policy to prevent and to manage local economies devastated by natural resources extraction.