There are several problems with this approach:

1. In order to force default behaviour, I'd have to set ALL customization variables of org explicitly (can be avoided by using an "emacs -q" session for compiling). 
2. Even setting just a single setting can be very verbose (e.g. when defining a new document class). 
3. The variables are not flagged as safe for use as file-local variables, requiring extra user-interaction whenever the file is visited.

Sure, those are all mere convenience issues, but they add up to enough potential inconvenience for cooperative authoring (i.e. the file being edited in different emacs configurations by different people) to make direct latex editing rather attractive. 

Is that scenario simply outside the scope of org-mode?

- Klaus-Dieter Bauer 



2013/10/21 Eric Schulte <schulte.eric@gmail.com>
This can be done with file local variables.  See the following page of
the Emacs manual.

  (info "(emacs)Specifying File Variables")

Klaus-Dieter Bauer <bauer.klaus.dieter@gmail.com> writes:

> Hello!
>
> I have customized org export to both html and latex extensively since I
> disliked many of the defaults (e.g. the use of article vs scrartcl, red
> borders around pdf hyperlinks).
>
> This left me wondering however, if it is possible to create org files that
> will produce the same output on every machine, regardless of the local
> emacs customizations (of course assuming that no hacks of the export engine
> are part of the configuration).
>
> In order to make the files more portable I have been trying to make changes
> affecting export with things like #+LATEX_HEADER: but e.g. changing the
> documentclass to scrartcl seems to be possible only by changing a
> customization variable (org-latex-classes).
>
> Is it possible to make the export engine assume defaults for all
> customization variables for a file (preferably through an in-file setting)
> and to specify those customization inside the file?
>
> - Klaus

--
Eric Schulte
https://cs.unm.edu/~eschulte
PGP: 0x614CA05D