The Other Market

The Other Market is a platform, materialized in a meshwork of pushcarts and stalls, to trade products and services without money, using dialogue as a currency.

https://theothermarket.wordpress.com

The sociologist Manuel Castells, in the documentary from VPRo Time For Change, states how people accept capitalism, not because they agree with it, but because it is the only system they know. A market, one of the most inclusive spaces, seems like a perfect context to hint people with different alternatives, evident in the market itself, the products and services, and the way these are traded.

These interventions stage up events that unveil the true aim of the project: foster public dialogue about relevant issues. The objects, the cart, the actions, serve as an excuse, a platform, to engage ordinary people in public dialogues and amplify their voices through different media. The interventions also play with the ambiguity of the law and informality, for they imply trading things on the street (illegal), yet with no money involved (legal).

This project is a long term experiment around value, and finding ways of building new type of value that does not rely on traditional economics nor a monetary system. It does not attempt to fix the system, nor build a new one, but expose the flaws of the existing one, as well as hinting alternatives. In words of Tony Fry, we envision the formation of a critical mass of sufficient agency to make a major difference.

Discussion The Other Market

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.