The Social Economy Markets are located in the urban area of Córdoba, Argentina, with 63 markets operating by 2023. These markets provide self-managed employment opportunities and vendor training, focusing on areas that enhance their initiatives, such as circular economy practices, finance, and digital marketing. Beyond their economic role, these spaces also serve as public platforms for social exchange and as reflections of neighborhood cultural identities.
Based on desk and field research, Feriante supports service development while maintaining the organic nature of market political processes through a decentralized organizational structure.
The system’s onboarding touchpoint is a mobile app that provides visitors and potential vendors with key information, also integrating three primary service processes: registering for the service, reserving market stalls, and participating in markets—either independently or with assistance from organizers.
Market organizers can use the app to assist stallholders with periodic administrative and operational tasks, providing more personalized support and enhancing oversight. Real-time data on vendor flow and characteristics also fosters greater dynamism in the evaluation and adaptation of market policies.
Each market stall is uniquely numbered and includes an access-exit QR code positioned on its table. Integrated into the stall's structure, the tables and supports are designed for both displaying and storing merchandise, with optimized weight distribution to ensure stability in windy conditions. CNC manufacturing allows for scalability, while the design ensures easy assembly and straightforward component replacement.
The fieldwork carried out within the Social Economy Markets involved observations and 40 surveys conducted with stallholders across four of these markets, together with two interviews with an organizer and municipal staff.
Diversity was measured using the Shannon Index, which considers both the variety of product categories (richness) and the balance of their distribution (evenness). In contrast, market saturation emerged as a key indicator and significant barrier to incorporating new stallholders. While governing bodies of each market address saturation in different ways, accurately tracking it is critical for thorough market analysis.
Market saturation occurs when the demand for a good or service becomes so diluted that not all stallholders offering it can generate enough sales. This can lead to more competitive and even conflictive relationships between stallholders. In the Social Economy Markets, this is exemplified by clothing vendors, who accounted for 35% of the total in the sample.
For 20% of the stallholders in the sample, expanding to other markets serves as an adaptive strategy to meet shifting demand or to expand their business reach. Conversely, from the 80% of stallholders who do not participate in other markets, 25% cite administrative difficulties, while 15% point to a lack of information as reasons for not expanding to other markets.
From the previous blueprint, we highlight that organizers receive and process stallholders' entry requests via WhatsApp or Instagram. Additionally, each week they must confirm stallholders' participation and later track their attendance on market days. The interviewed organizer mentioned that she finds these tasks particularly tedious and time-consuming, noting other responsibilities like overseeing the market’s logistics and assisting stallholders with showcasing their products.
The following personas represent extreme cases of stallholders, based on age, product offerings, and how these factors might fundamentally affect their ability to expand participation. Both personas are women, as fieldwork confirmed that they constitute the majority of stallholders.
