About

The 25^th Exchange Market for Children and Youngsters is A Casa da Esquina project with the support of the Economic Solidarity Studies Group of CES (ECOSOL/CES) and researchers of the Centre for Social Studies.

This experience seeks to encourage children and youth’s detachment from various toys and goods consumed (clothing, accessories, technological devices etc.), restraining the sense of fun from accumulating ever new objects.

The exchange market also develops the solidarity sense of sharing, questioning the accumulation and concentration of assets, beheld in an alarming rate in children's and youth consumption habits. Thus, the exchange market for Children and Youth rebate the dominant idea that only new things have value and serve to fun, and stimulated a broader life cycle for toys, games, books and other goods, into circulation by children and young people participating in the initiative.

The exchanges market uses a social currency, called garden (just because it happened for the first time in the Botanical Garden). The social currency is not anchored in the euro and reinforces the playful and supportive nature of the experience: it not only extends the trading conditions between participants with very different products but also reconstructs the value of things in a sense particularly attributed by children and young people, contrary to the exchange value determined by the market.

The market continues to promote new forms of economy that contribute to good practices in the field of ecology, solidarity and citizen participation.

After 25 editions we continue to ask: why exchange? Why not simply give what we no longer want?

As with giving, exchange allows one to be happy with what we no longer want but also allows us to be happy with what no longer serves the other person. In reality, we are not only working on the value of solidarity but also on rethinking consumption, because we do not need to be constantly feeding the consumer machine, since what already exists can change hands and prolong their existence by saving money, resources and protecting the environment. The value is in the needs that each one has and how to satisfy them without buying new things daily. At the same time, we work on the ability of children to choose their garden during the market and determine the toys they want to buy from an equitable perspective since in the Exchange Market all children receive the same amount of money and have the same chances exchange.

To participate, as usual, just bring from home toys, educational games, computer, books, school supplies, and a small blanket to display them. Participation is limited to children and youngsters and admission is free.