# Agora
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[Getting Started and Overview](/en/home/0_Einstieg-und-Überblick) › [Glossary for the Networking Language](/en/home/0_Einstieg-und-Überblick/Glossar) · 4 min read
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The Agora is the whole: the shared space that coordinates the Europe-regional food system. It can also be used for products that are not grown in Europe, such as coffee and cocoa.
It brings together knowledge, technical foundations, coordination, standards, transparency, training, a point of contact, governance, and community-driven development.
It creates the conditions for national and regional structures, projects, supply landscapes, farms, pickup locations, and communities to operate independently while remaining part of a shared structure.
## In brief
- The Agora is the whole.
- It contains all modules to represent all system participants in the supply network.
- Technically, the Agora is an app on the framework [Andromeda](/en/home/0_Einstieg-und-Überblick/Glossar/Andromeda). Additional apps can emerge there for other areas, such as energy or housing.
- The [Agora Marketplace](https://wiki.teikei.us/de/home/0_Einstieg-und-%C3%9Cberblick/Glossar/Agora-Marktplatz) is its interface for ordering, payment, information, and status.
- The economic processing is handled by the respective national or regional structure.
- The Agora provides transparency, orientation, and shared tools.
- It supports communities, regions, and projects in building sustainable supply structures.
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" viewBox="0 0 800 420" width="100%" role="img" aria-label="Diagram: The Agora as layers. Top: the Agora Marketplace as the interface for ordering, payment, login, and status; middle: the Agora as the whole with knowledge, coordination, standards, and governance; bottom: the Andromeda framework, on which additional apps can be developed.">...</svg>
*Top: the interface, middle: the whole, bottom: the framework. Clicking on Agora Marketplace or Andromeda opens the glossary entry.*
## Historical inspiration
The term Agora is inspired by the Greek Agora.
In the classical polis of Athens, the Agora was the center of public life. It was more than a marketplace. It was an open space where politics, trade, law, social interaction, learning, culture, and everyday life were interconnected.
There, people did not just buy and sell.
They talked, negotiated, debated, decided, learned, and collectively made visible what concerns a community.
The historical Agora was thus a social space.
It connected:
- public interaction
- political negotiation
- economic exchange
- social relationships
- law and responsibility
- knowledge and dialogue
- cultural life
For TEIKEI, this reference is important.
The Agora should not just enable transactions. It should make visible how supply is created, who is involved, what responsibilities are borne, and how communities can shape their own food systems.
## What belongs to the Agora
The Agora includes, in particular:
- the Agora Marketplace as the interface
- technical infrastructure
- transparent coordination
- shared data and process standards
- knowledge documentation
- training and consulting
- support for building communities
- support for building independent supply landscapes
- governance and responsibility structures
- interfaces between farms, projects, regions, and marketplaces
- further development of shared tools
The Agora thus takes on tasks that in conventional trade are often financed through margins in product prices.
In the TEIKEI context, however, these tasks should not disappear invisibly into the price of goods.
They are made visible as communal infrastructure so that more value can reach producers and basic foodstuffs remain more accessible for members.
## What the Agora enables
It organizes the conditions for supply to become sustainably communal.
This includes:
- visibility of origin, quantities, needs, and value flows
- coordination between farms, communities, and regional structures
- documentation of knowledge, processes, and experience
- sustainably communal organizational forms
- clear responsibility and governance structures
- open infrastructure that serves the common good in the long term
The Agora thus does not strengthen trade as an end in itself.
It strengthens the ability of farms, communities, and regions to organize supply together.
## Who handles the economic processing
The Agora itself is not the economic operator.
Purchasing, sales, warehousing, goods flow, and payments are managed by the respective national or regional structures, projects, or other economically responsible actors.
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" viewBox="0 0 800 380" width="100%" role="img" aria-label="Diagram: National structure, regional structure, project, farm, and community stand as houses on a shared foundation, the Agora. Purchasing, sales, warehousing, goods flow, and payments are handled by national and regional structures and projects, not by the Agora.">...</svg>
*The Agora is the shared foundation. Economic processing is handled by national and regional structures and projects. Clicking on a house opens the corresponding page: [National Level](/en/home/1_TEIKEI_Agora/Architektur-der-Agora/Marktplatz/ebenen/national), [Regional Bundling Level](/en/home/1_TEIKEI_Agora/Architektur-der-Agora/Marktplatz/ebenen/buendelung), [Projects](/en/home/8_TEIKEI_Netzwerk/Projekte), [Farm Level](/en/home/1_TEIKEI_Agora/Architektur-der-Agora/Marktplatz/ebenen/hof), and [Community Level](/en/home/1_TEIKEI_Agora/Architektur-der-Agora/Marktplatz/ebenen/gemeinschaft).*
## The Agora Marketplace
The Agora Marketplace is the interface of the Agora.
Communities, commercial buyers, and wholesalers can there:
- order products and harvest shares
- make payments
- log in
- view their information and status
## Significance for TEIKEI
The Agora is a central building block for communally supported supply.
It enables different countries, regions, projects, and communities to work with shared foundations without losing their independence.
It thus combines shared infrastructure with decentralized responsibility.
It supports the development of supply landscapes, makes supply more traceable, and helps distinguish between goods flow, money flow, information flow, and responsibility more clearly.
The Agora is therefore not an additional administrative space.
It is the shared foundation on which national and regional structures, projects, farms, and communities can collaborate more sustainably.
## Related terms
- [Supply Landscape](https://wiki.teikei.us/de/home/0_Einstieg-und-Überblick/Glossar/Ernährungsregionen)
- [Marketplace](https://wiki.teikei.us/de/home/0_Einstieg-und-Überblick/Glossar/Marktplatz)
- [Governance](https://wiki.teikei.us/de/home/0_Einstieg-und-Überblick/Glossar/Governance)
- [Agora Marketplace](https://wiki.teikei.us/de/home/0_Einstieg-und-%C3%9Cberblick/Glossar/Agora-Marktplatz)
- [Infrastructure](https://wiki.teikei.us/de/home/0_Einstieg-und-Überblick/Glossar/Infrastruktur)
- [Regional Bundling](https://wiki.teikei.us/de/home/0_Einstieg-und-Überblick/Glossar/regionale-buendelung)
- [API](https://wiki.teikei.us/de/home/0_Einstieg-und-Überblick/Glossar/API)
- [Coordination](https://wiki.teikei.us/de/home/0_Einstieg-und-Überblick/Glossar/Koordination)
## Further information & understanding contexts
- [Process Diagram Agora Marketplace](https://wiki.teikei.us/de/home/1_TEIKEI_Agora/Architektur-der-Agora/Marktplatz)
- [Agora (Project Page)](https://wiki.teikei.us/de/home/8_TEIKEI_Netzwerk/Projekte/TEIKEI-Agora)
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← [Letter A](/en/home/0_Einstieg-und-Überblick/Glossar/buchstaben/a) · [All Terms A–Z](/en/home/0_Einstieg-und-Überblick/Glossar)
By the TEIKEI editorial team, with support from AI (ChatGPT)
Created on May 15, 2026 · Last updated on October 15, 2026
Questions or feedback? [support@teikei.us](mailto:support@teikei.us)
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