Commodification
Commodification is the process of commercialization or the " Zur- goods -Werdens " (from the English commodity , goods). Commodification can be the privatization of resources previously shared or in the family fideic commiss. Commodification is also used in relation to the marketing of human labor .
Commodification is seen as problematic by critics of neoliberal concepts , including a. because a "spreading market logic " leads to an " economization of the social".
Disciplinary differences in the content of the term
The concept of commodification is used in different academic disciplines - as well as in “critical” political discourse - with different accents in terms of content.
marketing
In marketing, commodification describes a process that some products go through. After numerous similar products have come onto the market, they have changed from outstanding products with a clear unique selling point to everyday items . Since it is difficult to differentiate between one another, there is a price undercutting battle.
Information science
In information science , commodification means the consideration of information objects as goods from which information products can be manufactured, fees are charged for their use and which can be traded on information markets; Here, commodification is largely used synonymously with the term Venterization coined by Rainer Kuhlen and then criticizes the “perfected process of controlled, private acquisition of knowledge” (Kuhlen 2002).
Social science
In the social sciences , the term commodification goes back to the economic historian Karl Polanyi . The central concern in his published in 1944 investigating the "Great Transformation" ( large transformation ) in England, so the change of the embedded into society to a market entbetteten market society , the negative effects of commodification were. With the subordination of all production factors such as land, labor and money to the “pure market regime” - the so-called commodification - there is a social disintegration and the replacement of human values by a materialistic individualism ( consumer society ). This necessarily leads to political counter-movements.
Urban research
In geographic urban research, the process of (increasing) privatization of previously public spaces is called commodification . In so-called gated communities , the usually public infrastructure facilities (roads, water pipes, electricity network, etc.) are privately owned. Access to these residential areas is controlled and can be denied. Instead of a public urban space, there is a private space, the infrastructural use of which ultimately depends on the purchase of a right to use the gated community (i.e. the actual goods).
Also, shopping centers , shopping malls , etc. are often owned by private investors . Their common areas are also regularly commodified rooms, although the access restrictions are less obvious than in gated communities.
See also
literature
- Rainer Kuhlen : Information market. Opportunities and Risks of Commercializing Knowledge. Writings on Information Science Vol. 15. University Press Konstanz (UVK), Konstanz 1995. ISBN 3-87940-528-X
- Rainer Kuhlen: Napsterization and Venterization. Building blocks for a political economy of knowledge. In: Prokla No. 126, 2002. ( pdf , 111 kB)
- Karl Polanyi : The Great Transformation. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1978. ISBN 3-518-27860-6
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürg Helbling: Commodification . In: Fernand Kreff, Eva-Maria Knoll, Andre Gingric (Hrsg.): Lexicon of Globalization . transcript, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-8376-1822-8 , pp. 186 .