Commodification is the process of transforming inalienable, free, or gifted things (objects, services, ideas, nature, personal information, people or animals) into commodities, or objects for sale.
[For animals]
"United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database"
UN ComTrade; Josephine Donovan, "Aestheticizing Animal Cruelty," ''College Literature'', 38(4), Fall 2011 (pp. 202–217), p. 203. For slaves as commodities, Appadurai 1986, pp. 84–85; David Hawkes, ''Shakespeare and Economic Theory'', Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, p. 130.For body commodification, Lesley A. Sharp, "The Commodification of the Body and Its Parts," ''Annual Review of Anthropology'', 29, 2000 (pp. 287–328) p. 295ff. It has a connotation of losing an inherent quality or social relationship when something is integrated by a capitalist marketplace.
Concepts that have been argued as being commodified include broad items such as the body, intimacy, public goods,
animals
and holidays.
History
Terminology
The earliest use of the word "commodification" dates from 1975.
[commodification, n. Second edition, 1989; online version November 2010. ; accessed 6 January 2011.] Use of the concept of commodification became common with the rise of critical discourse analysis in
semiotics
Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter.
Semiosis is a ...
. The terms commodification and
commoditization are sometimes used synonymously, to describe the process of making
commodities
In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them.
Th ...
out of goods, services, and ideas.
However, other authors distinguish them, with commodification used in social contexts to mean that a non-commercial good has become commercial, typically with connotations of "corrupted by commerce", while commoditization is used in business contexts to mean when the market for an existing product has become a commodity market, where products are interchangeable and there is heavy price competition. In a quip: "Microprocessors are commoditized. Love is commodified."
In Marxist theory

The
Marxist understanding of ''commodity'' is distinct from its meaning in business. Commodity played a key role throughout
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
's work; he considered it a cell-form of
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
and a key starting point for an analysis of this politico-economic system. Marx extensively criticized the social impact of commodification under the name
commodity fetishism
In Marxist philosophy, commodity fetishism is the perception of the economic relationships of production and exchange as relationships among things (money and merchandise) rather than among people. As a form of Reification (Marxism), reificati ...
and
alienation.
Prior to being turned into a commodity, an object has a "specific individual use value".
[Hearn, A. (2017). Commodification. In L. Ouellette, & J. Gray (Eds.), ''Keywords for media studies''. New York University Press. Credo Reference: https://uri.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/nyupresskms/commodification/0?institutionId=4949] After becoming a commodity, that same object has a different value: the amount for which it can be exchanged for another commodity.
According to Marx, this new value of the commodity is derived from the time taken to produce the good, and other considerations are obsolete, including morality, environmental impact, and aesthetic appeal.
Marx claimed that everything would eventually be commodified: "the things which until then had been communicated, but never exchanged, given, but never sold, acquired, but never bought – virtue, love, conscience – all at last enter into commerce."
Mass communication studies
Media, as a culture
industry, is apparent from the rise of mass communications to monetize a populace for profit. Research in critical cultural studies of media effects identify commodification of culture as a recent large contributing force for the disruption of a society by mass media. An example is the display of American culture to the population within its borders and abroad. The commodity being sold is the United States, but mediated to show only the most exciting, dramatic, attention-getting, emotion-rousing aspects. Media corporations are expert at analyzing and selecting appealing elements of the culture, then repackaging and enhancing those elements for a wide audience. The quest for large viewership creates an image that does not show boring, unpleasant, or minority aspects of the United States. The distribution of the alternate form of the culture, for profit, causes misconceptions and stereotyping along with disruption of the original folk culture. Within the United States, the commodification of culture is the mediated view of American society accepted as the culture and even advanced by the culture depicted; the example given is hip-hop and rap music artists stars "selling out". The United States, with media corporations less prone to governmental interference, is successful at spreading American culture worldwide.
Critical cultural research reveal consequences for the lifting of bits of culture, remolding for a mass audience, then selling the alternate view. A few of repercussions of commodification of culture: Only selected, majority cultural practices are shown leaving out other important minority cultures which are overlooked and/or ignored. As in Hollywood movies, only the most exciting, dramatic, emotional aspects are presented while removing unpleasant, controversial or uninteresting aspects. The success of marketing a culture entails distributing as much content as possible to the largest audience, causing disruption of everyday life. Elite media industries are ignorant or deny effects of mass marketing, by avoidance or by explaining that the media has limited effects. There are many types of disruptions, some subtle, many obvious, including propagation of misconceptions, loss of sense of place, a major focus on entertainment, loss of childhood, cultivation, and a disruption of social conventions.
Commodification of life
Animal commodification
The commodification of animals is one of the earliest forms of commodification, which can be traced back to the time when
domestication
Domestication is a multi-generational Mutualism (biology), mutualistic relationship in which an animal species, such as humans or leafcutter ants, takes over control and care of another species, such as sheep or fungi, to obtain from them a st ...
of animals began.
It includes
the use of animals in all forms,
including use of animals for
food
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...
,
medicine
Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
,
fashion and cosmetics,
medical research
Medical research (or biomedical research), also known as health research, refers to the process of using scientific methods with the aim to produce knowledge about human diseases, the prevention and treatment of illness, and the promotion of ...
,
labor and transport,
entertainment
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...
,
wildlife trade
Wildlife trade refers to the exchange of products derived from non-domesticated animals or plants usually extracted from their natural environment or raised under controlled conditions. It can involve the trade of living or dead individuals, tis ...
,
companionship
In social psychology, an interpersonal relation (or interpersonal relationship) describes a social association, connection, or affiliation between two or more people. It overlaps significantly with the concept of social relations, which are ...
, and so forth.
Scholars say that the commodification of nonhuman animals in food systems is directly linked to capitalist systems that prioritize "monopolistically inclined financial interests" over the well-being of humans, nonhumans, and the environment.
Over 200 billion land and aquatic animals are killed every year to provide humans with animal products for consumption, which many scholars and activists have described as an "
animal holocaust".
The extensive use of land and other resources for the production of meat instead of grain for human consumption is a leading cause of malnutrition, hunger, and famine around the world.
Human commodification

Commodification of humans have been discussed in various context, from
slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
to
surrogacy
Surrogacy is an arrangement whereby a woman gets pregnant and gives birth on behalf of another person or couple who will become the child's legal parents after birth. People pursue surrogacy for a variety of reasons such as infertility, danger ...
. Auctions of cricket players by
Indian Premier League
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Founded in 2007, it features ten city-based Professional sports league organization, fr ...
,
Big Bash League and others is also discussed to be a case of human commodification.
Virginity auctions are a further example of self-commodification. ''Human commodity'' is a term used in case of human
organ trade
Organ trade (also known as the blood market or the red market) is the trading of human organs, tissues, or other body products, usually for transplantation.(Carney, Scott. 2011. "The Red Market." Wired 19, no. 2: 112–1. Internet and Personal C ...
, paid surrogacy (also known as commodification of the womb), and
human trafficking
Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving individuals through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation may include forced labor, sexual slavery, or oth ...
.
According to
Gøsta Esping-Andersen, people are commodified or 'turned into objects' when selling their labour on the market to an employer.
Self-commodification
Personal information through
social networking services
A social networking service (SNS), or social networking site, is a type of online social media platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests ...
, such as music purchases, how people identify, and user profiles are aggregated and sold to corporations and businesses for
microtargeting, advertising and marketing.
Social media influencers are also a recent examples of self-commodification. A travel blogger is an instance of a mediated micro-celebrity, the social-media influencer, targeting a niche audience interested in visiting exotic locales. Social media networks expand the reach of this focused audience to make influencing a profitable profession. They commodify themselves by offering online journals, advice, thoughts, experiences along with photographs and videos, then make money by selling books, self-branding, blog subscriptions, and
advertorial
An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of editorial content. The term "advertorial" is a blend word, blend (see portmanteau) of the words "advertisement" and "editorial". Merriam-Webster dates the origin of the word to 1946.
In printed pub ...
s. Trust and an increased audience are built by expressing a conversational style, a seemingly real experience by a real person, allowing users connect to the blogger as a friendly voice offering advice on travel choices.
Commodification of culture
Commodification of culture refers to the process by which market forces change the very fabric of cultures. Through consumer capitalism, companies are able to influence things such as style, love and language. Critics argue this creates societal friction and leads to people growing disillusioned with reality. Companies often have opposing interests to the general population and yet still hold so much sway.
Commodification of holidays
Many holidays such as
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
,
Halloween
Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
or
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...
have been argued as having become commodified. The commodification of a holiday refers to making celebrations necessarily commercial and based on material goods, like gift giving, elaborate decorations, trick or treating, and card giving. Modern celebrations of many holidays are now more related to the commercial practices and profitable tactics than they are to the holidays' origins.
For some holidays, like Halloween, there are arguments that the commodification of the original holiday turned it into the celebrations that people now love.
The commodification of other holidays, like Christmas, sparks arguments about undoing the commercialization and getting back to the intended spirit of the holiday.''
''
File:Macy's_at_Christmas_-_Ridgedale_Mall_(40117698064).jpg, alt=Christmas at Macy's, Christmas
File:Bombones_-_San_Valentín.jpg, Valentine's Day
File:Halloween_at_Tesco_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2661272.jpg, Halloween
File:St._Patrick's_Day_Parade_(4430713858).jpg, St. Patrick's day
File:Easter_chocolate_in_suburban_food_store_in_Brisbane,_Australia_in_2018.jpg, alt=Commodification of Easter, Easter
File:1a1-sydney_new_years_eve_2008.JPG, alt=Commodification of NYE, New Year's Eve
Commodification of indigenous cultures
American author and feminist
bell hooks
Gloria Jean Watkins (September 25, 1952 – December 15, 2021), better known by her pen name bell hooks (stylized in lowercase), was an American author, theorist, educator, and social critic who was a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Be ...
described the cultural commodification of race and difference as the dominant culture "eating the other". To hooks, cultural expressions of
Otherness, even revolutionary ones, are sold to the dominant culture for their enjoyment, with any messages of social change being marketed not for their messages but used as a mechanism for the dominant ones to acquire a piece of the "primitive". Any interests in past historical culture almost always have a modern twist. According to Mariana Torgovnick:
What is clear now is that the West's fascination with the primitive has to do with its own crises in identity, with its own need to clearly demarcate subject and object even while flirting with other ways of experiencing the universe.
hooks states that
marginalized groups are seduced by this concept because of "the promise of recognition and reconciliation".
When the dominant culture demands that the Other be offered as sign that progressive political change is taking place, that the American Dream can indeed be inclusive of difference, it invites a resurgence of essentialist cultural nationalism.
Commodification of indigenous cultures refers to "areas in the life of a community which prior to its penetration by tourism have not been within the domain of economic relations regulated by criteria of market exchange" (Cohen 1988, 372). An example of this type of cultural commodification can be described through viewing the perspective of Hawaiian cultural change since the 1950s. The Hawaiian
lūʻau was once a traditional party reserved for community members and local people, but through the rise of tourism, this tradition has lost part of its cultural meaning and is now mostly a "for profit" performance.
Commodification of love
Examples of profiting from love are the myriad ''
The Bachelor'' television shows, and the increase in luxury hotels catering to singles during Valentine's Day weekends''.''
Commodification of media, Internet and online communities
Digital commodification occurs when, a business or corporation uses information from an online community without their knowledge, for profit. The commodification of information allows a higher authority to make money rather than a collaborative system of free thoughts. Corporations such as
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
,
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
,
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
,
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
, and
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
accelerate and concentrate the commodification of online communities.
Digital tracking, like
cookies
A cookie is a sweet biscuit with high sugar and fat content. Cookie dough is softer than that used for other types of biscuit, and they are cooked longer at lower temperatures. The dough typically contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of ...
, have further commodified the use of the internet, giving each click, view, or stream monetary value, even if it is an interaction with free content.
Commodification of public goods
Public goods
In economics, a public good (also referred to as a social good or collective good)Oakland, W. H. (1987). Theory of public goods. In Handbook of public economics (Vol. 2, pp. 485–535). Elsevier. is a goods, commodity, product or service that ...
are goods for which users cannot be barred from accessing or using them for failing to pay for them. However, such goods can also be commodified by value addition in the form of products or services or both.
Public goods like air and water can be subjected to commodification.
Commodification of subcultures
Various subcultures have been argued to as having become commodified, for example the
goth subculture, the biker subculture, the tattoo subculture, the
witchcraft
Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...
subculture, and others.
Commodification of tourism
Tourism has been analyzed in the context of commodification as a process of transforming local cultures and heritage into marketable goods.
The commodification of tourism removes local culture from the foreground, replacing it with profitability from non-residents. This may be in the form of entertainment, souvenirs, food markets, or others. Tourism leads, in part, to the commodification of indigenous cultures as people return from visits with partial ideas and representations of the culture.
See also
*
Big data
Big data primarily refers to data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data processing, data-processing application software, software. Data with many entries (rows) offer greater statistical power, while data with ...
*
Commercialization
Commercialisation or commercialization is the process of introducing a new product or production method into commerce—making it available on the market. The term often connotes especially entry into the mass market (as opposed to entry into e ...
*
Commercialization of love
*
Commodification of animals
*
Commodification of nature
*
Decommodification
*
Deregulation
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
*
Exchange value
In political economy and especially Marxian economics, exchange value () refers to one of the four major attributes of a commodity, i.e., an item or service produced for, and sold on the market, the other three attributes being use value, econo ...
*
Human commodity auctions
*
Privatization
Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...
*
Value-form
The value-form or form of value (''"Wertform"'' in German) is an important concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy, discussed in the first chapter of ''Capital, Volume 1''. It refers to the ''social form'' of tradeable things as un ...
*
Globalization
Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...
References
Bibliography
* Farah, Paolo Davide, Tremolada Riccardo, Desirability of Commodification of Intangible Cultural Heritage: The Unsatisfying Role of IPRs, in TRANSNATIONAL DISPUTE MANAGEMENT, Special Issues "The New Frontiers of Cultural Law: Intangible Heritage Disputes", Volume 11, Issue 2, March 2014, Available a
SSRN.com* Farah, Paolo Davide, Tremolada Riccardo, Intellectual Property Rights, Human Rights and Intangible Cultural Heritage, Journal of Intellectual Property Law, Issue 2, Part I, June 2014, , Giuffre, pp. 21–47. Available a
SSRN.com* Schimank, Uwe and Volkmann, Ute (ed.)
''The Marketization of Society: Economizing the Non-Economic'' Bremen: Research Cluster "Welfare Societies", 2012.
Further reading
Polanyi, Karl. "The Self-Regulating Market," ''Economics as a Social Science'', 2nd edn, 2004.
{{Marxist & Communist phraseology
Marxist terminology
Trade
*