Lecture 8 - Theorising the Commodity Flashcards
What is a commodity associated with
Income and revenue, beholding advantages or benefits derived from the possession or use of (landed) property
Oxford English Dictionary definition of a commodity
A ‘commodity’ is [essentially] defined as a material thing, that is produced for the market for sale, in which its consumption (i.e. having proprietorial claims to it) bring with it use.
What do black market commodities show us
How the state intervenes to define what is allowed, and what is illicit. In doing so, it defines what ‘needs’ should not be met; and creates with it underground markets. (eg. Drug, animal poaching, fraud legislation etc.) (see Hastings (2014) for example).
What an we argue the market is a product of
Value judgement
What do commodities reflect
The needs and wants of society
Different societies have …
Different economies
What is capitalism
Private ownership + drive for profit
What is socialism
Government owned
What is ‘economy’ defined as
A relationship between production and consumption
Capitalist economies
Even different capitalist nations organize their economies differently, which can be explored through the ‘varieties of capitalism’ literature (see Hall and Soskice, 2001).
What does a subsistence economy suggest
Production is for use as opposed to exchange
What does a subsistence economy avoid
Avoids commodification, because of the direct consumption that bypasses the market
What happens in a barter economy
The market is cashless. Instead, swapping is used, bartering for the exchange.
What does a barter economy question
Value and availability
Instead of bartering, in a market economy how are out needs met
Through the marketplace
What is a market economy a model of
Capital facilitated ‘social inter-dependence’ (Watts, 2009, p.101)
What is the basic economical cell of capitalism
Commodities are the building blocks (Karl Marx)
What are the 2 values of commodities
- Use value
- Exchange value
What is the use value of a commodity
The uses we have for a particular thing (qualitative)
What is the exchange value of a commodity
The market price (quantitative)
What happens if a commodity is useless (has no use value)
The labour contained within it/used to make it does not create a value that can be exchanged, because no one wants it. – the value cannot be materialised within the marketplace. Simply put, you have to be able to sell it.
Example of use values
E.g. t-shirt - keeps you warm, looks good
What is included in exchange value
Labour and time
How do consumers view commodity value
Don’t view it to be as complex as it is - we realise some relationships between labour and time are exploitative but not exactly
What is it called when consumers value products without knowing it all
‘Phantom objectivity’ (Watts, 2009)
What did Marx come up with the idea of
‘Commodity fetishism’
Who came up with the idea of ‘commodity fetishism’
Marx
What is ‘commodity fetishism’
The idea that the labour behind a product is obscured by a ‘veil of production’
Water Benjamin quote
‘The meaning of the commodity is indeed; Price; as a commodity it has no other.’
Who quotes: ‘The meaning of the commodity is indeed; Price; as a commodity it has no other.’
Benjamin (1991)
What do companies do if they want to realise the most exchange value
They need to operate and realise the commodities most ‘competitive’ assemblage of social relations.
How have technological advances helped
-Greater international connectivity
-Eased ability of capital to flow from one jurisdiction to another
-Eased and improved international
transport links
What has technology made easier
International trade
How does technology help find better environments for companies
Companies are now better able to search for more ideal environments that provide better ‘opportunity costs’
What do companies need to exploit to become more profitable
Time and labour
Features of labour to make it more profitable
Minimum wages
Cheaper governance compliances (ie. lower regulations)
Lower tax regimes
No/Low trade union representation
What is the ‘commodity chain’ a description of
Attempts to explain the interlinkage between products and production and consumption
What are the 3 commodity chains
- Global Commodity Chains
- Commodity Circuits
- Commodity Networks
What idea is commodity chains based on
‘Fillere’ (Monfort and Dutality, 1983)
What does the global commodity chains (GCC) aim to capture
A relationality between ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ – ideas that had critical agency when it emerged.
What is the core of the GCC
The core is considered the ‘old’ sites of production (MEDC’s) and the ‘new’ sites of production are in the periphery. Under this GCC model, the core largely consumes, and the periphery largely produces (Leslie and Reimer, 1999).
What is often transferred to the periphery in a GCC
The downward pressures of price, labour and time
What happens within a ‘buyer-driven’ supply chain
In this, the buyer (i.e. the business from the ‘core’) sets specifications of product. The competitive tender process then gets
manufacturers to ‘bid’ prices. They will then
make and ship the commodities to their ‘buyer’, who will then brand, retail and market their product as profit. (Gereffi, 1994)
Does everyone agree with the GCC approach
No
Why can the GCC approach be criticised
- Reductional
- Outdated (core + periphery)
- Focusses too much on the adverse affects
- Focuses on production and not consumption
Alternative to GCC
Value chain analysis (VCA)
What is VCA focussed on
The production of ‘value’ or specifically surplus value (approx. the value of exchange value minus production costs)
What does the VCA promise justification for
‘Upgrading’ production
What are commodity circuits similar to
Commodity Chains, in that they seek to represent this ‘value in motion’ - the commodity’s movement
Where do commodity circuits (CC) come from
The ‘commodity cultures’ literatures
How is a commodity circuit different to a commodity chain
The representation is non-linear (ie. there is no start point, or end point), and focus is afforded to the cultural relationships that intertwine themselves with the commodity.
Are commodity circuits limiting
No, there is not ONE reality of production, consumption, distribution etc. There are many lived experiences of it.
What do commodity circuits reveal
There are many multi-layered meanings and explanations that underpin commodity production.
Foundational aspects of CC’s (Adapted from Watts, 2009)
-Different actors are linked together in complex ways, often through social and cultural relations
-Commodities are differentiated
in many different ways
-We can understand that different phrases of Commodity Circuit may have different values that drive and define the commodity- for example, freshness in food production.
Alternative to commodity circles
Commodity networks (CN)
How are commodity networks different to GCC, VCA and CC approaches
It does not agree with the primacy of the relationship between production and consumption
What does ANT stand for
Actor Network Theory
What is ANT
Broadly used within the social sciences as a method of flattening assumed hierarchical and causal relationships. (See Bruno Latour). - you cant separate any of the methods
Politically why are CN interesting
- Includes non-human and human actors and things
- CN’s depict the commodity as very delicate
- Multiple flows of interest, which are constantly in flux and unstable.
