Commodification and Its Discontents

Reviews / Votes

"As ever-wider domains of social life are relentlessly subject to the brutality of the price mechanism, increasing numbers of us aspire to a new moral economy. In this deeply researched historical sociology, Nicholas Abercrombie identifies the actual mechanisms, practices, and contingent conditions that make it possible to successfully defy commodification. Most revelatory is that the most effective strategies of resistance depend on complex 'regimes of value' that combine both markets and a morality of decommodification. With this volume Abercrombie contributes mightily to the fiercely urgent task of reclaiming a regime of social justice."

Margaret Somers, University of Michigan


"This book shows that contrary to many theoretical accounts of modern economies 'commodification' need not be an all-or-nothing affair. Through illuminating analyses of concrete examples, Nick Abercrombie shows how in practice there are often degrees of commodification and moral regulation and explains how the relations between them have been constructed."

Andrew Sayer, Lancaster University