
Commodification and Its Discontents
Nicholas Abercrombie(Author)
Polity Press
1st Edition
Published on 17. September 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-1-5095-2982-7 (ISBN)
Description
Should human organs be bought and sold? Is it right that richer people should be able to pay poorer people to wait in a queue for them? Should objects in museums ever be sold? The assumption underlying such questions is that there are things that should not be bought and sold because it would give them a financial value that would replace some other, and dearly held, human value. Those who ask questions of this kind often fear that the replacement of human by money values - a process of commodification - is sweeping all before it.
However, as Nicholas Abercrombie argues, commodification can be, and has been, resisted by the development of a moral climate that defines certain things as outside a market. That resistance, however, is never complete because the two regimes of value - human and money - are both necessary for the sustainability of society. His analysis of these processes offers a thought-provoking read that will appeal to students and scholars interested in market capitalism and culture.
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
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
327 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5095-2982-7 (9781509529827)
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Nicholas Abercrombie
Commodification and Its Discontents
E-Book
10/2020
1st Edition
Wiley
€18.99
Available for download

Nicholas Abercrombie
Commodification and Its Discontents
E-Book
10/2020
1st Edition
Wiley
€18.99
Available for download

Nicholas Abercrombie
Commodification and Its Discontents
Book
09/2020
1st Edition
Polity Press
€65.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Nick Abercrombie is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University.
Content
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. Money Talk
2. Value and Markets
3. The Moral Preconditions of Markets
4. Moral Regulation
5. Ideology and Moral Entrepreneurs
6. Transaction Orders References