Preliminary results of study

As part of the project called "The need to define commodification", an analysis of 100 articles about commodification is taking place.

Some preliminary results are displayed HERE.

These results support the assertions made about the three schools of thought: sociologists (and closely related fields) largely favor the commodity culture, object vs. subject and object in capitalist system definitions. (For a summary of definitions, click HERE). In the business disciplines, the market exchange definition is almost universally employed. Anthropologists use a mix of definitions that includes Marxist and business related definitions. Finally, there are other disciplines that appear to be carving out a "hybrid space" (similar to what is done in anthropology). For example, in tourism and geography, a mixture of Marxist and business definitions are employed including commodity culture, object vs. subject and market exchange.

As discussed elsewhere in this blog, this may be a reflection of the desire to use commodification in a way that is not restricted only to business definitions or only to Marxist definitions. It may be that they are using the "anthropological" approach to commodification (as some call it). Or, it may be that they are carving out a new space, uninformed by the approach taken in anthropology.

Either way, it reflects to the need to re-conceptualize the term commodification to meet this demand for a definition that is accurate, but broadly applicable and not limited just to Marxist or just to business ideas about the term.