COHEN'S CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMODIFICATION

WHAT COUNTS AS A COMMODITY? 

IS FOOD A COMMODITY? 

WHAT IF FOOD IS GIVEN AS A GIFT? 

ARE GIFTS COMMODITIES?

COHEN POINTS OUT A FEW THINGS THAT MAKE A COMMODITY, A COMMODITY:

:) "Even-steven" symmetry with no value remainder (the exchange is balanced).

;) Equivalence is bargained, haggled over, discussed.

:) The bundles being exchanged are indifferently substituteable at a given price.

;) The thing in question can be replaced by something else as its equivalent.




Cohen, I. G. (2003). The price of everything, the value of nothing: Reframing the commodification debate. Harvard Law Review, 117(689).