Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 178 Document Number: C30711
Notes:
Paper presented at Tropentag 2010, Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development, Zurich, Switzerland, September 14-16, 2010. 1 page.
13 pages., Via online journal, Consumers are increasingly using their purchasing power to enact their politics and activism. I examine how consumption at farmers’ markets fits into this trend. The consumption of local and organic food and the number of farmers’ markets have drastically increased in recent years. This research examines the ways interpersonal relationships, community ties and morality (ethical consumption) relate to commodification at local farmers’ markets. Specifically, this research is framed through Marx’s understanding and critique of capitalism, including his concept of commodity fetishism. Using Radin’s (1996) indicia of commodification, I explore the degree to which relationships, community and morality either are commodifiable or resist commodification. Using a combination of extant literature as well as interview and observational data from a 2011–2012 market study, I discovered that relationships and community ties resist commodification but morality is commodifiable in this space. Specifically, I argue that the contingent and voluntary nature of human communication as a two-way process is one of the key reasons that interpersonal relationships and community ties resist commodification.
Georgiadis, Pavlos (author), Schumacher, Jorg (author), Hilscher, Manuel (author), Manoharan, Dhusenti (author), Birkenberg, Athena (author), Schwizer, Steffen (author), Idel, Anita (author), Hudson-Wiedenmann, Ursula (author), Herren, Hans Rudolf (author), Gottwald, Franz-Theo (author), Fadani, Andrea (author), Bellows, Anne C. (author), Kruse, Michael (author), and Zeller, Manfred (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2010-09-16
Published:
Germany
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 181 Document Number: C36560
Notes:
Tropentag 2010 Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development, Zurich, Switzerland, September 14-16, 2010. 4 pages.