Evaluating the penetration of the commodity economy

A recurring theme across the social sciences is that there is a natural and inevitable shift towards commodification. In this linear view of the trajectory of economies, ‘non-commodified’ economic activities are rapidly vanishing as the commodity economy, in which goods and services are produced by capitalist firms for a profit under conditions of market exchange, becomes ever more victorious, powerful and hegemonic. Until now, few have questioned this meta-narrative. Here, however, the intention is to evaluate critically the penetration of commodification. Investigating the depth and speed of the permeation of the advanced economies by the commodity economy, it is revealed that the non-commodified sphere has far from disappeared. Indeed, over the past 40 years, it has grown relative to the commodity economy and is now equal in size when the time spent working in these spheres is measured. Explaining this in terms of both the inherent contradictions embedded in the pursuit of commodification as well as the existence of ‘cultures of resistance’, the paper concludes that commodification is not only far from inevitable but the possibility of alternative futures for work beyond the all-conquering on-going advance of capitalism.