commodity fetishism
Goods obscure labor
Commodity fetishism is a Marxist term for the tendency to perceive market goods as having inherent value, obscuring the human labor and social relations that produced them.
A chair appears to simply "cost" a certain amount, as if price were a natural property rather than a reflection of workers, materials, and power relations.
The concept extends to critiques of consumerism generally—treating products as magical objects divorced from their origins: The sleek iPhone conceals the factory conditions in Shenzhen.
Treating abstracts as concrete
- alienationState of being isolated
- false consciousnessInternalized ideology against self-interest
- social relationsInterpersonal bonds and interactions
- objectificationReducing humans to things
exploitation · surplus value · means of production · class struggle · ideology · Das Kapital · Karl Marx · proletariat
Mutual giving and receiving
- priceMonetary value assigned
- valueImportance or price
- goodsThings for sale
- tradeExchange of commodities
circulation · money · equivalence · fungibility · marketability · supply · demand · transaction
Creating distinctive identity
- advertisingPaid promotional communication
- statusOne's relative position
- desireIntense wanting
- shoppingAcquiring goods at retailers
accumulation · materialism · possessions · luxury · lifestyle · identity · aspiration · consumer culture
Shifting sequence of illusions
- spectacleVisually striking event
- illusionMisleading sensory impression
- distortionTwisting from original state
- mystificationDeliberate creation of confusion
deception · concealment · naturalization · invisibility · appearance · mask · veil · enchantment
Opposition to market economies
- critical theoryAnalysis exposing societal power dynamics
- demystificationExplaining the obscure
- consciousness raisingCultivating social awareness
- praxisCustomary action or application
emancipation · resistance · unmasking · cultural criticism · Adorno
reification
Treating abstracts as concrete
- alienationState of being isolated
- false consciousnessInternalized ideology against self-interest
- social relationsInterpersonal bonds and interactions
objectification · exploitation · surplus value · means of production · class struggle · ideology · Das Kapital · Karl Marx · proletariat · bourgeoisie
exchange
Mutual giving and receiving
trade · circulation · money · equivalence · fungibility · marketability · supply · demand · transaction · merchandise
branding
Creating distinctive identity
- advertisingPaid promotional communication
- statusOne's relative position
- desireIntense wanting
shopping · accumulation · materialism · possessions · luxury · lifestyle · identity · aspiration · consumer culture · brand worship
phantasmagoria
Shifting sequence of illusions
- spectacleVisually striking event
- illusionMisleading sensory impression
- distortionTwisting from original state
mystification · deception · concealment · naturalization · invisibility · appearance · mask · veil · enchantment
anti-capitalism
Opposition to market economies
- critical theoryAnalysis exposing societal power dynamics
- demystificationExplaining the obscure
- consciousness raisingCultivating social awareness
praxis · emancipation · resistance · unmasking · cultural criticism · Adorno
- leftismMarxism, socialism, communism, leftist, socialist
- Classical SociologyDurkheim, Marx, Weber, Engels, anomie
- critical theorydeconstruction, Marxism, feminism, simulacrum, postcolonialism
- MarxismMarx, Karl Marx, Engels, Friedrich Engels, proletariat
- Marxist CriticismMarx, Engels, Lenin, Marxist theory, Marxist analysis
- Marxist economicssurplus value, labor power, means of production, wage labor, productive labor
commodity fetishismintrinsic value
Worth independent of circumstance
anti-materialism · communitarianism · gift economy · asceticism · spiritualism
commodity fetishismcommunism
Collective ownership system
socialism · gift economy · subsistence economy · direct exchange · mutual aid
commodity, commodities, fetishism, fetishist, fetishes, commodify, commodification, commodified, fetishistic