De-Fetishizing Commodities for Sustainable Futures: How Commodity Chain Analyses Expose the Hidden Social and Environmental Costs of Consumption
About this Chapter
Melissa Yang Rock discusses the final project assignment for her Human Geography course at SUNY New Paltz, NY US, Connecting to units on economic globalization, environmental sustainability, and social equity, the project elucidates how commodities are crystallizations of social and environmental relationships between ourselves and people and places throughout the globe. These relationships are hidden in the physical manifestation of the commodity that seemingly takes on its own agency to the extent that we may begin to have a relationship with the item itself. This social relationship among things is also known as commodity fetishism. Engaging in a commodity chain analysis allows learners to “de-fetishize” an object for sale by researching the hidden costs of our purchases. Further, by tracing more sustainable alternative items or practices, students investigate how we might do things differently—whether through innovative production processes, mindful consumer practice, or through drastically reducing consumptive habits. Lastly, Rock problematizes the concept of voting with your dollar as those with limited financial means will have disproportionately less representation in this kind of “democracy.”
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