Economics assignment on: Commodity Fetihism
Question??Define three of the following four terms that we have covered both in lecture and in the readings. Make sure that you also give an example for each term that you define??
Solution:
Commodity Fetishism
This is the word coined by Karl Marx who gave the Theory of Commodity Fetishism (Marx, 1867) (Marx, 1964) and according to him it is a syndrome which exists in capitalistic economies where the real relationships between the producers are being disavowed through the commodities (Pancrazio, 2004). Commodity fetishism in its very real form is the process of through which the commodity is converted into a depository which has some value and recently it is more focussed on consumption than on production. For example language is a commodity but when it is used for publicity or advertising for diamonds it is called commodity fetishism (Pancrazio, 2004).
The Nike Town with all its pomp and show and flashy expensive ads endorsed by celebrities like Michael Jordan are the prime post-modern examples and applications of what Marx termed as commodity fetishism. This is a kind of magic which occurs when we remove the value of human labour being put into the product and replaces it with other values which we feel were inherent to the object (Collins, 2001).
Prosumer
The term ‘prosumer’ was first prophesized by Alvin Toffler (Toffler, 1970) and defined them as the consumers who can turn the tables and get converted to producers too. Thus the major trends in the market are seen for prosumers rather than consumers. Prosumers are the people who buy the product and install or use it on their own and they do not care about what kind of the material or the product is as long as the product is reliable and has full functionality (Smothers, 1982).
The concept of prosumers grew in the late 20’s and can be said a combination of features of ‘professional’ and ‘consumer’. It is applicable to the situations where the consumer has reached such level of sophistication where the prosumer can very confidently put across the parameters and perimeters for the goods or services production regarding their structure and quality (Tatum, 2003).
Since the prosumers have a complex lifestyle which has very demanding workload along with a very hectic and active family life, they are very quick and eager adopters of Web 2.0 services and products. For example they are very fast to embrace Web 2.0 technologies like Social networking (My Space, Facebook, Podcasting, virtual realities (Second Life, There.com. Blogging, video on demand (VoD), VoDcasting etc (Gerhardt, 2008) .
Communication
Communication has two perspectives the transmission perspective and the constitutive perspective. From transmission perspective it is the act of transporting something object or service or message from one person to another for example the act of passing a bucket of water form person A to person B is called communication (Zaremba, 2010). According to constitutive perspective it is communication is a transmission phenomenon which happens in organisations rather it is the behaviour which gives a shape or forms the organisation. For example take a container and it will act as organisation and keep all the employees in it, then all the events happening inside the container are the communication.
Thus communication can be defined as the act of putting across any piece of information and the main purpose for sharing information is to develop a mutual or shared understanding (Luhmann, 1992).It also covers various verbal , non-verbal and electronic means of interaction between the human beings (What is Communication? The Definition of Communication, 2012). There are various methods of communications which are being used by human beings like TV, blogs, hand gestures, body language, facial expressions, speaking, emails, telephones etc.
Globalization
The buzzword “globalization” gained recognition in the late 20’s for example the news of off shoring the jobs to third world nations by America, SARS virus attack affects international travelling markets etc. are all examples which result due to globalization. Thus globalization can be referred to as the real-time changes which occur across the globe and are important to the human beings and society and these changes do not have effect on everyone in similar manner (Ervin and Zachary, 2008). Thus the process of globalization does not reflect homogeneity but it is characterised by the universality factor (Nye and Donahue, 2000).
Deregulation
Globalization is mainly characterised by the deregulation of the markets in the developed countries (Hurrell and Woods, n.d.) . Deregulation in the advanced countries has been the major force and motivator for the globalization and current wave of regionalisation as well. Mainly the forces of globalization are behind the cause of deregulation. We can also say that the main mantra of corporate globalization witnessed around world is deregulation (Wasserman, 2001).
Cultural Imperialism
The impact of globalization on the cultural aspects has been viewed negatively because it is believed that globalization has destroyed cultural identities and there have been victims of the fast and speedy encroachment of the westernized, homogenised and consumer culture , all due to globalization (Tomlinson, 2003). This is the reason why globalization has been regarded as the seamless extension of western cultural euphemism (Shepard and Hayduk, 2002). The power of globalisation capitalism which promotes and distributes its cultural goods in every corner of the world cannot be denied. However it can be argued that cultural identity is not a victim rather it is product of globalization because globalization has resulted in proliferation and creation of cultural identity across the globe and not destroyed it (Lull, 2000).
Youth Cultural practices
Youth culture and practices have been stimulated by both globalization as well as modernity because there has been ambivalent involvement of youth in the local contexts (Bucholtz, 2002). Cultural globalisation which involves the impact on culture, of the increasing connectivity between the world and the people is most prominent in the completely changing and diversified relationships which exist between the youth across the globe and the youth identity (Solomon and Scuderi, 2002) . The youth in the developing nations are either lured, attracted or sometimes even forced to adopt non-traditional ways of being by the various factors amongst which the economic necessity is found to be the key factor and thus resulting in cultural disintegration which causes loss of loss of spiritual and historical traditions, loss of linguistics , loss of family support systems and the end of locally organised political voices in community (Heaven and Tubridy, n.d.).
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