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Problems with the defetishization thesis: ethical consumerism, alternative food systems, and commodity fetishism

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Abstract

The defetishization thesis claims alternative markets can lead to a more honest, less mystified relationship with food production and, in turn, strengthen civil society. Drawing from Marxian political economic and environmental sociological theory, I make three general claims: (1) capitalism is inherently ecologically and socially harmful; (2) “ethical” commodities derived from alternative markets cannot fundamentally counteract the pervasiveness and scale of (1); and, because of (1) and (2), (3) ethical consumerism does not defetishize the commodity form, but acts as a new layer of commodity fetishism that masks the harms of capitalism by convincing society that the harms of capitalism can be rehabilitated with the commodity form itself. Prescriptively, I argue traditional, large-scale political tactics would be needed for “defetishization” to take place.

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Notes

  1. As one reviewer pointed out, inanimate objects cannot embody human qualities, such as morality. However, the terms “ethical” or “green” commodities are common in the literature. I continue to use these terms to support my thesis: commodities have been granted supra-sensible, social characteristics. This is the elemental feature of commodity fetishism.

  2. Other synonymous terms include “alternative consumption” (Lang and Gabriel 2005), “ethical consumption” (Johnston 2008), “political consumerism” (Stolle et al. 2005), and “sustainable consumption” (Isenhour 2010). Ethical consumerism and, sometimes, ethical consumption are used throughout this essay. “Green consumerism” is used to denote a specific subtype of ethical consumerism where environmental concern shapes marketplace behavior.

  3. This claim demands some nuance. Many ethical systems call for some degree of asceticism, which, indirectly, can influence consumptive habits. Some other ethical systems call for some degree of hedonism, which, indirectly, can influence consumptive habits. Further, countless modern scholars have been critical of the social and personal repercussions of unbridled “mass” consumerism. For example, Veblen (1953) claimed the business class' status attainment through wasting money on expensive impractical commodities was a remnant of barbarism's displays of prowess. Relatedly, Fromm (1976) claimed the rampant consumption in mass culture was antithetical to being as such. However, consumption needed for survival is biologically necessary and, excluding extreme forms of asceticism and indirect influences, has traditionally remained outside our moral world.

  4. The first phase cited by Lang and Gabriel (2005) is removed from this analysis. They argue that nineteenth-century English worker cooperatives constitute a form of consumer “activism.” This is very problematic as worker cooperatives to resist monopolized markets are a quintessential example of producer resistance, not consumer resistance.

  5. The irony here, as one helpful reviewer pointed out, is that ethical consumerism itself is a neoliberal approach to social reform (i.e., just like neoclassical economists, ethical consumers stress the power of the marketplace and consumer choice/freedom) (cf. Roff 2007). Also, see Belasco's (2007) analysis of the rise and co-optation of the counterculture's attempt to restructure the food system.

  6. However, it is arguable Marx already had this in mind when he stated our market relations to the production process “have absolutely no connection with the physical nature of the commodity and the material relations arising out of this” (Marx 1977, p. 165, emphasis added). Marx took material relations between labor and nature seriously, especially their ecological unsustainability under capitalism (see Foster 2000).

  7. Though finance capital has attempted to simplify the equation to money-more money, with disastrous results (Foster and Magdoff 2009).

  8. My third general claim logically follows and is dependent on the reality of the first two. Thus, if capitalist agriculture achieves social and ecological sustainability, the discussion of a “third” layer of commodity fetishism is irrelevant.

  9. In a close reading of Adam Smith’s often vulgarized moral philosophy and political economy, James (2006) argues an economic system that couples competition, specialization, the division of labor, and self-interest with individual “self-constraint,” the virtues of sympathy and justice, and, if needed, government intervention might form a foundation to secure a sustainable agricultural system. Although Smith was an essential figure in the development of Marxist economics, Marxian theory would reply with two claims, both of which are implied in the arguments presented throughout this paper (especially the second part of the second reply): (1) Smith naturalized the categories used to explain capitalist processes (as well as its self-interested, utility-maximizing, and instrumentally rational butcher, brewer, and baker) (e.g., Pilling 1980) and (2) bourgeois morality, since its inception, has functioned first and foremost to legitimize the institution of private property and capitalism is incapable of fully actualizing the values of civil society (e.g., Marx 1964).

  10. Relatedly, it should be noted that the Frankfurt School predicted the co-optation of environmentalism long before environmental scholars drew attention to it (for example, see Marcuse 1972; Adorno 1984).

  11. The numerical labeling is meant to differentiate the ideological structures resulting from commodity fetishism identified by past theorists. The term “layer” is meant to describe how fetishism masks reality.

  12. Szasz (2007) shares a similar thesis, though utilizes it to problematize the market-based actions taken resulting from environmental health concerns.

  13. Marketers and market researchers are very aware of and wish to further tap into the “feel good” factor involved with ethical consumerism (as examples, see Strong 1997; Nicholls 2002).

  14. David Ashley made a similar point during a lecture at the University of Wyoming in the Spring of 2010 (author’s personal notes).

  15. For a detailed discussion and defense of democratically planned production, see Mandel (1986).

Abbreviations

CSA:

Community supported agriculture

ToP:

Treadmill of production

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Linda Kalof, Dr. Diana Stuart, Dr. Steven Gold, Christina Leshko, Cadi Fung, Ian Werkheiser, Cameron Whitley, Jennifer Kelly, Seven Bryant, Rachel Kelly, four anonymous reviewers, and the Editor for helpful comments and criticisms of various drafts of this essay. Special thanks to Dan Auerbach and Bobby Wengronowitz for discussion concerning environmentalism’s recuperation, which we characterized as the “greening of commodity fetishism.” An earlier version of this paper was awarded the 2012 Graduate Paper Award at the annual meeting of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society.

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  1. Department of Sociology, Michigan State University, 316 Berkey Hall, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Ryan Gunderson

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Gunderson, R. Problems with the defetishization thesis: ethical consumerism, alternative food systems, and commodity fetishism. Agric Hum Values 31, 109–117 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-013-9460-8

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