1. Commodification and market expansion
Economic Justice in Africa: Globalization, the State and the Civil Society
CODESRIA / OSISA Economic Justice Institute, Garden Court South Beach Hotel, 7 – 18 September, 2015
Lecture 7
Commodification and market expansion
Emmanuel O. Nuesiri
(MPhil. Cambridge; DPhil. Oxford)
Marie-Curie BRAIN Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Potsdam, Germany
and Research Affiliate Cline Center for Democracy, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, USA
Brandenburg Research Academy and International Network (BRAIN)
Cline Center for Democracy
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

2. Commodity and commodification
Commodity – a thing traded in the market
Commodification – the process of creating a thing for the market

3. Market A market in Cameroon
Source:
Market – a space where tradeable things are exchanged after a price has been agreed
Market – social institution that reduces transaction cost associated with exchange of commodities
Market – political institution that serves to determine the wealth of nations
President George W. Bush visits the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in 2001
"Chicago Mercantile Exchange (G. Bush)" by source. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons -
Market – from latin ‘merx’ meaning merchandise

4. Commodification thus requires:
Trade
Trade…involves multiple parties participating in the voluntary negotiation and then the exchange of one's goods and services for desired goods and services that someone else possesses
Commodification thus requires:
definition, recognition and protection of property rights
understanding of monetary policies
mediating actions of financial institutions
…money as a medium of exchange has allowed trade to be conducted in a manner that is much simpler and effective compared to earlier forms of trade, such as bartering
In financial markets, trading also can mean performing a transaction that involves the selling and purchasing of a security.
Source –

5. Commodifying the Orange
What is missing from this narrative…

6. Fictitious commodities
Labor, land, and money must be considered commodities in a market economy, even though they are not. Activity cannot be ultimately divorced from life. Land is a product of nature, not man. This commodity fiction is central to the dominance of the market system.
Karl Polanyi ( )
More about Karl Polanyi and his work can be found on the website of the Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy hosted by Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

7. Commodifying nature - PES
Over $8 billion invested in watersheds in 2011
Full story:
Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES)

8. Commodifying nature – paying for forest carbon storage
‘Keeping forests intact would allow the Batak and other communities to potentially get income by tapping global carbon markets. Businesses and rich nations are committing to reducing their carbon footprints. Through certified projects – under REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) mechanisms- they can “offset” their emissions by paying tropical countries to keep their forests standing.’
Batang Toru Forest, Indonesia, Information Website

9. Double movement – market expansion versus widespread opposition
This reflects Karl Polanyi’s assertion that increased efforts toward commodification would also bring about increased struggles for social protection of people’s ways of life and culture against market logic – this is Polanyi’s theory or thesis of “double movement”

10. Is there a middle ground?
John Tomasi, Romeo Elton Professor of Natural Philosophy, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA; Tomasi has tried to fuse the ideas of free market theorists like Friedrich August Hayek and social justice theorists like John Rawls

11. To learn more about REDD+
Nuesiri uses the theory of political representation to examine power relations in Nigeria REDD Programme

12. QUESTIONS???