The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective.

doi:10.2307/2802852

Journal Article•DOI•

The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective.

Jonathan Parry, Arjun Appadurai

01 Jun 1988-Vol. 23, Iss: 2, pp 408

About: The article was published on 1988-06-01. It has received 2050 citations till now.

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Journal Article•DOI•

Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography

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George E. Marcus

01 Jan 1995-Annual Review of Anthropology

TL;DR: In this paper, an emergent methodological trend in anthropological research that concerns the adaptation of long-standing modes of ethnographic practices to more complex objects of study is surveyed, in terms of testing the limits of ethnography, attenuating the power of fieldwork, and losing the perspective of the subaltern.

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Abstract: This review surveys an emergent methodological trend in anthropological research that concerns the adaptation of long-standing modes of ethnographic practices to more complex objects of study. Ethnography moves from its conventional single-site location, contextualized by macro-constructions of a larger social order, such as the capitalist world system, to multiple sites of observation and participation that cross-cut dichotomies such as the “local” and the “global,” the “lifeworld” and the “system.” Resulting ethnographies are therefore both in and out of the world system. The anxieties to which this methodological shift gives rise are considered in terms of testing the limits of ethnography, attenuating the power of fieldwork, and losing the perspective of the subaltern. The emergence of multi-sited ethnography is located within new spheres of interdisciplinary work, including media studies, science and technology studies, and cultural studies broadly. Several “tracking” strategies that shape multi-site...

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4,905 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

The Field Behind the Screen: Using Netnography for Marketing Research in Online Communities

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Robert V. Kozinets¹•Institutions (1)

Northwestern University¹

01 Feb 2002-Journal of Marketing Research

TL;DR: Netnography as mentioned in this paper is an online marketing research technique adapted to the study of online communities that provides information on the symbolism, meanings, and consumption patterns of online consumer groups and provides guidelines that acknowledge the inherent flexibility and openness of ethnography, and provide rigor and ethics in the conduct of marketing research.

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Abstract: The author develops “netnography” as an online marketing research technique for providing consumer insight. Netnography is ethnography adapted to the study of online communities. As a method, netnography is faster, simpler, and less expensive than traditional ethnography and more naturalistic and unobtrusive than focus groups or interviews. It provides information on the symbolism, meanings, and consumption patterns of online consumer groups. The author provides guidelines that acknowledge the online environment, respect the inherent flexibility and openness of ethnography, and provide rigor and ethics in the conduct of marketing research. As an illustrative example, the author provides a netnography of an online coffee newsgroup and discusses its marketing implications.

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3,359 citations

Cites background from "The Social Life of Things: Commodit..."

...Coffee is emotional, human, deeply and personally relevant—and not to be commodified (Kopytoff 1986) or treated as “just another product.”...
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Journal Article•DOI•

A Theory of Access.

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Jesse C. Ribot¹, Nancy Lee Peluso²•Institutions (2)

World Resources Institute¹, University of California, Berkeley²

22 Oct 2009-Rural Sociology

TL;DR: In this article, the authors define access as the ability to derive benefits from things, broadening from property's clas- sical definition as "the right to benefit from things" and examine a broad set of factors that differentiate access from property.

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Abstract: The term "access" is frequently used by property and natural resource analysts without adequate definition. In this paper we develop a concept of access and examine a broad set of factors that differentiate access from property. We define access as "the ability to derive benefits from things," broadening from property's clas- sical definition as "the right to benefit from things." Access, following this definition, is more akin to "a bundle of powers" than to property's notion of a "bundle of rights." This formulation includes a wider range of social relationships that constrain or enable benefits from resource use than property relations alone. Using this fram- ing, we suggest a method of access analysis for identifying the constellations of means, relations, and processes that enable various actors to derive benefits from re- sources. Our intent is to enable scholars, planners, and policy makers to empirically "map" dynamic processes and relationships of access.

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1,999 citations

Cites background from "The Social Life of Things: Commodit..."

...Those who control access to labor can benefit from a resource at any stage where labor is required throughout the life of that resource or along the path taken by the commodities derived from it (Appadurai 1986)....
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...For a broad discussion of origin of values issues see Appadurai (1986), Marx (1972[1875]:8). tices and ideas of others (Weber 1978:53; Lukes 1986:3) and second, we see power as emergent from, though not always attached to, people....
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...Resource values may vary when resources are commodified or when national or international merchants or state agents begin to extract resources, in turn affecting property rights (Appadurai 1986; Watts 1983; Runge et al. 2000)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Vibrant Matter The Intra-Active Role of Objects in the Construction of Young Children’s Literacies

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Jaye Johnson Thiel¹•Institutions (1)

University of Tennessee¹

01 Nov 2015

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors look closely at the ways children and things, particularly fabric remnants, work together to coconstruct stories, drawing from the theories of feminist new materialism.

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Abstract: Drawing from the theories of feminist new materialism, this article looks closely at the ways children and things, particularly fabric remnants, work together to coconstruct stories. The data prese...

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1,571 citations

Cites background from "The Social Life of Things: Commodit..."

...Recently, there has been a movement among philosophers, theorists, and qualitative researchers to consider the object and its role in research, theory, and practice (Ahmed, 2004; Appadurai, 1986; Bennett, 2010; Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg, 1981; Daston, 2000, 2004; Henare, 2006; Hoskins, 1998)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Introduction: The Embeddedness of Economic Markets in Economics:

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Michel Callon

01 May 1998-The Sociological Review

TL;DR: For example, North as mentioned in this paper pointed out that the literature on economics contains so little discussion of the central institution that underlies neoclassical economics-the market-and pointed out the weakness of market theory.

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Abstract: Even as the market seems triumphant everywhere and its laws progressively and ineluctably impose themselves worldwide, we cannot fail to be struck by the lasting topicality of the following wellknown quotation from D. North: 'It is a peculiar fact that the literature on economics ... contains so little discussion of the central institution that underlies neoclassical economics-the market' (North, 1977).) How can this surprising shortcoming be explained? How can this self-proclaimed failure of economic theory be accounted for? By distinguishing the thing from the concept which refers to it, the marketplace from the market, the English language suggests a possible answer. While the market denotes the abstract mechanisms whereby supply and demand confront each other and adjust themselves in search of a compromise, the marketplace is far closer to ordinary experience and refers to the place in which exchange occurs. This distinction is, moreover, merely a particular case of a more general opposition, which the English language, once again, has the merit of conveying accurately: that between economics and economy, between theoretical and practical activity, in short, between economics as a discipline and economy as a thing. If economic theory knows so little about the marketplace, is it not simply because in striving to abstract and generalize it has ended up becoming detached from its object? Thus, the weakness of market theory may well be explained by its lack of interest in the marketplace. To remedy this shortcoming, economics would need only to return to its object, the economy, from which it never should have strayed in the first place. The matter, however, is not so simple. The danger of abstraction and unrealism which is supposed to threaten every academic discipline-and which time and again has been exposed and stigmatized,

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1,564 citations

Cites background from "The Social Life of Things: Commodit..."

...The framing/overflowing duo suggests a move towards economic anthropology and more specifically towards the entangled objects of Thomas and the careers of objects of Appadurai (Appadurai, 1986)....
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...Thomas's thesis expands on and enhances Appadurai's, describing precisely what constitutes this process of merchandization....
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...This extreme view does of course have its detractors who deny the very existence of such globalization (Fligstein, forthcoming), (Calion and Cohendet, 1997) and emphasize the composite, heterogeneous nature of the economies being established and becoming more closely linked to one another (Appadurai, 1996)....
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The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective.

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Cites background from "The Social Life of Things: Commodit..."

Cites background from "The Social Life of Things: Commodit..."

Cites background from "The Social Life of Things: Commodit..."

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