Not for Sale
Decommodifying Public Life

Publisher:  University of Toronto Press, Toronto
Year Published:  2006
Pages:  288pp   ISBN:  9781551117522
Library of Congress Number:  HD3850.N67 2006   Dewey:  306.3
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX15941

Not for Sale discusses the alternatives presented by local, national, and international struggles to decommodify and democratize as many spheres of life as possible.

Abstract: 
Not for Sale examines key dimensions of the current assault against communal resources by relentless commodification and privatization. Gordon Laxer and Dennis Soron include chapters by social scientists who explore ways in which progressive projects of "reclaiming" the commons involve confronting the capitalist drive to commodify all aspects of existence, including human body parts, water, labour, knowledge, and even the air we breathe. The book argues that crucial areas of social and natural life should not be treated as commodities regulated by undemocratic markets.



Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgements

Part One: Framing the Issues

1. Thematic Introduction: Decommodification, Democracy, and the Battle for the Commons
Dennis Soron & Gordon Laxer

2. The Commodity Status of Labour: The Secret of Commodified Life
David McNally

3. On the Ownership of Nature
Birgit Muller

4. Cosmopolitan Elites Versus Nationally-focused Citizens—Cycles of Decommodification Struggles
Gordon Laxer

Part Two: Dynamics of Commodification

5. The General Agreement on Trade in Services—Politics by Another Means
Ellen Gould

6. Frontiers of the Market: Commodifying Human Body Parts
Trevor W. Harrison

7. A New Gender (Dis)order?—Neoliberal Restructuring in Australia
Ray Broomhill & Rhonda Sharp

8. Water is Life! The Debate over Private Sector Participation in Water Supply
Karen Bakker

Part Three: Democratic Struggles for Decommodification

9. Commodification and Decommodification in Mexico under NAFTA
Teresa Gutierrez-Haces

10. Forging New Democracies: Indigenous Struggles for Autonomy
Gerardo Otero & Heidi Jugenitz

11. In Defence of the Environmental State: NGO Strategies to Resist the Commodification of Nature
Anita Krajnc

12. From the Knowledge Economy to the Knowledge Commons: Resisting the Commodification of Knowledge
Jennifer Sumner

13. Decommodifying Daily Life: The Politics of Overconsumption
Dennis Soron

References
Notes on Contributors
Index