2025Year

Second Semester

Commodification

Lecture

Commodification

Z0300003 Commodification

KEARNEY Michael

2.0Credits

Thu.5Period

Shinjuku Campus

A-0471教室（大学院工学研究科）

A) A high degree of specialized expertise　0%
B) The skills to use science and technology　80%
C) The ability to conduct research independently, knowledge pertaining to society and occupations, and sense of ethics required of engineers and researchers　20%
D) Creative skills in specific areas of specialization　0%

The Commodification course analyzes the forces at work in the process of transforming goods, services, ideas, and people into commodities: any thing or being intended for exchange, any thing or being that has an economic value.

The aim of this course is to foster within the students a deep understanding of how the commodification of things and beings has developed over the course of human history and how this affects the human condition. Utilizing the theories and concepts introduced in Critical Theory, the course will examine the following: the shift from hunter-gather society to agrarian; development of barter systems; development of monetary systems; cross cultural and transcultural exchange systems; the commodification of art, concepts, and beings; primary, secondary, and tertiary production; age of Informatisation. It is hoped that through a keen understanding of the processes of commodification, students will develop a better understanding of the economic forces that dominate contemporary societies, govern the current human condition, and frame the construction of today’s human identities.

No Prerequisite

Discussion Debate／Presentation

Week 1: Overview of course; defining commodities, exchange, commodification
Weeks 2 – 3: Hunter-gather societies; shift to agrarian societies; barter systems; monetary systems
Weeks 4 – 5: defining and examining egalitarian social ethē and socioeconomic strata
Weeks 6 – 7: Cross cultural exchange; transcultural exchange; colonial systems
Week 8: Economic theories: neoclassical economics (free-market capitalism); Keynes
Week 9: Hardt & Negri: economic paradigms – primary, secondary, and tertiary production
Weeks 10 – 11: Commodification of humans: slavery, employment, time, and productivity
Weeks 12 – 13: Commodification of art, data, ideas, knowledge – Informatisation
Weeks 14 – 15: Commodification in the contemporary and future

Grades will be determined through projects, participation, and papers.

In class verbally and in comments on papers.

No textbook is required for this course.

None required; suggestions:
Empire. Michael Hardt & Antonio Negre. Harvard University Press: 2001.
Culture and Imperialism. Edward W. Said. Vintage Books: 1994.
The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man. Herbert Marshall McLuhan. Gingko Press: 2001.
Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals. Hiroki Azuma, translated by Jonathan E. Abel. University of Minnesota Press: 2009.
Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Fredric Jameson. Duke University Press: 1992.

Shinjuku Campus (A-2737): Thursday 17:45 - 18:30 and by appointment.

An understanding of economic systems and the processes of commodification will help students not only in their professional careers, but also in their everyday lives.

Not applicable

Not applicable