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A recurring assumption across the social sciences is that non‐commodified work has been increasingly replaced by the commodified sphere in which goods and services are produced and delivered for monetary exchange by capitalist firms for profit‐motivated purposes. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate this thesis critically.

A review is conducted of the extent of commodified and non‐commodified work in the advanced economies.

Analyzing the extent of commodified and non‐commodified work in the advanced economies, the commodified sphere is shown to be far from hegemonic and, if anything, to have receded rather than penetrated deeper during the last four decades. This is here explained in terms of both the existence of resistance cultures to market‐ism and the contradictions inherent in the structural shift towards commodification.

The outcome is a call to transcend the representation of commodified work as victorious, all‐powerful and hegemonic, and for greater discussion of the feasibility of, and possibilities for, alternative futures beyond a commodified world.

It contests the dominant narrative that we live in an ever more commodified world.

A widely held supposition is that goods and services are increasingly produced and delivered for monetised exchange by capitalist firms in pursuit of profit. The result of this view of an ongoing encroachment of the market is that there is only one perceived future for work and it is one characterised by an ever more commodified world. The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically this discourse. Analysing the balance between commodified and non‐commodified work in the advanced economies, a large non‐commodified sphere is identified that, if anything, is found to be expanding relative to the commodified realm. Rather than reading the future of work as a natural and unstoppable progression towards a victorious, all‐powerful and hegemonic commodity economy, this paper thus opens up the feasibility of alternative futures beyond a commodified world.

Using new empirical data from the UK focused on mutual aid and reciprocity, the purpose of this paper is to offer robust challenges to the logic and dominance of the commodification thesis. In finding mutual aid to be a significant coping strategy to get household tasks completed, in both affluent and deprived communities, the paper addresses the important question as to “why” mutual aid is so pervasive. Using qualitative insights as to “why” respondents engaged in mutual aid and reciprocity a considered response to this question, revolving around the instinctive and social nature of reciprocity, is made.

The research draws on previous Household Work Practice Studies, which have been influential in exploring the geographies of community self‐help. An in‐depth semi‐structured questionnaire, which adapts and develops previous successful approaches focused on mutual aid and volunteering, was employed across 100 households in two neighbouring wards in Leicester, UK.

The research found that the non‐commodified sphere of mutual aid was employed as a central coping strategy within the two communities investigated. The suggestion is that the extent of mutual aid in both deprived neighbourhoods and affluent neighbourhoods has been underestimated in previous research. However, the strength of the methodology resides with its understanding of the rationales being participation in mutual aid. This suggests that the natural and instinctive nature of reciprocity, and the social role that mutual aid plays within kin and non‐kin relations, helps explain its pervasiveness in the advanced economies.

The methodology and methods were designed to explicitly harness a deep qualitative understanding of the relationship and attitudes that households adopt toward their informal coping strategies, and mutual aid in particular. Thus though this approach has uncovered rich qualitative data to inform the key arguments, the quantitative findings must be treated as speculative rather than conclusive.

In undermining the commodification thesis, the paper concludes that alternate and better approaches toward harnessing “the economic” in society must be pursued by policy makers. Crucially economic policy which promotes co‐operation over competition within society should be seen as earning the qualification of “advanced” economic practice.

This is the first paper which explicitly looks at the pervasive nature of mutual aid within the advanced economies, using primary data from Leicester. The value is seen on three levels: first, the original arguments made which highlight the pervasiveness of this informal coping strategy; second, the manner with which these contemporary insights are then contextualised with reference to the wider literature; third, the way in which this research adds to the calls to fundamentally re‐think our dominant attitudes (and policies) toward the commodified and non‐commodified spheres of work in the advanced economies.

This paper explores the workplace experiences of aesthetic labour among racially diverse frontline women workers in a fashion retail store.

This qualitative study is based on an ethnographic study, drawing on findings from participant observation and interviews with frontline workers at a fashion retail store in the UK.

This paper explores how the embodiments of aesthetic labour are perpetually produced and commodified through the discipline of management in a fashion retail store. It challenges the notion of phenotypical Whiteness as the beauty standard within fashion retail and demonstrates how embodiments differ according to race. While White women are continuously scrutinised by their appearance, the aesthetic demands for women of colour tend to focus on speech and racialised bodies to provide “authentically” exotic experiences for customers. Additionally, this study highlights how the mobilisation of aesthetic labour can create work humiliation and work alienation.

Despite this study being based on an ethnographic study at one British fashion retailer, this paper seeks to give voices to an underrepresented group by exploring the lived experiences of racially diverse women workers.

This paper contributes to the intersection between aesthetic labour and race from an embodiment perspective, exploring the workplace experiences of racially diverse women workers in fashion retail and how their various forms of embodiment are racialised and commodified.

Alienation, a legacy of the Marxian Hegelian critique of domination, remains one of the most heuristic yet ambiguous concepts in social thought. Yet there endure questions of its definition, indications, level of analysis, relationships to capitalism or modernity in general. To speak of alienation raises a notion that there was once either a pristine era of bliss or a Utopian promise of universal self‐realization. I cannot enter this debate but only note that throughout most historical eras people have created societies, institutions and beliefs that have benefited the powerful few at the cost of the powerless many. Yet the few have had the power to construct definitions of reality and ideologies of legitimacy that are reproduced in the everday life routines of the many, so that arbitrary power arrangements seem natural and typical. Insofar as these routines are sustained by habits, fear and anxiety and thwart human potential, we can talk of alienated selfhood and interaction.

Extant research shows that individual’s relationship with brand can be structurally similar to both interpersonal love relationship and religious relationship. A stream of consumer research states that individual can love a brand like a person loves another person. Another stream of consumer research postulates that individual can perceive brand equivalent to religion, and even substitute religion with brand. Research is scarce connecting these two different paradigms of brand relationship, given that interpersonal relationship is not necessarily as devotional as religious relationship. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the psychological process through which an individual can substitute his/her religion with brand. The basic theoretical premise of this substitution behaviour is the proposition that brand meanings can be perceived as equivalent to religious meanings.

This paper has conducted an integrative review of selected extant research related to individual-brand relationships, interpersonal relationships and religiosity.

This paper develops a consumer response hierarchy model showing the inter-related psychological processes through which an individual can substitute his/her religion with brand. The model forms the basis for the discussion of theoretical contributions and managerial implications.

The value of this conceptual paper lies in developing a process model for the first time in the area of consumer-brand relationship domain explaining the stage-wise psychological processes through which individual can move from mere cognitive brand satisfaction towards perceiving brand as substitute of religion.

The paper aims to develop a case for re‐considering the role of schools in education policy. The argument is made that considerable amounts of the variation in pupil performance may in fact derive from factors based on variations in parents' ability to buy‐in support and enrichment of various kinds for their children.

The argument of the paper is developed using secondary sources to make the case for non‐school explanations of variations in pupil performance and then offers a set of illustrations of the variety of types of bought‐in support and enrichment now being used in some families.

The paper concludes with the point that two contradictory education policy discourses are in play under New Labour. One, the discourse of standards/achievement, which works through testing, benchmarks, league‐tables, “coasting” schools, special measures, etc. totalises, individualises and commodifies the student as an “ability” – a cluster of performances. And in turn gives rise to “local economies of student worth” that “value” students differently within the processes of “school choice”. The other, the discourse of choice and active parenting, totalises, individualises and commodifies parents and families as “consumers” of education and investors in cultural capital.

The paper is discursive, exploratory and wide‐ranging. It sets out to make a plausible case that would merit further research rather than to establish at this stage a set of firm conclusions.

If the argument is taken seriously then the focus of education policy would be decisively shifted. There is some evidence of a shift of emphasis towards more intervention and individual attention but achievement differences remain firmly located within schools.

Little attention has been focused on this kind of argument and there has certainly been no attempt to map the variety of and growth in private educational services.

The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of racial capitalism in the context of academic libraries.

This paper draws on Leong's (2013) extended theory of racial capitalism and identifies how neoliberalism and racial capitalism are tied as well as how it is manifested in academic libraries through tokenism, racialized tasks, consuming racial trauma, cultural performance demands, workload demands and pay inequity.

The article ends with some suggestions in how to address these problematic practices though dismantling meritocratic systems, critical race theory in LIS education and training, and funding EDI work.

The article explores a concept in the academic library context and points to practices and structures that may commodify racialized identities.

This paper examines how contemporary workplace surveillance can simultaneously incentivize and commodify workforce behavior. Specifically, workplace surveillance is reconceptualized as rent-seeking, which offers a framework for analyzing novel employer-employee relationships stemming from alternate views of risk and reward.

The case of workplace microchipping is studied qualitatively as a backdrop for theorizing emergent labor relations in the context of surveillance capitalism and biopolitics.

Reconsidering surveillance within the context of personal risk and entrepreneurial lure offers much to 21st century discourse on labor and supervision. It is imperative that the public sector engages in appropriate regulatory protocols to manage emergent behavior in organizations.

This study departs from the popular conceptualization of human microchipping as an intersection of legal and ethical considerations of surveillance. Instead, the authors examine a different aspect of the microchipping phenomenon, taking into account employee creative reactions to employer surveillance in the context of risk and return.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2022-0009

This paper aims to show that the implementation of carbon accounting systems is problematic because it contributes to the commodification of nature, leading individuals to “forget about nature.”

The authors use the concept of reification to explore the subjective dimension of the commodification process. They construct an analytical framework that helps to explain how and why nature may ultimately be “forgotten” by individuals during the commodification process. The example of France is used to illustrate this argument.

The paper presents and discusses three mechanisms (the objectivation of nature, economic reasoning and individuals’ environmental consciousness) that form the basis for the rationale and modus operandi of carbon accounting systems. By comparing these mechanisms with the concept of reification, it highlights three criticisms that could be put to advocates of these systems.

This analysis shows that discussions of carbon accounting systems should focus more on their philosophical principles rather than merely examining the technical problems posed by their implementation.

This research provides some answers to explain the inefficiency of policies implemented within the framework of global climate governance.

This study helps to put carbon accounting research into perspective. It goes further than existing work on the commodification of nature by describing the subjective dimension of individuals who are led to disconnect their arguments and practices from their primary and emotional relationship with nature.