The “Commodification” of Knowledge in the Global Information Society

With the increasing division of labour and the emergence of markets, useful things have started to become sold and bought. They began a new career as commodities. Since Aristotle the dialectic face of commodities, later on in detail elaborated by Karl Marx, is well known, they carry value in us...

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Main Author: Peter Fleissner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group 2009-11-01
Series:tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/115
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author Peter Fleissner
author_facet Peter Fleissner
author_sort Peter Fleissner
collection DOAJ
description With the increasing division of labour and the emergence of markets, useful things have started to become sold and bought. They began a new career as commodities. Since Aristotle the dialectic face of commodities, later on in detail elaborated by Karl Marx, is well known, they carry value in use and value in exchange. Nowadays, where we understand the economy as a social construction and are aware of the relativity of value given to objects, we are still confronted with the same distinction and also with the transition of objects into commodities. The commodification process has not come to an end yet. The paper gives an overview on the processes of commodification and de-commodification of goods and services as a background for analysing developments in the emerging information society on a global scale. Possible strategies on how to go on from now are presented, among them the struggle and on-going resistance of the European Parliament on the one hand, against the European Commission and the European Patent Office on the other, also the movements of open source/free software and the ideas of copyleft to create new rules for information goods.
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spelling doaj-art-d49d29b7d20e4083a0116cdc40f362382025-08-20T04:02:22ZengPaderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research GrouptripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique1726-670X2009-11-017210.31269/triplec.v7i2.115115The “Commodification” of Knowledge in the Global Information SocietyPeter Fleissner With the increasing division of labour and the emergence of markets, useful things have started to become sold and bought. They began a new career as commodities. Since Aristotle the dialectic face of commodities, later on in detail elaborated by Karl Marx, is well known, they carry value in use and value in exchange. Nowadays, where we understand the economy as a social construction and are aware of the relativity of value given to objects, we are still confronted with the same distinction and also with the transition of objects into commodities. The commodification process has not come to an end yet. The paper gives an overview on the processes of commodification and de-commodification of goods and services as a background for analysing developments in the emerging information society on a global scale. Possible strategies on how to go on from now are presented, among them the struggle and on-going resistance of the European Parliament on the one hand, against the European Commission and the European Patent Office on the other, also the movements of open source/free software and the ideas of copyleft to create new rules for information goods.https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/115CommodificationInformation GoodsInformation Society
spellingShingle Peter Fleissner
The “Commodification” of Knowledge in the Global Information Society
tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
Commodification
Information Goods
Information Society
title The “Commodification” of Knowledge in the Global Information Society
title_full The “Commodification” of Knowledge in the Global Information Society
title_fullStr The “Commodification” of Knowledge in the Global Information Society
title_full_unstemmed The “Commodification” of Knowledge in the Global Information Society
title_short The “Commodification” of Knowledge in the Global Information Society
title_sort commodification of knowledge in the global information society
topic Commodification
Information Goods
Information Society
url https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/115
work_keys_str_mv AT peterfleissner thecommodificationofknowledgeintheglobalinformationsociety
AT peterfleissner commodificationofknowledgeintheglobalinformationsociety