Home > C Words > commodification

commodification

Definition of Commodification

(noun) The act or process of changing something into a commodity that can be bought, sold, or traded.

Example of Commodification

  • People: organ transplants, slavery

Commodification Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: com·mod·i·fi·ca·tion

Audio Pronunciation

– American English
– British English

International Phonetic Alphabet

  • American English – /kəˌmɑdəfəˈkeɪʃən/
  • British English – /kəˌmɒdᵻfᵻˈkeɪʃn/

Usage Notes

  • Plural: commodifications
  • Within the social sciences, commodification typically has a negative connotation, referring to things that should not be commodities (e.g., water or education).
  • Also called commoditization (commoditisation).

Additional Information

Related Terms


Works Consulted

Agger, Ben. 2004. The Virtual Self: A Contemporary Sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Black, John, Nigar Hashimzade, and Gareth Myles. 2010. A Dictionary of Economics. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Bruce, Steve, and Steven Yearley. 2006. The SAGE Dictionary of Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Chase-Dunn, Christopher, and Bruce Lerro. 2014. Social Change: Globalization from the Stone Age to the Present. New York: Routledge.

Ferrante, Joan. 2011. Seeing Sociology: An Introduction. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. 2010. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Norton.

Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e. Houston, TX: OpenStax.

Kornblum, William. 2008. Sociology in a Changing World. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Law, Jonathan, ed. 2010. A Dictionary of Accounting. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Macionis, John, and Kenneth Plummer. 2012. Sociology: A Global Introduction. 4th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.

O’Leary, Zina. 2007. The Social Science Jargon Buster: The Key Terms You Need to Know. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Princeton University. 2010. WordNet. (https://wordnet.princeton.edu/).

Ravelli, Bruce, and Michelle Webber. 2016. Exploring Sociology: A Canadian Perspective. 3rd ed. Toronto: Pearson.

Stewart, Paul, and Johan Zaaiman, eds. 2015. Sociology: A Concise South African Introduction. Cape Town: Juta.

Turner, Bryan S., ed. 2006. The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (http://en.wiktionary.org).

Cite the Definition of Commodification

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “commodification.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved December 2, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/commodification/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

commodification. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/commodification/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “commodification.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/commodification/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“commodification.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 2 Dec. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/commodification/>.