Search results for "commodification"

Policing language in the world of new work : the commodification of workplace communication in organizational consulting

2021

Abstract This paper examines how the shift to knowledge and innovation economy has created new sites for the commodification of language and communication in the context of organizational consulting. The data come from a consultant-led development and training program of the management teams of a Finnish educational organization. In the study, the year-long training was videotaped (45 h) and followed ethnographically. By using rhetorical discourse analysis as a method, we examine how the consultant-led training activities present the role of language and communication in changing working life. The results show how the activities factualize the transformation of work and the centrality of la…

The Commodification Dilemma: Tourism Pressure and Heritage Conservation in Barcelona

2022

In recent years, the proliferation of tourists in the urban environment has generated several issues in the functioning of cities. As urban tourism has historically been linked to cultural and architectural attractions, this increased tourism pressure has involved and often compromised the common heritage uses. Therefore, many cases saw the implementation of measures that, if on the one hand reduced tourist flows, on the other also drastically restricted the access for residents and totally altered the sense of place in the community. This article explores this topic by applying a Critical Discourse Analysis methodology to the dispute that took place in Barcelona regarding the restricted ac…

Sociolinguistics from the Periphery

2016

This leading team of scholars presents a fascinating book about change: shifting political, economic and cultural conditions; ephemeral, sometimes even seasonal, multilingualism; and altered imaginaries for minority and indigenous languages and their users. The authors refer to this network of interlinked changes as the new conditions surrounding small languages (Sámi, Corsican, Irish and Welsh) in peripheral sites. Starting from the conviction that peripheral sites can and should inform the sociolinguistics of globalisation, the book explores how new modes of reflexivity, more transactional frames for authenticity, commodification of peripheral resources, and boundary-transgression with hu…

Weighing, Commodification, and Money

2013

The Marketisation of Higher Education: Antecedents, Processes, and Outcomes

2021

This chapter explores the ideological antecedents, processes, and outcomes of the marketisation of higher education, with an emphasis on business schools in particular. The chapter begins with a discussion of the theory of Scandinavian New Institutionalism in the context of higher education, explaining how ideologies spread across nations and fields through adoption and adaptation. It then elaborates the ideologies of neoliberalism and managerialism, and their relation to New Public Management. The chapter continues by elucidating the processes which are related to marketisation—namely commodification, corporatisation, and de-professionalisation. It then enumerates the various outcomes of t…

Between commodification and altruism: gender imbalance and attitudes towards organ donation. A representative survey of the German community

2008

The German transplant law (TGP) of 1997 only recognises organ donation if the donor agrees (‘extended consent’) and if done for altruistic reasons. Several alternatives will be discussed here, including incentives and passive agreement. Based upon a representative survey, the authors examined the attitudes of Germans towards several European models of organ donation and their attitude towards organ donation in general whilst living and after death. The acceptance of possible compensation systems was also explored. In Germany the majority do not favour compensation systems, but rather passive agreement. There is evidence of gender difference with respect to this attitude. Men tend to favour …

Semiotics of pride and profit: interrogating commodification in indigenous handicraft production

2014

This study investigates the shifting terrain of pride, profit and power relations in minority language communities under contemporary globalisation. While “pride” associates linguistic-cultural heritage with identity and preservation, “profit” views these as sources of economic gain. In contemporary late capitalism, “pride” seems to be increasingly giving way to “profit”. Arguing that this transformation needs to be interrogated in terms of complexity and that a detailed, multilayered semiotic analysis can open a privileged window for such an inquiry, this study combines critical multimodal discourse analysis and an ethnographic approach to analyse processes of semiotic commodification in h…

UNESCO and cultural diversity: democratisation, commodification or governmentalisation of culture?

2012

The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was first adopted by its member states in October 2005. The document defines UNESCO's general principles and conceptualisations regarding culture, cultural diversity and expressions. In order to better manage culture, cultural expressions refer above all to goods and services of the markets, but another, more universally humanitarian and participatory aspect is also present. For the United Nations member states and especially countries that ratified it, the Convention offers policy and legal guidelines to support all forms o…

From ‘socios’ to ‘hyper-consumers’: an empirical examination of the impact of commodification on Spanish football fans

2012

Traditionally, the Spanish game has been analysed in scholarly studies in terms of the effect of crowd violence or the nationalist and regionalist implications of the Spanish clubs. Latterly analysis has also extended to include gender issues (and the process of constructing masculinity, in particular) and a spate of studies dealing with racism and xenophobia, both of which have blighted the Spanish game in recent years. Little attention, however, has been given over to the study of the effects on fans of the rapidly expanding influence of commercialization on football in Spain. With this gap in mind, this study sets out to examine, from an empirical perspective, the social consequences of …

The culture in the era of clutural capitlaism: Trends and Controversies

2014

[EN] This article offers a reflection on the way in which the evolution of capitalism towards a cultural capitalism phase is propitiating the emergence of a new regime of production and reception of cultural products. To approach this task it is examined one of the most clearly observable trends in the evolution that western societies have experienced in the past decades, that is, the transformation of the market in the general pattern of the social activities and the entrance of capitalist patterns in the cultural sphere. The article finishes with a critical analysis of the most frequently consequences attributed to the evolution of capitalism in the cultural domain: the degradation of the…