Commercial cultures: Transcending the cultural and the economic

Abstract

In recent years there have been repeated calls for a convergence between ‘the cultural’ and ‘the economic’. This paper provides a specific take on these issues through an exploration of the contested geographies of contemporary commercial culture. Traditionally, ‘culture’ has been associated with meaning and creativity, with works of the imagination and aesthetic practices that are far removed from the pursuit of economic profit. By contrast, ‘commerce’ has conventionally been regarded with disdain by critically minded social scientists, signalling a vulgar and materialistic world, devoid of morality, where human agency is subordinated to the logic of capital. This paper aims to challenge such dualistic thinking by exploring the commodification of cultural difference and by demonstrating that the rational calculus of the market is inescapably embedded in a range of cultural practices. The argument moves from an analysis of linear commodity chains to an exploration of more complex circuits and networks, illustrated with examples from contemporary commodity culture, looking specifically at the food and fashion sectors. Rather than demonstrating complexity for its own sake, the objective is to identify new forms of understanding and new possibilities for intervention in what can sometimes seem like an all-encompassing ‘consumer culture’ where every act of resistance is immediately recuperated in successive rounds of commodification.