Commodification and

Consumption

CAPITALISM and Rural Areas

Changes manifested:
> organization of land
> labour
> capital
> technology

==>

Economic Crises
Social Crises

Established rural environments, productive processes and social

arrangements are continually being modified or abandoned and
replaced, with new built forms and new environments for production
and consumption.

COMMODIFICATION

***Re-resourcing of Rural Areas

Rural areas are influenced by economic regulation and governance and

of the regional and national capitalisms of which they are part
In general political-economic terms, changes in the countryside are often
responses to signals from afar
Because rural residents are connected to networks which are closely
linked to urban settings, in many respects rural people are culturally
urban

Global influences on rural areas and their residents have resulted from
de-industrialization, free trade, corporatization, privatization and reregulation, which all led to ongoing and significant rural transformations.

The rate and nature of rural change are influenced strongly by the
local, regional and global regulations which provides opportunities for
entrepreneurial and economic activity.

|
\/
|
COMMODIFICATION

Some of these regulations impinge directly on how land may be used

Regulatory change can have widespread effects: a new regulatory

change in one region can have dramatic effects on rural regions and
opportunities for investment and commodification in other parts of the
world. Example: farmers in Australasia and EU policy

Using socio-cultural views, the concept of rurality has been seen from
the various changes that took place with regards to some social
processes.

|
\/
|

Rurality becomes the repository of the good things we have lost as a

result of urbanization~

Rurality have been manifested in television and films most commonly as

anti-urbanism and an idealization of a small town, with emphasis on the
countryside as a green and pleasant land which is safe, clean, healthy
and enjoyable.

Both in UK and North America, TV programs with rural theme

represent normative middle-class values about appropriate social
behavior and that the farm are interpreted as a desirable way of life

|
\/
|

These are based on partially fictional and sanitized accounts which seek to
hide inconvenient aspects of rural land use and the social realities of rural
poverty and powerlessness (IMAGINED GEOGRAPHIES)

Imagined geographies are important elements used in attempts to sell

rural places and are stimulus for various forms of rural consumption and
social conflict.

Consumption is closely linked to advertising which can offer things to

consumers - years of advertizing have reinforced the fetishization of
commodities

Goods are the tools that signal to others who we want them to think we are
and who we want to be.
Commodities are considered as sign values which convey social meaning
and form the basis of status hierarchies based on social distinction
(McDonaldization and McDisneyization)

New Rural Commodities

1. Established agricultural and horticultural products
-these commodities are grown in new, expanded ways, in new sites
often influenced by new technological developments, environmental
regulation, investments, strategies, market opportunities, operated
at different scales from the past.
-these commodities result from the process of agro-industrialization
- example: Dairying~

New Rural Commodities

2. New agricultural and horticultural products
- the production of such commodities is also underpinned by
technological innovation but is more influenced by changes with
consumer lifestyle, health and fashion.

- the key to high returns for such products revolves around branding
and advertising
- Examples: edible fungi, boutique vineyards and wine, commodity
parks

- Organically grown food which became marginalized in the early part

of the 20th century but has become popular again with the
awareness of its human and environmental health giving effects.

*** the development in the commodification of organic production comes

at a time when corporations and governments are also actively
investigating the potential to profit further from the application of
genetic engineering in food production.

3. Counter-urbanization

- the movement of formerly urban residents into rural areas, to small

rural settlements, smallholdings or stand-alone housing

- movement of people to reside in rural settlements, villages and

towns, while still depending for employment on opportunities in
larger urban settings.

Smallholdings
- these take various forms such as large gardens to relatively
significant blocks of land used for small-scale but productive
purposes

- the environmental effect of smallholdings is to increase the diversity

of peri-urban landscapes.
- the issue of counter-urbanism rests on the anti-urban and rural
idyllic sentiment so that rural smallholdings are marketed using
various forms of lifestyle advertising of the "live the dream" idea.

- the arrival of ex-urbanites in the countryside had inflationary effect

on land and property prices
- many smallholders and other ex-urban rural residents are unused to
the realities of agricultural production:noisy, smelly, dirty, brutal and
violent.~

***another commodification effect of counter-urbanization: exurbanites also introduce new cultural and economic forms to rural
areas.

4. Recreation and tourism

- new recreational rural commodities are often based on locations
not previously commercialized but important for recreation

- as the commodification process progresses, new sites are drawn to

commercial use and are given new meaning.

- under changed economic circumstances, what was once local

recreation becomes a commodity sold to visitors ~
- boating, rafting, cycling, fishing, horse riding, walking (with some
slight modifications due to technology)

Creative Destruction and Rural Commodification

Five stages:
1. Early Commodification
2. Advanced Commodification
3. Pre-destruction
4. Advanced Destruction
5. Post-destruction