To understand decommodification, you have to understand commodification, and to understand commodification, you have to understand capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system based on the commodity form of need satisfaction — in other words, under this system it is assumed people have needs, and those needs are best fulfilled by purchasing goods and services. In such a system, the production of goods and services is not democratically organized by the state or other social institutions according to human needs or principles of ecological sustainability. Instead, production is organized by private economic interests (also called capital) according to the imperatives of profit maximization and capital accumulation. The source of such profits is the exploitation of human labor and nature by capital. Adam Smith referred to this imperative — the capitalist commodification of all things — as the invisible hand of the market. Karl Marx called it the law of value.
Capitalism incentivizes commodification: the process of transforming people and nature into objects to be bought and sold as commodities in the marketplace. Today, the most basic necessities of life — housing, transportation, urban spaces, utilities, health care, and food — come largely in the commodity form, as private goods and services that you may or may not have the privilege of buying or selling. Access to food or housing, for example, depends on how much money you have in your pocket, not on whether you are hungry or in need of shelter. In other words, these objects and services are NOT treated as a basic right of citizenship. In this respect, a capitalist society built entirely on the commodity form of need satisfaction subordinates our most fundamental human and environmental rights in favor of the private property rights of capital: profits over people and nature.
Decommodification, by contrast, seeks to liberate people and places from a dependency on the commodity form of need satisfaction, especially with respect to basic life necessities (food, shelter, transportation, health care, education, etc). According to the influential Danish scholar Gøsta Esping-Anderson, decommodification occurs “when a service is rendered as a matter of right, and when a person can maintain a livelihood without reliance on the market.” To achieve this goal, decommodification advances more broadly affordable (even free) and accessible solutions, and prioritizes more democratic and publicly-owned options over private, profit-oriented ones. A national health care system which guarantees universal health care for its citizens is one such example. A free public transportation system, as seen in Park City, Utah, is another.
Or take the housing market: living spaces are subject to market supply and demand, leaving those who cannot afford soaring rents out on the streets. A decommodified housing market, by contrast, views living spaces as a guaranteed right of citizenship, rather than a commodity to be bought and sold. To facilitate this shift, a decommodified approach would reduce market pressures by introducing alternative solutions, like community land trusts: non profit organizations that own and develop land for housing, but are governed by residents, rather than corporations.
On a more abstract level, decommodification is a symbolic goal, envisioning a system that prioritizes people over profit and protects fundamental human rights against the growing colonization of our communities by powerful corporate interests. In short, decommodification is a critically useful framework for visualizing solutions that help us build a freer, more socially and environmentally just world.
