Home
Not for Sale

Preparing your PDF for download...

There was a problem with your download, please contact the server administrator.

REQUEST AN EXAM OR DESK COPY

Recommend to Library

Download Flyer

Not for Sale: Decommodifying Public Life

Edited by Gordon Laxer and Dennis Soron

Paperback

$43.95
Ebook - PDF

$37.95

Published: May 2006

Product Details

Imprint: University of Toronto Press

Page Count: 288 Pages

Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.00

World Rights

288 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 x 1.00 in

Ebook - PDF

$37.95

ISBN: 9781442603172

Quantity

In Stock

Add To Cart

Shipping Location

Choose a Shipping Location

Shipping Updated

This item has rights restrictions. We are unable to ship/sell this item to your location.

There are no exam or desk copies available for this title. If you have any questions, please email us at requests@utorontopress.com.

Add to Wishlist

Description
Authors
Contents
Reviews
Subjects

Not for Sale examines key dimensions of the current assault against communal resources by relentless commodification and privatization. Gordon Laxer and Dennis Soron include chapters by social scientists who explore ways in which progressive projects of "reclaiming" the commons involve confronting the capitalist drive to commodify all aspects of existence, including human body parts, water, labour, knowledge, and even the air we breathe. The book argues that crucial areas of social and natural life should not be treated as commodities regulated by undemocratic markets. Not for Sale discusses the alternatives presented by local, national, and international struggles to decommodify and democratize as many spheres of life as possible.

Gordon Laxer is a political economist in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta. He is the author of Open for Business: The Roots of Foreign Ownership in Canada (Oxford University Press, 1989) and co-editor (with Sandra Halperin) of Global Civil Society and Its Limits (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). Professor Laxer is the director and co-founder of Parkland Institute, a non-corporate, Alberta research network.

Dennis Soron is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Brock University.

List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgements

Part One: Framing the Issues

1. Thematic Introduction: Decommodification, Democracy, and the Battle for the Commons
Dennis Soron & Gordon Laxer

2. The Commodity Status of Labour: The Secret of Commodified Life
David McNally

3. On the Ownership of Nature
Birgit Muller

4. Cosmopolitan Elites Versus Nationally-focused Citizens—Cycles of Decommodification Struggles
Gordon Laxer

Part Two: Dynamics of Commodification

5. The General Agreement on Trade in Services—Politics by Another Means
Ellen Gould

6. Frontiers of the Market: Commodifying Human Body Parts
Trevor W. Harrison

7. A New Gender (Dis)order?—Neoliberal Restructuring in Australia
Ray Broomhill & Rhonda Sharp

8. Water is Life! The Debate over Private Sector Participation in Water Supply
Karen Bakker

Part Three: Democratic Struggles for Decommodification

9. Commodification and Decommodification in Mexico under NAFTA
Teresa Gutierrez-Haces

10. Forging New Democracies: Indigenous Struggles for Autonomy
Gerardo Otero & Heidi Jugenitz

11. In Defence of the Environmental State: NGO Strategies to Resist the Commodification of Nature
Anita Krajnc

12. From the Knowledge Economy to the Knowledge Commons: Resisting the Commodification of Knowledge
Jennifer Sumner

13. Decommodifying Daily Life: The Politics of Overconsumption
Dennis Soron

References
Notes on Contributors
Index

One of the great struggles of our time is taking place between those who want to privatize and commodify every aspect of life, including social programs, culture, water, air, and seeds, and those who believe in the existence of a global 'commons'—a shared human heritage that must be protected from the rules of the market. Not For Sale examines this emerging field of study with some of the most exciting thinkers and activists of our time. A thorough and challenging book.
Maude Barlow, National Chairperson, Council of Canadians

Cuts to the heart of what is at stake in globalization—and, for that matter, capitalism itself—with theoretical clarity, empirical detail, and landing lights.
Amory Starr, author of Naming the Enemy: Anti-Corporate Movements Confront Globalization and Global Revolt: A Guide to Alterglobalization

Environmental Studies / Environmental Policy

Sociology / Globalization

Political Science / Environmental Politics

Books

Authors

On The Site

Not for Sale: Decommodifying Public Life