Commodification of culture: towards the formulation of the problem

Akoeva Natalya Borisovna, Korennoi Alexander Sergeevich

The article considers the commodification of culture as a process of alienation of the essence of an artifact, represented by a unique figurative and semantic content, from its existence. According to the legacy of K. Marx, commodification can be carried out provided that the market price system considers an item created by personal or collective labor and was not previously a commodity. However, in modern reality, commodification is understood as the process of turning any object, be it a historical or cultural artifact, a symbol, an eidos, into a market commodity that is subject to exchange for something that has an expression in monetary terms. This conclusion was made by Western scientists J. Nah, S. Mayhew. The reasons for the calculation of cultural objects are modern researchers, S. Leys and B. According to Harriss-White, there is an increase in demand for goods and services in the conditions of stratification of the public sphere, a decrease in financing of various projects by the state, the development of private investment that does not meet the challenges of modernity, the emergence of legally potential corporate partners, increased competition between commercial and non-profit organizations. As a result, commodification is considered as a consequence of the commodification of the social system as a whole, the signs of which include Western European projects of combining culture with marketing innovations and government strategies. In addition to real objects of cultural space, objective factors, expressed by norms, are subjected to commodification, which are considered as goods necessary for exchange, the development of economic bargaining, the creation of identity. Accepted in the Western tradition, the understanding of a person as a biosocial being with psychophysiological needs in need of satisfaction inevitably leads to a reduction and minimization of the value structure of his consciousness. As a consequence, the spiritual and moral content that determines the value of the cultural space is being emasculated, it is being reduced to the level of a commodity that has a demand and a price, which, unfortunately, is not able to adequately express the continuum-semantic uniqueness of the objects that make up it. The pricing policy in the sphere of culture subject to commodification processes, studied on the basis of the classical heritage according to the economic theory of A. Marshall, confirms this conclusion. In addition, it should be noted that the increase in the price, which is able to adequately express the absolute value of the cultural object, is of a formal nature, based on the commodity relations of purchase and sale.

Keywords:commodification, culture, commodity, market, calculation, commodification, pricing policy, alienation, essence, spirituality, value, price.