One of the most important concepts in Marxist
theory that helps to understand relationships of production in modern
society
is commodity (something that has been
produced for the purpose of being exchanged or sale). The commodity form was a starting point for
Marx’s critical analysis of capitalism.
He argued that when the bourgeois,
in the process of accumulating wealth, produces goods and services solely for
the purpose of sale them they become commodities.
Marx called this process of buying and sale of commodities as capitalism since
that this system is built around the drive to increase capital. In
this process the workers become a commodity as the capitalist buy their labour
with money. It is also interesting to
observe that as services become commodified
the process of transformation of nature into city takes place. For
instance Kaika (2000) in their study
about the fetishizing urban spaces used water and water networks as an example
to describe the shift of meanings of urban technological networks during
modernity. They argue that as water
becomes commodified nature itself
becomes re-invented in its urban form.
Moreover, according to them this takes place in terms of cultural code of
hygiene, aesthetic, cleanliness and other uses of water as mere use value.