Commodified Exchange: Imagining Alternatives

April 3-4, 2025 (Arrival on April 2 recommended for those who live far from the venue, covered by CUSO)

Prof. Dr. Rita Kesselring, UNISG

Prof. Dr. Matías Dewey, UNISG

Felicia Afriyie (M.A.), UNISG

Dr. Ignacio Acosta, Royal College of Art, GB

Commodities connect: they bridge geographical, imaginary, and emotional distance between differently situated consumers; they flatten difference in consumption patterns, their production and use are based on new global standards. As much as they connect, commodities also create barriers: between producers and consumers, between those who lose and those who benefit from value creation, between those who own the means of production and those whose labor produces the commodities, between those who are connected and those who are disconnected from global markets, and so forth. Yet, commodities are also subject to transformation: sacred objects may become "museum pieces" and human beings can become products to be bought or sold.

Different theories underlie these processes. The dialectic between connect and disconnect is at play in the most prominent theories on commodities in capitalist times: For instance, if we view commodities to be organized along supply "chains", we draw on the imaginary of a chain with neatly entangled elements where one element conditions the other; if one element fails or turns out to be a hindrance, the chain is interrupted. The imaginary of a "global production network" ('The trouble with global production networks', Yeung 2020) on the other hand suggests a less linear and more entangled setup of the production, distribution and consumption of commodities. Some nodes are central, dominating, others are weak, negligible, but always an integral part of a whole. Disconnection does not undermine the network imaginary: the disconnected – de-coupled – node is itself constitutive of the network.

Whether we take the imaginary of a chain or a network, in the end, these are economic, abstracted and oftenprescriptive perspectives on an inherently human practice. Moreover, the dominant character of these imaginaries has obscured the importance of the local and the fact that sometimes the circulation of goods is not linked to "global chains". The theories are seductive in that they put an imaginary on top of ethnographic realities, potentially suffocating the imaginary otherwise.

In this PhD course, we seek to explore ways of describing commodities' global dis/connectivities in ways in which empirical cases lead to theory-making rather than the other way around. How do commodities' globality and materiality relate to sociality? How can we combine political economy and life-worldly approaches? How can sociological perspectives contribute to imagining forms of exchange that point to alternatives to late capitalism? What are the driving forces leading to the incorporation of nature and objects into market relationships? How do these questions relate to the so-called 'green energy' transition and environmental challenges and vulnerabilities? How do alternative and practiced forms of commodified exchange challenge conventional notions of value and valuation?

Based in the 'global village' of Trogen in Appenzell Ausserrhoden, we will engage with the place's history of textile trade, trying to think through the course's topic in-situ. PhD candidates will present their ongoing research, Dr. Acosta will contribute from the perspective of artistic practice, and the organizers will give inputs from their research perspectives (with expertise in the commodified exchange of metals, art /artefacts, people and consumables). 

Invited expert:

Dr. Ignacio Acosta is an artist-academic. Recently, based on this online resource developed for a recent conference at the Paul Mellon Centre, Acosta has developed From Mars to Venus: Activism of the Future. In our course, he will contribute with his experience in methodologies for tracing commodity chains and connecting sites of extraction with global sites of consumption, which is the main subject of his PhD and publication Copper Geographies developed within the Traces of Nitrate project. 

Venue:

Lindenbühl, Trogen AR,

www.lindenbuehl-trogen.ch

Trogen AR

Participation fee: CHF 60 

For students of the CUSO universities (Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel and Fribourg) and from the universities of Bern, Zürich, Luzern, Basel and St. Gallen, accommodation and meals are organised and covered by the CUSO doctoral program in anthropology. 

Travel expenses will be reimbursed via MyCUSO based on half-fare train ticket (2nd class) from the student's university to the place of the activity.

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