The Social Meaning of Extra Money: Capitalism and the Commodification of Domestic and Leisure Activities

Description

Why do ordinary people who used to engage in domestic and leisure activities for free now try to make a profit from them? How and why do people commodify their free time? This book explores the marketization of blogging, cooking, craftwork, gardening, knitting, selling second-hand items, sexcamming, and more generally the economic use of free time. It outlines how the development of web platforms, the current economic context and post-Fordist values can account for this extension of market and labor. Drawing on a range of interviews, ethnographic observations, and quantitative surveys, the contributors question the empowering effects of commodification, with a specific focus on how gender and class inequalities affect the social meanings of extra money. Ultimately, the collective findings demonstrate how commodification pervades even the most mundane social activities. This research will be invaluable to scholars and students with a focus on gender and digital sociology, the sociology of work and labour, and the marketization of leisure. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Introduction: The Marketization of Everyday Life (Anne Jourdain, Sidonie Naulin)....Pages 1-29 Front Matter ....Pages 31-31 Commodifying Leisure and Improving Its Social Value: Knitters’ Conspicuous Production on Ravelry.com (Vinciane Zabban)....Pages 33-59 Making Money Out of Leisure: The Marketization of Handicrafts and Food Blogging (Anne Jourdain, Sidonie Naulin)....Pages 61-95 Selling Second-Hand Items on the Web: New Skills for Everyone? (Adrien Bailly, Renaud Garcia-Bardidia, Coralie Lallemand)....Pages 97-117 Front Matter ....Pages 119-119 Comorian Women at Work: Juggling Insecure Jobs with the Transnational Suitcase Trade (Abdoul-Malik Ahmad)....Pages 121-150 Domesticity as Value: The Commodification of Foodstuffs in Precarious Rural Russia (Glenn Mainguy)....Pages 151-182 Nonstandard Working Hours and Economic Use of Free Time in the Upper Class: The Gender Gap (Anne Lambert)....Pages 183-207 Front Matter ....Pages 209-209 Performing Amateurism: A Study of Camgirls’ Work (Pierre Brasseur, Jean Finez)....Pages 211-237 Making Money from TV Series: From Viewer to Webmaster with Financial Rewards (Anne-Sophie Béliard)....Pages 239-268 Back Matter ....Pages 269-284