Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
and storage, energy systems, etc.), the networks themselves come to embody a wish
image of the 'urban' defi ned, in part, as that which is distinct from and an improve-
ment on 'nature'.
The wishes, desires, and dreams of imaginary geographies that circulate with
commodities brings us to scholarship and activism seeking explicitly to transform
the socio-ecological character of commodity chains and networks in part by taking
hold of the sign values of commodities. This is a central facet of ethical, fair and
organic production, and trade campaigns seeking more equitable and sustainable
material practices in part through the propagation of standards, labels and the like.
While these labelling schemes always aim towards some form of greater trans-
parency, as well as a mix of enhanced social justice and ecological sustainability
in commodity circuits, they do not eliminate fetishism per se; they rather seek to
simultaneously rework both the material and semiotic aspects of commodities
(Goodman, 2004).
And in this, consumer education campaigns around better and worse choices of
commodity purchases refl ect the power that consumers and a politics of consumption
can and do have to effect change (see, e.g., Johns and Vural, 2000; Le Heron and
Hayward, 2002). Broad-based scholarship and international networks of social
activism pursue these goals in part by forging and sustaining connections that span
production and consumption, linking disparate human and non-human actors in
commodity circuits via mechanisms such as fair, ethical, organic, and sustainable
trading regimes, and with wide-ranging implications for the geographies of produc-
ing and circulating nature in the commodity-form (McCarthy, 2006). This includes
for instance, the development of forest certifi cation schemes which defi ne and seek
to support more socially and ecologically sustainable forestry through the certifi ca-
tion of wood products, schemes that have had considerable (though contested)
impacts in forest commodity networks (Morris and Dunne, 2004; Klooster, 2005;
2006; Stringer, 2006). It also includes a plethora of food labels and certifi cation
schemes (e.g., organics) that both refl ect and reinforce a widespread cultural and
political re-signifi cation of food in recent years, resulting in reworked relations
among production and consumption for scholars, activists and 'foodies' alike in
conventional and alternative food networks (Watts et al., 2005; Winter, 2003). These
dynamics also establish new lines of struggle and contestation as both the form and
content of labelling and certifi cation schemes become subject to contending social
pressures, on one hand seeking to uphold rigorous standards of social justice and
ecological sustainability, and on the other, to hollow these out in favour of light green
glosses on conventional, more profi t-driven practices (Guthman, 2007).
(De)Commodifi cation Redux
Whatever the outcome of such struggles, it has become clear that the search for
alterity in commodity circuits must confront both material and representational
practices. Important challenges and dilemmas remain. Can the fetishism of the com-
modity ever really be enlisted and sustained for the purposes of more socially just
and environmentally sound production and consumption relations and practices?
Put succinctly, and paraphrasing Guthman (2002), what is the relationship between
'commodifi ed meanings', alternative or otherwise, and 'meaningful commodities'
(i.e., more sustainable in a robust sense of the term)? How can resignifi cation
schemes overcome the challenge of displacement? Nowhere is the threat of a
