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Introduction: The Marketization of Everyday Life

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The Social Meaning of Extra Money

Part of the book series: Dynamics of Virtual Work ((DVW))

Abstract

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 secondhand items, sexcamming, and, more generally, the economic use of free time. The development of web platforms, the current economic context, and the post-Fordist values can account for this extension of market and labor to ordinary people. Three main results emerge: first, commodification generates only small amounts of money which may be perceived as pin money, savings, or labor income. Second, the benefits of commodification are mostly non-economic. And third, commodification requires an intensive “extra work.”

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This work is supported by the Independent Social Research Foundation; the French National Research Agency in the framework of the “Investissements d’Avenir” program (ANR-15-IDEX-02), University Grenoble-Alpes Strategic Research Initiative (IRS 2017-MATRACA), and University Grenoble-Alpes Data Institute; the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (MSH) Paris Nord; Paris-Dauphine University (IRISSO); and Sciences Po Grenoble (PACTE).

  2. 2.

    https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Digital_economy_and_society_statistics_-_households_and_individuals (Accessed 11 February 2019).

  3. 3.

    Race is not investigated in our book. As French sociologists living in France where ethnic statistics are proscribed, we (the editors) lack the data to engage in a race analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paris-Dauphine University, PSL Research University, CNRS, IRISSO, Paris, France

    Anne Jourdain

  2. Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Sciences Po Grenoble, PACTE, Grenoble, France

    Sidonie Naulin

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  1. Anne Jourdain
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  2. Sidonie Naulin
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Correspondence to Sidonie Naulin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS Sciences Po Grenoble, PACTE, Grenoble, France

    Sidonie Naulin

  2. Paris-Dauphine University PSL Research University, CNRS, IRISSO, Paris, France

    Anne Jourdain

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Jourdain, A., Naulin, S. (2020). Introduction: The Marketization of Everyday Life. In: Naulin, S., Jourdain, A. (eds) The Social Meaning of Extra Money. Dynamics of Virtual Work. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18297-7_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18297-7_1

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