Culture as a commodity: reflections on the process of cultural commodification in the capitalist mode of production

Abstract

The article proposes a reflection on the role of culture in the reproduction of the capitalist system, as well as on the process of cultural commodification based on the bibliographical revision of important exponents of the Cultural Studies and the Frankfurt School. Starting from the problematization of the very concept of culture, which can be understood both as an expression of a way of life constructed by an economic system and as a constituent element of the configuration of society itself, this work proposes a procedural reflection on how culture became a commodity in the capitalist mode of production. Changes in the cultural field from the end of feudalism to the emergence of the mass media, as well as the impact of these transformations on life in society are presented. The recovery of this trajectory demonstrates, in the perspective of the theorist Fredric Jameson, that logic of capitalism in the present time is cultural, since the merchandise has flooded all the elements of the social life, including the own culture.