MARKET TRANSACTIONS AND GIFT TRANSACTIONS IN CAPITALISM'S DIVERSE ECONOMY

Capitalism's diverse economy.

Capitalism is not monolithic: within it, there exist a host of transactions that are not market-based and cannot be adequately explained by neoclassical economics. Duncan Ironmonger's time-use study counting outputs demonstrates that uncompensated housework constitutes a huge component of the U.S. economy as feudal economic transactions, and other economists have demonstrated that prisoner labor constitutes slave transactions within the American economy. Furthermore, Richard Barbrook's conclusions in "The High-Tech Gift Economy" point to the existence of a "mixed economy," where "money-commodity and gift relations are not just in conflict with one another, but also co-exist in symbiosis." And Steven Gudeman in Postmodern Gifts contends that "The many cases of reciprocity recorded by anthropologists challenge the idea that material life must be completely organized by market practices" (3): market modes of exchange and non-market modes of exchange, and their associated forms of valuation, can and do exist in a diverse economy.

Gift transactions construct identity and constitute community.

From Marx and Veblen to Ira Shor and Julie Lindquist, class theorists of all stripes have long discussed the ways in which the economic activities one engages in help to determine one's identity: this is the very definition of how social class gets created. And while cultural meanings and economic practices can be used to understand group membership, we should also understand, as Gudeman does, that the gift "connects incommensurate social worlds" (20); in tiny ways, the gift can transgress or violate or rupture class boundaries. Links on a blogroll or Web page can be seen as a form of gift, especially in the sense in which "The gift extends the commons to someone outside community, offering temporary participation or even permanent inclusion" (Gudeman 12), or in the way in which a citation in an essay beckons the writer into the community associated with the citation. Richard Barbrook argues that "network communities are [. . .] formed through the mutual obligation created by gifts of time and ideas".

There are different types of rewards for writing.

Yochai Benkler describes three types of rewards that individuals take as reasons for economic activity. Monetary rewards may be seen as similar to what is gained in a market transaction. Social-psychological rewards may be seen as similar to what is gained in a gift transaction. Intrinsic hedonic rewards may be seen as the non-commodified use value of an act of writing: I enjoy writing.

Introduction: turnitin dot com

1. Writing as Process and Writing as Product

2. Neoclassical Economics and Marxian Economics

3. Market Transactions and Gift Transactions

4. Use Value and Exchange Value

Conclusion: sharingwriting dot net

Capitalism's diverse economy.

The academic essay may be seen as a gift transaction.

Gift transactions constitute identity and construct community.

There are different types of rewards for writing.