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The afterlives of the lively commodity: Life-worlds, death-worlds, rotting-worlds

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  • Kathryn Gillespie

Abstract

This article engages with Rosemary-Claire Collard and Jessica Dempsey’s theory of lively commodities in a discussion of cows raised for dairy exchanged in farmed-animal auctions. Taking their theorization of the lively commodity as a starting point to better understand the commodification of nonhuman life, I propose an extension of this work that attends to a continuum of commodity forms understood through the life and death of the cow. Cows raised for dairy move through the auction yard as a site of capitalist exchange as lively, soon-to-be-dead, and once-living commodities, their value determined by the stage of their life-course and their bodily condition. As such, the auction can be understood as a landscape of life-worlds, where the cow’s liveliness determines her value; and death-worlds and rotting-worlds, where the afterlives of the lively commodity are extracted as capital. Ultimately, the article calls for an upending of the commodification of nonhuman life and a new imaginary of the kinds of life-worlds that are possible beyond logics of capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Kathryn Gillespie, 2021. "The afterlives of the lively commodity: Life-worlds, death-worlds, rotting-worlds," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(2), pages 280-295, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:53:y:2021:i:2:p:280-295
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X20944417
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Donald Mackenzie & Fabian Muniesa & Lucia Siu, 2007. "Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics," Post-Print halshs-00149145, HAL.
    2. Weis, Tony, 2013. "The Ecological Hoofprint," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9781780320977, Febrero.
    3. Rosemary-Claire Collard & Jessica Dempsey, 2013. "Life for Sale? The Politics of Lively Commodities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(11), pages 2682-2699, November.
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