For Tuesday 28th April I have the following presentation:
Initially I had two research questions the first: “In today’s cultural ecology is there such a thing as a free gift?” which initially appeared to be too weak and basic, a respected criticism noted it felt too essay lite and “Are consumers selling themselves cheap by ‘buying’ free gifts with surveys / advertising / attention?” would be a much better question. The second question was “In the light of present capitalist driven globalisation, which is the ultimate commodity: knowledge or identity?” which again while better than the former, raised criticism around its use of the term commodity. The question itself is ambiguous in its usage of this term, and would be better if I defined the usage as either the ultimate marginal, low profit value or as the ultimate bargaining chip / payment method.
My research question is the following “In the light of present capitalist driven globalisation, which is the ultimate commodity: knowledge or identity?”. In my own opinion knowledge drives the search of identity which itself is driven by capitalism, capitalism itself drives globalisation which forces upon people multiculturalism which in itself causes the effect of loss of something within a community, its culture and identity this longing for something to take place of that lost drives a sense of wanting to be unique which itself perpetuates capitalism. It can be argued that this process itself is an effect of the post-modern world we live in today.
For a commodity to be “ultimate” I believe the main requirement to be longevity followed by the ability to be reproduced/replicated through any means. The “ultimate” commodity should be adaptable so it can evolve within an ever changing context, thus the ability to be adapted to what the consumer wants it to be.
