Commodification and patriarchy, or how capitalism overwhelm life sustainability

Abstract

The process of commodification linked to capitalist development has led to a growing devaluation of social dimensions that became central to life sustainability. This phenomenon has been strengthened by conventional economics which focus its analysis on the productive and mercantile arena by ignoring some activities connected to other areas of the process of social reproduction. From a political economy approach it is analyzed how the process commodification has led to an erosion of the base of human sustainability as it is the material base provided by the environment and the reproductive and care dimension. We conclude identifying some weaknesses of the conventional approach which is based on a patriarchy view of the society that grow away from a human conception