The Commodity Society: Understanding the Self as a Product in a Market‑Driven World (2022)
Analyzes "self-commodification" — how individuals increasingly view and market themselves as products or services. Links directly to the notion of identity as "product."
Personal Data as a Commodity in the Digital Economy (2025)
Documents how personal data — our habits, interactions, identity metrics — are treated as a key commodity in digital platforms. Supports the idea that humans/data are being priced and traded.
The Commodification of Self (Hedgehog Review essay)
Explores how self-definition shifts under market logic — consumption shapes identity, and relationships/social life are reorganized around market-style exchange.
The influence of personal‑brand communication on consumer interest (2024)
Shows how "personal branding" influences consumer behavior — emphasizes how identity/appearance become commodifiable assets.
Commodifying Consumer Data in the Era of the Internet of Things (2018)
Documents how data from everyday devices — biometric, health-related, behavioral — becomes commodified and enters financial & legal frameworks. Underlines the extension of value-extraction into all aspects of existence.
Digital Consumer Activism: Agency and Commodification in the Digital Economy (Ephemera Journal, 2021)
Explores how digital economies treat individuals as data-assets — highlighting dynamics of exploitation, power imbalance, and commodification.
Concept overview: Surveillance capitalism
A widely adopted framework describing how corporations monetize personal data and attention — the foundational economic context for treating humans as tradeable entities.
Key Findings From This Research
People increasingly regard themselves as marketable products — identities, personal histories, social presence — not stable beings.
Digital platforms treat personal data and behavior as tradable commodities, valued by algorithms and advertisers, reinforcing systems of surveillance, control, and extraction.
Individuals who engage in "personal branding" or online visibility — influencers, gig-workers, micro-celebrities — experience stress, role pressure, burnout, and alienation, revealing psychological costs of commodified identity.
Self-definition, social relationships, and even mental health are increasingly mediated by market logic: performance, return on investment, maintenance, and "warranty conditions."