Features of gift exchange in market economy Cover Image

Elementi menjave daru v tržni ekonomiji
Features of gift exchange in market economy

Author(s): Andrej Rus
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Slovensko sociološko društvo (in FDV)
Keywords: Mauss; gift; commodity; exchange; marketing

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this analysis is to examine whether a market exchange is really an exchange of alienated, impersonal and anonymous objects, devoid of moral and social elements or obligations, and therefore strictly distinct from gift exchange, as presupposed by the dichotomous socio-anthropological model of exchange. Marketing practices have changed significantly in the past few decades and sometimes contain elements which imitate a gift exchange. Analysis shows that contemporary marketing techniques often decommoditise market exchanges: they build long-term relationships between a company and its customers, create moral obligations, reduce alienation and enable a transfer of identities, thereby infusing the features of a gift exchange into a market exchange.

  • Issue Year: 26/2010
  • Issue No: 63
  • Page Range: 63-79
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Slovenian