Searching for the Theory of Practice behind the WTO's Commodification Mandate

When trying to understand the origins of the collapse of nineteenth-century civilization, Karl Polanyi identified a Great Transformation into a "starkly utopian" Self-Regulating Market (SRM). This shift entailed 2 elements: a wide-ranging re-regulation of organization and control of production processes, and the development of economic liberalism as a body of thought that provided justification of a new set of public policies that facilitated a transformation of land (nature), labor (people), and capital (money) into "fictitious commodities." Even though these factors have not originally been produced for sale, they are now organized by purchase-logics and their value determined by market signals. Philosophy of praxis approaches point out that this process of transformation is never complete. Neither the ?discovery? of new commodities, nor the expansion of market logics are natural, but the outcome of socio-political struggles. New agreements of the World Trade Organization for example render ever more elements of social life and nature as ?trade related? and under its auspices the next great commodification wave unfolds. This paper traces which type of knowledge publicly justifies the resulting floods these policies release before comparing it with concrete negotiated outcomes and their impacts. The final discussion will circle the question to which extent ?objective? science influences policy-making - or if subjective selection of sciences supports policy-selling. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript