Contested Commodities: the Trouble with Trade in Sex, Children, Body Parts and Other Things

In this thought-provoking new book Margaret Jane Radin asks us to consider whether there are some areas of social life which should be off-limits to the market, and whether some human interactions should be exempted from market-style forms of description and analysis. Although Radin is not the first theorist to address these issues, her elegantly written book contains some of the most sophisticated treatment they have received thus far. She convincingly makes the point that unless we transcend those models of human behaviour which characterize all human interactions as market exchanges, we may find ourselves unable to engage in the forms of valuing required for the maintenance and promotion of a humane society.