Commodification is the process by which technologies and resources are given value, often for the purpose of making them interchangeable
Commodification is often viewed as a necessary step in producing a product. Water, for example, is presented to the consumer in metered amounts, whether from the tap or in tagged bottles. Time is numbered in hours, minutes, and seconds, and is often given monetary worth--consider the old adage, "time is money". The process of commodification might be seen as boundary work--behind our classes of everyday objects are patterns of division and subdivision of naturally fuzzy concepts into portable, exchangeable portions of value.
Reflective design can make this process visible or disrupt it outright. The user might be invited to think about the arbitrary nature of values applied to natural resources, such as water. A clock produced through reflective design might reject common ideas of time, meter, and worth.
The designer might use reflective design to understand the processes by which resources are divided and packaged. Does the process of commodifying water have any irrational aspects to it? What do interfaces gain or lose by appealing to notions of value and worth?
Control
Irrationality of Rationality
Quantifiability
