Decommodification as a concept comes from the idea that in a market economy, individual persons (and their labor) are commodified. Given that labor is the individual's primary commodity in the market, decommodification refers to activities and efforts (generally by the government) that reduces individuals' reliance on the market (and their labor) for their well-being. In general, unemployment, sickness insurance and pensions are used to measure decommodification for comparisons of the welfare state

Welfare state

A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...

.

Decommodification is the process of viewing utilities as an entitlement

Entitlement

An entitlement is a guarantee of access to benefits based on established rights or by legislation. A "right" is itself an entitlement associated with a moral or social principle, such that an "entitlement" is a provision made in accordance with legal framework of a society...

, rather than as a commodity that must be paid or traded for. In effect, a decommodified product removes itself from the market, and can be associated with welfarism

Welfarism

Welfarism is a form of consequentialism. Like all forms of consequentialism, welfarism is based on the premise that actions, policies, and/or rules should be evaluated on the basis of their consequences. Welfarism is the view that the morally significant consequences are impacts on human welfare...

. An example of decommodification would be the removal of tolls from a toll road.

Decommodification has been identified as a strategy for sustainable consumption that acts one level up on the institutional context of consumption in Western societies as compared to strategies such as eco-efficiency

Eco-efficiency

The term eco-efficiency was coined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its 1992 publication "Changing Course". It is based on the concept of creating more goods and services while using fewer resources and creating less waste and pollution.The 1992 Earth Summit endorsed...

 and eco-sufficiency

Eco-sufficiency

Eco-sufficiency requires a reduction of the level of production/consumption in those parts of the world with the highest standards of living beyond reducing the use of natural resources as well as waste and emissions per unit of production/consumption...

. Thus, while the eco-efficiency strategy targets the product and the eco-sufficiency strategy targets the person (the consumer as decision-maker), the decommodification strategy targets the institutional context in which consumption takes place. It aims to decrease the influence of commodities and to limit the effect of commercialisation.

Other sources

Decommodification of Labor Theory (DLT) Is a criminological theory that focuses on the intersection of homicide and the free-market capitalist system. It argues that there is a direct relationship between the commodification of the social being and the propensity to engage in a major anti-social act (i.e. homicide)

Theory DLT is a synthesis of Esping-Andersen’s (1990) economic theory of commodification and the macrosocial institutional-anomie theory of crime, first proposed by Messner and Rosenfeld in Crime and the American Dream (1992)

DLT hypothesizes that decommodification of labor is negatively related to homicide rates, an inverse relationship that argues for social services to mitigate antisocial behavior through: (1) ease of access, (2) income-replacement value and (3) the range of social statuses and conditions covered

DLT argues that decommodification of labor lowers economic dominance and reduces "anomic pressure" (i.e. loss of values/morals) resulting in a reduction antisocial behavior.

Sources

Esping-Andersen, Gosta. 1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton University
Press.

Messner, Steven F., and Richard Rosenfeld. 1997. Crime and the American Dream. 2d ed. Wadsworth

Messner, Steven F., and Richard Rosenfeld. 1997. Political Restraint of the Market and Levels of Criminal Homicide. Social Forces 75(4) 1393-1416

More on decommodification of information can be found at this World Social Forum page.