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The “New” World of Prosumption: Evolution, “Return of the Same,” or Revolution?
Author(s) -
Ritzer George
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
sociological forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.937
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1573-7861
pISSN - 0884-8971
DOI - 10.1111/socf.12142
Subject(s) - prosumer , commodification , capitalism , digital revolution , argument (complex analysis) , the internet , sociology , consumption (sociology) , variety (cybernetics) , consumerism , neoclassical economics , economic system , social science , economics , economy , market economy , law , political science , computer science , world wide web , engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , artificial intelligence , renewable energy , politics , electrical engineering
While strong arguments can be made that prosumption today can be seen as a primal phenomenon and an evolutionary process, the strongest argument is that it involves a revolutionary set of developments producing a dramatically new world of prosumption. While those developments can be seen in both the material and digital worlds (although they augment one another), they are clearest in the digital world, especially the Internet. Among the forces that are creating this new world of consumption are new means of prosumption (e.g., IKEA , massive online open courses, automated teller machines) which are made possible by a variety of new technologies (the computer, the Internet). However, overarching these and other changes is the emergence of a new form of capitalism, “prosumer capitalism.” In addition to exploiting often low‐paid commodified workers, prosumer capitalism increasingly prioritizes the exploitation of largely uncommodified prosumers who are generally unpaid. Prosumers offer the capitalist many other advantages (e.g., no long‐term obligations such as high‐cost benefit programs). There are few, if any, obligations to prosumers with the result that they fit well with today's reigning neoliberal philosophy. The new world of prosumption could have been a more positive development had it not been usurped by capitalist interests.