Production, Consumption, Prosumption

TLDR

Prosumption, the blending of production and consumption, has become a defining feature of modern prosumer capitalism, a form that traces its roots back to earlier capitalist modes. The surge of user‑generated content has made prosumption central, shifting control toward unpaid labor and free products, creating an abundance that signals a possible new prosumer capitalist system.

Abstract

This article deals with the rise of prosumer capitalism. Prosumption involves both production and consumption rather than focusing on either one (production) or the other (consumption). It is maintained that earlier forms of capitalism (producer and consumer capitalism) were themselves characterized by prosumption. Given the recent explosion of user-generated content online, we have reason to see prosumption as increasingly central. In prosumer capitalism, control and exploitation take on a different character than in the other forms of capitalism: there is a trend toward unpaid rather than paid labor and toward offering products at no cost, and the system is marked by a new abundance where scarcity once predominated. These trends suggest the possibility of a new, prosumer, capitalism.