View source for Digital Prosumption and Alienation


'''* Article: Digital prosumption and alienation. By Edward Comor. Special issue of Ephemera on [[Digital Labour]]. volume 10(3/4): 439-454'''

URL = http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/10-3/10-3comor.pdf


=Abstract=

"Since the hybrid producer-consumer – the prosumer – was conceptualized three decades ago,
prosumption has been embraced by both mainstream and progressive analysts. With digital technologies
enabling more people to engage in an array of online prosumption activities, one shared claim is
particularly striking: the empowering and humanizing implications of prosumption will mark the end of
human alienation. In this paper, I assess this extraordinary prediction by, first, establishing that the core
of Marx’s conceptualization of alienation is capital’s dominance over human relations, compelling people
to become mere tools of the production process. Second, I assess both general and specific digital
prosumption developments in light of this understanding of alienation. Third, my analysis concludes that
people will participate in prosumption in at least three discernible ways: most will remain relatively
powerless tools of capital; some will act as capital’s creative tools; and a minority (those possessing
extraordinary capabilities) will have the potential to employ prosumption in ways that redress their
alienation."


[[Category:Labor]]

[[Category:Articles]]