Postmodern Theory and Internet George Ritzer

stating an identity, and which simultaneously establish comings-and-goings, echoes, among one another.” 

Sourced from http://www.jacques-rivette.com/.

2  Barthes, Roland, ‘From Work to Text’, 1971, translation Copyright 1977, Stephen Heath. Sourced 

from http://areas.fba.ul.pt/jpeneda/From%20Work%20to%20Text.pdf

3  Kraus, Chris, ‘Indelible Video’, 2011. Sourced from http://www.semiotexte.com/?p=683

4  Stein, Gertrude, ‘Composition as Explanation’ 1925. There is at present there is distribution,  

by this I mean expression and time, and in this way at present composition is time that is the reason  

that at present the time-sense is troubling that is the reason why at present the time-sense in the 

composition is the composition that is making what there is in composition.” Sourced from  

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/essay/238702

Things are Circulating ……………………………………………………………………………… Gil Leung

http://openfile.org.uk/archive/gil-leung-things-are-circulating/

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Digital prosumption and alienation 

Edward Comor

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.

Introduction

In his 1980 book The Third Wave, Alvin Toffler prophesized that people 

soon would customize the goods and services they consume. Through their 

use of networked computers, he predicted that consumption would become 

increasingly integrated with production, distribution and exchange, so much  

so that power over the production process would shift into the hands of 

everyday people. Mass industrialization and consumption, Toffler argued, 

would be eclipsed by self-customization led by the hybrid producer-consumer: 

what he called the prosumer.

For Toffler, alienation was the outcome of Second Wave industrial society. 

Unlike the agrarian First Wave, Second Wave humanity was dominated by 

mechanized tasks and routines controlled by centralized, hierarchical interests. 

With the coming post-industrial Third Wave, Toffler anticipated the kinds of 

political, economic and sociological changes now lauded by prosumption’s 

progressive proponents. With the home transformed into an ‘electronic 

cottage’—a place in which work and leisure co-exist and the increasingly 

empowered prosumer wins back her freedoms and sense of self—‘the first truly 

humane civilization in recorded history’ is due to unfold (Toffler, 1980: 11).

Digital prosumption and alienation ………………………………………………………… Edward Comor

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Almost three decades later, Tapscott and Williams, in their best-seller 

Wikinomics (2006), further popularized prosumption as nothing less than the 

core activity of a new economy—one in which peer-to-peer networking and 

collaboration are facilitating the construction of an economic system that is 

innovative, creative and universally beneficial. This bold vision has been echoed 

by a legion of critical analysts, some using the term ‘co-creation’ instead of 

prosumption.

1

 Zwick et al., for example, write that prosumption’s exploitation 

of ‘the productive value of social cooperation, communication, and affect … 

represents a closing of the economic and ontological gap between consumption 

and production…’ (Zwick et al., 2009: 182). Once this is accomplished, the 

individual will be empowered to realize his or her potentials.

2

 Thus, for most 

proponents of prosumption, a new social order is seen to be ascendant—

one characterized by a more cooperative and fulfilling life. In sum, for both 

mainstream and progressive analysts, the prosumer society will be a non-

alienated society.

In what follows, I assess this remarkable prognostication by mapping out  

the theoretical parameters of prosumption (what, ideally, it does) alongside  

its real-world applications. In doing this, I answer the following: does the 

ascendancy of prosumption really mark the beginning of the end of human 

alienation? I begin to answer this question by detailing Marx’s conceptualization 

of alienation.

3

 I then explain how technology impacts alienation, arguing that 

contemporary alienation takes place when human beings act and relate to one 

another as tools of capital. Following this, my paper examines the impact of 

contemporary prosumption on alienation concluding, among other things, that 

digital prosumption will enable increasing numbers to become ‘creative tools’  

of the production process.

4

Alienation

Alienation is a condition long associated with capitalist modernity. Generally 

defined, it constitutes humanity’s denial of its essence. ‘Man’, writes Erich 

Fromm, ‘has created a world of man made things… He has constructed a 

complicated social machine to administer the technical machine [i.e. industrial 

capitalism] he built. Yet this whole creation of his stands over and above him…

He is owned by his own creation, and has lost ownership of himself ’ (Fromm, 

1955: 115).

To assess whether or not prosumption can redress alienation, we first need to 

fully articulate what alienation is and how it is related to political, economic 

and technological developments. For Toffler and others, it is Marx’s early 

Digital prosumption and alienation ………………………………………………………… Edward Comor

http://openfile.org.uk/archive/gil-leung-things-are-circulating/

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