Introducing the wave of prosumers in the age of labour market shattering

Davide Arcidiacono (1) , Allison Marie Loconto (2) , Lara Maestripieri (3) , Antonello Podda (4)

1 Catholic University of the Sacred Heart
2 LISIS - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences, Innovations, Sociétés
3 UAB - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona = Autonomous University of Barcelona = Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona
4 UNICAS - University of Cassino and Southern Lazio

The role of consumers in the division of labour is rarely acknowledged in theories of work/production, despite the fact that the work of consumers is highly relevant and can take various forms (paid/unpaid; formal/informal; autonomous/dependent). Fuchs (1968) showed that the consumer could be treated as a factor of production similar to waged labour, and Toffler (1980) introduced the concept of the prosumer, while Bruns (2008) speaks about the rise of prousage. Using these terms, several sociologists underline the paradigm shift in thinking of consumers as actors excluded from the production system and from the value chain, towards seeing them as concrete producers and generators of goods and services. This issue aims to collect empirical papers from Italian and International scholars that investigate, prosumption by applying different methodological or analytical approaches. The articles included in this issue focus on both the transformation of the productive role of consumers in the division of labour and how it is reshaping economic and organizational paradigms.

Mots clés: économie de plate-forme; économie sociale et solidaire; économie de partage; prosumption; platform economy; social and solidarity economy; digitalization; sharing economy; new technology

Mots clés: numérisation; innovation; crowdsourcing

Domaines: Sociologie

Davide Arcidiacono, Allison Marie Loconto, Lara Maestripieri, Antonello Podda. Introducing the wave of prosumers in the age of labour market shattering. Sociologia del Lavoro, 2018, 152, pp.7-22. ⟨10.3280/SL2018-152001⟩. ⟨hal-02048858⟩