2 The prosumer concept in general
Using the Google Books Ngram Viewer, we tracked the use of the term ‘prosumer’ over the years. The term ‘prosumer’ was first used in 1970 by futurist Alvin Toffler in his book Future Shock,(1) Alvin Toffler, Future Shock (Pan Books 1970).further expanded in his 1980’s follow-up Third Wave.(2) Alvin Toffler, Third Wave (William Morrow 1980).The concept was also developed by Marshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt in their 1972 work Take Today,(3) Marshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt, Take Today (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1972). where they defined the prosumer as the ‘consumer who becomes a producer’.(4) George Ritzer, Paul Dean and Nathan Jurgenson, ‘The coming of age of the prosumer’ (2012) 56 Am Behav Sci 379. After an initial gentle growth in popularity, the concept fell out of fashion in the second half of the 1980’s. From 1995 onwards, it has experienced a steady revival.
In the English language, the word ‘prosumer’ can mean two very different things. Depending on its meaning, the word also has a different etymological origin. In both cases, however, the word ‘prosumer’ is a portmanteau of two words that denote the qualities of two previously distinct individuals or entities that are combined in a single new personage, called the prosumer.
In the first instance, the word prosumer combines the words ‘professional’ and ‘consumer’. A prosumer in this sense is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as “a customer who wants to buy high quality technical products or equipment”(5) See <http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/prosumer> accessed 30 November 2017. The term references the trend of amateur hobbyists buying increasingly professional equipment. The paradigmatic example is the amateur photographer, who buys a high-end single-lens reflex camera, even though, given his practical needs, a cheaper digital camera would suffice.
In a second meaning of the word, prosumer is a combination of the word ‘producer and ‘consumer.’ The Cambridge dictionary defines a prosumer in this sense as “a customer who helps a company design and produce its products”(6)Ibid.The paradigmatic example in this context is Wikipedia, where the content is produced, consumed and monitored by a community of users.(7) George Ritzer and Nathan Jurgenson, ‘Production, Consumption, Prosumption’ (2010) 10 J. Consumer Cult 13, 19.
For completeness’ sake, we mention that Gerhardt introduces a third use of the term ‘prosumer’, to indicate someone who makes little distinction between his home life and his work life.(8) William Gerhardt, ‘Prosumers: a new growth opportunity’ (Cisco 2008) <https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/ac79/docs/wp/Prosumer_VS2_POV_0404_FINAL.pdf> accessed 16 November 2017. The prosumer is someone who is flexible in his work and can work from multiple locations at irregular times, by making use of new enabling technologies. This use of the term ‘prosumer’ has seemingly not been adopted in the mainstream, and it is not included in the dictionary definition of the word ‘prosumer’.
Apart from the term ‘prosumer’, we highlight two derived terms. First of all, ‘prosumption’ denotes the act of engaging in prosumer activities. It exists on the same level as production and consumption, and has a neutral, scientific usage. ‘Prosumerism’, on the other hand, denotes a societal current or school of thought that emphasizes prosumption. This term has similar connotations to consumerism (and the less-common producerism) and could be viewed in a positive or negative light, depending on one’s political preferences and worldview.