© 2008 The Authors Journal Compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Sociology Compass 2 (2008): 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2008.00112.x The Intersecting Roles of Consumer and Producer: A Critical Perspective on (original) (raw)

The terms ‘co-creation’, ‘co-production’, and ‘prosumption ’ refer to situations in which consumers collaborate with companies or with other consumers to produce things of value. These situations sometimes appear to blur the traditional roles of ‘producer ’ and ‘consumer’. Building on Marx’s distinction between ‘use value ’ and ‘exchange value’, we argue that, when consumers perform tasks normally handled by the company, this does not necessarily represent a fundamental change in exchange roles or economic organization. We then argue that, when individuals who are traditionally defined as ‘consumers ’ produce exchange value for companies, this does represent a fundamental change. Thanks to recent advances in information technology, customers today are contributing to organizational processes in ways that would not have been possible 10 years ago. For example, at Threadless.com, customers can not only vote for the clothing designs that they would like to see produced but also submit ...