There is suggested by Ritzer & Jurgenson (2010) a new
form of prosumer capitalism developing out of traditional capitalism with
differing characteristics. Distinguishing itself from Mcdonaldisation or the “traditional
prosumers” that have developed as result of consumption out weighing
production in developed society and where production is contributed to
in part by the consumer to maximise surplus. Making your order in detail ahead
of time the way you like it paying at a counter cleaning up afterwards for
example.
Whereas the traditional prosumer is more of an extension of
capitalism finding ways of minimising costs the new prosumer almost eliminates
costs to the point of contributing “nothing but surplus” (Ritzer &
Jurgenson 2010). To apply this alternative prosumer model to a beehive the
beekeeper is the hand of capitalism where the bees work for free.
The newer form prosumer has everything to do with web 2.0
and online contributions of labour through content creation changing the
prosumer in 4 new ways.
1. Apparently open, minimally controlled by capitalists
2. Exploitation becomes more of an ambiguous issue
3. Possibility of a new economic form out of building
brands/ competitive advantage
4. Abundance instead of scarcity means quality over
efficiency
The role of a beekeeper is to maintain a hive through
keeping bees busy. The process involves taking a full honeycomb frame out and
adding a fresh blank frame with a starter sheet of beeswax honeycomb foundation
to the hive for the bees to use as a platform to build upon and keeps a single
hive happily building neat honeycomb rows.
 |
| Frames with foundation available from Redpaths Beekeeping Supplies |
As a result the queen
lays more workers and less queen cells making problem swarms less likely and
the beekeeper can keep the surplus skimming off the top some delicious honey.
The web 2.0 example of a prosumer contributing the bulk of production of
content freely online has made me perhaps obviously jump to this straight
forward comparison.
The network of the web visualised as a hive with frames with honey comb sheets being platforms such as Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook has an interesting perspective to it in many ways more than this. The similarly apparently open, ambiguously exploitative, possibilities for new economic forms and abundance are all linked to the way beekeeping works too.
The network of the web visualised as a hive with frames with honey comb sheets being platforms such as Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook has an interesting perspective to it in many ways more than this. The similarly apparently open, ambiguously exploitative, possibilities for new economic forms and abundance are all linked to the way beekeeping works too.
Sources:
Photo: http://www.redpaths.com.au/images/PROD_4737_.jpg
Ritzer, George and Jurgenson, Nathan 2010 ‘Production,
Consumption, Prosumption: The nature of capitalism in the age of the digital
‘prosumer’, Journal of Consumer Culture, vol. 10 no. 1, pp 13-36.
Hey Ross
ReplyDeleteGreat post i really liked how you worked in the Bee's and the queen example i think it depicted the Web2.0 example really well and showed the definition of prosumerism that i struggled with myself :). I like how you linked the honey comb sheets to Web 2.0 sites that allow for dynamic changes and prosumption. Overall great article cant wait to read more!
Hi Ross,
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post. I like how you were able to use the example of a beehive to explain the concept of prosumption and link it to Ritzer et al's definition, but you were also able to compare it to perhaps a more modern example in Web 2.0. I did get a little confused in parts where you were explaining about beekeeping (only because I have no prior experience in the area) so I think it would have been good if you could have given simultaneous examples of beekeeping when explaining the model. I look forward to reading more of how you relate Globalisation to Beekeeping.