Between Production Capitalism and Consumerism: The Culture of Prosumption and Discovering the Mechanisms of its Functioning

Piotr Siuda

In sociological studies of culture, increasing attention is being paid to so-called prosumption. The article describes prosumption in the sphere of popular culture. The author proposes the term “culture of prosumption.” The term refers to the culture industry and its contemporary mode of operation, which is characteristic of the prosumption capitalism that has currently become prevalent. The aforementioned mode of operation is a specific corporation culture; with increasing frequency, enterprises within the entertainment industry seek their success through the grass-root emergence of groups of recipients who work for a culture text. The author proposes a convenient way of diagnosing the mechanisms of the culture of prosumption: specifically, it can be described through an analysis of its most engaged recipients—that is, its fans—who constitute an avant-garde of culture of prosumption. As regards fans, all of the essential features of prosumption are clearly identifiable, which allows one to argue that studies on the culture of prosumption should take into account considerations pertaining to fans.