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While the sharing economy has established itself for some people, it is because it has emerged in the right context. Economic and financial crises, unemployment and environmental degradation are all factors that support the adoption of this new philosophy. Individuals have become inventive in order to escape the difficult socio-economic situation, and today’s consumer is no longer the consumer we knew. This is to such an extent that it is worth wondering whether or not this is the end of consumerism.

It cannot be affirmed that the sharing economy revolutionizes consumer habits and upsets manufacturers. The “prosumer” phenomenon illustrates the willingness of individuals to shake up consumer habits:

Sharing practices, whether they are commercial or not, make it possible to give a second life to many goods, sharing their use. By promoting use on ownership, these practices have a very high potential for sustainability. (Courtois 2016)

The consumer is no longer indeterminate in the producer-consumer relationship:

The rise of new technologies gives him the tools for increased vigilance. It also helps him become a producer of that which he uses in order to become a prosumer. (Van de Walle et al. 2012)

What is a prosumer?

The term “prosumer” combines the words “producer” and “consumer”.

Figure 2.1. Prosumer2. For a color version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/sedkaoui/economy.zip

Historically speaking, it was first used in 1980 in Alvin Toffler’s work The Third Wave. For Toffler, the two functions of production and consumption were not separate, it was the industrial company that created a divide between them (Goyette-Côté 2013). In this context, Ritzer and Jurgenson (2010) argue that production and consumption have always dominated economies (capitalist and non-capitalist). According to both authors, prosumption involves both production and consumption, rather than focusing on one or the other. Although prosumption has always been predominant, “a series of recent social changes, particularly those related to the Internet and the web, have further centralized it”.