Editing Prosumer (section)

==Definitions and contexts==
[[File:Alvin Toffler 02.jpg|thumb|[[Alvin Toffler]], coiner of the term "prosumer"]]
Prosumers have been defined as "individuals who consume and produce value, either for self-consumption or consumption by others, and can receive implicit or explicit incentives from organizations involved in the exchange."<ref name=":0" />

The term has since come to refer to a person using [[commons-based peer production]].

In the digital and online world, ''prosumer'' is used to describe 21st-century online buyers because not only are they consumers of products, but they are able to produce their own products such as, customised handbags, jewellery with initials, jumpers with team logos, etc.

In the field of renewable energy, prosumers are households or organisations which at times produce surplus fuel or energy and feed it into a national (or local) distribution network; whilst at other times (when their fuel or energy requirements outstrip their own production of it) they consume that same fuel or energy from that grid. This is widely done by households by means of PV panels on their roofs generating electricity. Such households may additionally make use of battery storage to increase their share of self-consumed PV electricity, referred to as prosumage in the literature.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Schill|first1=Wolf-Peter|last2=Zerrahn|first2=Alexander|last3=Kunz|first3=Friedrich|date=2017-06-01|title=Prosumage of solar electricity: pros, cons, and the system perspective|url=http://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.552031.de/dp1637.pdf|journal=Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy|language=en|volume=6|issue=1|doi=10.5547/2160-5890.6.1.wsch|issn=2160-5882|hdl=10419/149900}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Green Iain Staffell|first=Richard|date=2017-06-01|title='Prosumage' and the British Electricity Market|journal=Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy|language=en|volume=6|issue=1|doi=10.5547/2160-5890.6.1.rgre|issn=2160-5882|doi-access=free|hdl=10044/1/44270|hdl-access=free}}</ref> It is also done by businesses which produce [[biogas]] and feed it into a gas network while using gas from the same network at other times or in other places. The European Union's Nobel Grid project, which is part of their Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, uses the term in this way, for example.

The [[sharing economy]] is another context where individuals can act as prosumers. For example, in the sharing economy, individuals can be providers (e.g., [[Airbnb]] hosts, [[Uber]] drivers) and consumers (e.g., Airbnb guests, and Uber passengers). Prosumers are one avenue to grow the sharing economy.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Lang|first1=Bodo|last2=Botha|first2=Elsamari|last3=Robertson|first3=Jeandri|last4=Kemper|first4=Joya A.|last5=Dolan|first5=Rebecca|last6=Kietzmann|first6=Jan|date=2020-06-21|title=How to grow the sharing economy? Create Prosumers!|journal=Australasian Marketing Journal|volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=58–66 |language=en|doi=10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.06.012|issn=1441-3582|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Scholars have connected prosumer culture to the concept of [[McDonaldization]], as advanced by sociologist [[George Ritzer]].  Referring to the business model of [[McDonald's]], which has emphasized efficiency for management while getting customers to invest more effort and time themselves (such as by cleaning up after themselves in restaurants), McDonaldization gets prosumers to perform more work without paying them for their labor.<ref>{{Citation|last1=Chen|first1=Chih-Chin|title=McDonaldization|date=2015-03-24|url=http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/9781118989463.wbeccs167|encyclopedia=The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies|pages=1–3|editor-last=Cook|editor-first=Daniel Thomas|place=Oxford, UK|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd|language=en|doi=10.1002/9781118989463.wbeccs167|isbn=978-1-118-98946-3|access-date=2021-04-19|last2=Ritzer|first2=George|editor2-last=Ryan|editor2-first=J Michael|url-access=subscription}}</ref>