Paradoxical empowerment ofprodusersin the context of informational capitalism
Serge Proulx, Lorna Heaton, Mary Jane Kwok Choon, Mélanie Millette · New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia · 2011
This article develops a critical perspective on how online contribution practices participate in the creation of economic value under informational capitalism. It discusses the theoretical relevance of the concept of empowerment for exploring online contribution practices. We argue that produsage practices are paradoxical insofar as they can be simultaneously alienating and emancipatory. This theoretical lens allows us to take a fresh look at the collective intelligence of produsers and the role of communities in the collective production of content. We illustrate the fruitfulness of this conceptual approach with two case studies: Facebook and TelaBotanica, a platform for the collaborative production of scientific knowledge.