Prosumption, Networks and Value During a Global Pandemic: Lockdown Leisure and COVID-19

Bond, Alexander, Widdop, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0334-7053, Cockayne, David and Parnell, Daniel (2021) Prosumption, Networks and Value During a Global Pandemic: Lockdown Leisure and COVID-19. Leisure Sciences: an interdisciplinary journal, 43 (1-2). pp. 70-77. ISSN 0149-0400

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Abstract

Following advances in information technology and the rise of social media, prosumption – a model of simultaneous production and consumption of the commodity – has become a significant focus in many industries and for academic study. Prosumption represents a new message creation and delivery paradigm, where anyone can seamlessly shift from consumer to contributor, to creator. Central to this is the idea of creating 'use-value' and re-orientating 'exchange value'. Perhaps an overlooked facet, but one deeply engrained in its manifestation is that prosumption is inherently relational, involving micro-interaction between consumer and producer. The recent global COVID-19 pandemic, it too being relational in its transmission, has had a paralysing effect on global leisure activities with households and sports organisations experiencing some form of state-enforced residential lockdown. Using social network analysis, this commentary examines the network structure of a prosumed leisure activity during societal lockdown and its implications for the leisure industries.