The Open Book of Social Innovation describes the emergnce of a new type of economy that combines features of the production and consumption-based market economy with the growing role of online networks and mobile communication. The authors define this “social” economy by four components:
- The intensive use of distributed networks to sustain and manage relationships, helped by broadband, mobile and other means of communication.
- Blurred boundaries between production and consumption.
- An emphasis on collaboration and on repeated interactions, care and maintenance rather than one-off consumption.
- A strong role for values and missions.
An individual interaction is characterized by a starting point, process, and end point, where each party is assumed to have a static role. At the core of the social economy is an ongoing cycle where roles evolve and change at varius stages:
The role of the consumer changes from a passive to an active player: to a producer in their own right. Retail purchases that have been cast as the end point of the linear process of mass production are redefined as part of a circular process of household production and reproduction.
In that circular process, each interaction impacts the health of the relationship itself, as well as other, connected relationships in a network. That offers both parties a tremendous incentive to pay close attention to each interaction to make sure it helps strengthen and maintain the relationship as a whole.
(Via martinsw)
