The Pro-Am Revolution
How enthusiasts are changing our economy and society
After the rise of the professional in the 20th century we are now seeing this historic shift reversing in the Pro-Am revolution. Enthusiastic amateurs, pursuing activities to professional standards will have an increasingly important role in our society and economy.
From astronomy to activism, from surfing to saving lives, Pro-Ams - people pursuing amateur activities to professional standards - are an increasingly important part of our society and economy.
For Pro-Ams, leisure is not passive consumerism but active and participatory, it involves the deployment of publicly accredited knowledge and skills, often built up over a long career, which has involved sacrifices and frustrations.
The 20th century witnessed the rise of professionals in medicine, science, education, and politics. In one field after another, amateurs and their ramshackle organisations were driven out by people who knew what they were doing and had certificates to prove it.
The Pro-Am Revolution argues this historic shift is reversing. We're witnessing the flowering of Pro-Am, bottom-up self-organisation and the crude, all or nothing, categories of professional or amateur will need to be rethought.
Based on in-depth interviews with a diverse range of Pro-Ams and containing new data about the extent of Pro-Am activity in the UK, this report proposes new policies to support and encourage valuable Pro-Am activity.
via Experts
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Comments
Michel Serres has written about the new opportunities for learning that are arising:
Intelligence is not about knowing axiomatically how to reason... The French 16th Century philosopher Montaigne already had dismissed the concept of a 'well-stuffed head'. The advent of the printing press made the memorization of Ulysses' travels and of folk tales--the support of knowledge at that time - redundant. Montaigne saw no longer use in memorizing a library that was potentially infinite. But does not the Internet ask for a 'well-endowed head'? Won't the best surfer be a 'Jack of all trades'? The fastest surfer is not going to be your typical Ivy-league super-titled philosopher: That guy's head will be simply too loaded to sort it out on the Net. So, there will be fresh opportunities for those who were viewed by society as laggards. It is a clean start with equal opportunities for all.
Join-Lambert, L., Klein, P., Serres, M. (1997) Superhighways for All: Knowledge’s Redemption, Revue Quart Monde,Paris
I am completing a chapter combining Serres thought and Hodges model:
http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/
Regards
Peter Jones