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:

1. The intensive use of distributed networks to sustain and manage relationships, helped by broadband, mobile and other means of communication.
2. Blurred boundaries between production and consumption.
3. An emphasis on collaboration and on repeated interactions, care and maintenance rather than one-off consumption.
4. 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)