ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides readers with historical background, theoretical guideposts and an up-to-date account of the contemporary production of users. It reviews the theories of users and user production in innovation. The book explores various user-producer engagements in the tension zone between the hopes of democratized technology and industry strategizing. It examines how innovation is shaped by non-use and unwanted innovation. Innovation studies are perhaps the most systematically built and upgraded of the current approaches to users in innovation. Users in the twenty-first century will play different roles in innovation, production and consumption than they did previously. Users will develop new forms of innovative collectives that enable their engagement with products and technologies, and users will be faced with equally creative managers, designers and producers who will develop new strategies for involving and analyzing users.
