Production, consumption, and prosumption in the masculine health and fitness industry

Nick Gibbs

Chapter 18 in Research Handbook on the Sociology of Consumption, 2026, pp 219-228 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter explores the masculine health and fitness industry through the lenses of production, consumption, and prosumption. Using data derived from a two-year ‘connective’ ethnographic study, the practices of graft and labour are considered, and the consumptive elements of the health and fitness industry interrogated. The work also considers elements of interpassive consumption, and highlights the contradictions and multifaceted meanings of consuming fitness to produce bodily progression. The chapter then makes the case for the utility of the concept of prosumption to understand the culture and industry of health and fitness, arguing the need to highlight and acknowledge how production and consumption meld in a fluid and dialectical manner. Finally, a call is made to understand health and fitness as a prosumptive spectacle, and for further scholarship to engage with this framework.

Keywords: Fitness; Consumption; Production; Prosumption; Gym culture; Masculinity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035310500
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