Can you help me? I am looking for a word — maybe a new word — to describe the transformation of an activity from (a) something done only by trained specialists, as part/all of their job to (b) something done by the general public, not as a job. For example:
- word processing software has made producing an attractive manuscript something that you no longer need hire a secretary to do — you can do it yourself.
- digital cameras and software have made producing high-end photographs something you no longer need a professional photographer to make.
- When I was a graduate student I hired a professional to make publication-quality figures for my scientific papers. Now I make them myself.
The transition I am talking about is part of a longer historical sequence that goes like this:
- Hobby
- Part-time job
- Full-time job
- Specialization (= division of labor)
- [new word goes here]
The best word I can think of is deprofessionalization. Unfortunately that has been used with a different meaning. Amateurization doesn’t work because amateur often means hobbyist. Popularization doesn’t work because the status of the activity has changed — from something done as part of a job to something done not as a job. It is one of several ways a job can change:
- More efficient. New tools, materials, etc., make it possible to do the same job in a shorter period of time or at lower cost.
- Higher quality. New tools, etc., make it possible to do a better job.
- More exclusive (= higher barriers to entry). Something (e.g., licensing requirements) makes it harder for others to compete with you.
- Less exclusive. Something (e.g., the Internet) makes it easier for others to compete with you.
- ???. People no longer need to hire you or someone like you to do what you do. They do it themselves.
I care because personal science (science done to help oneself) is an example. For a long time, non-trivial science was done only by professional scientists. Now it is being done by non-professionals.
More What about publicization? Or is it too ugly? I looked up democratization as a possibility but found this under “democratization of photography”:”Serious photography has gone from being the preserve of the reasonably well off to something that just about anyone can take up with minimal expense”. That isn’t what I mean here — that the price of something comes down. Hoipolloization is too long. What about massification?
Still More It really is DIY, I hadn’t thought of that. That exactly conveys the transition from job to non-job. DIYing (or should it be DIYization?) has a nice ring to it, is very short, is not pompous, and would not need to be defined. I also like promethization, deguilding, democratization, and deprofessionalization.
(like a jail break)
(same as 1. above)
(like taking down the Berlin Wall)
(like when the Catholic Church in the 1960s moved away from the Latin Mass)
(When a paradigm breaks out and spreads rapidly, like an epidemic)