The socio-economic contingencies along with gradual qualitative and quantitative decay of the ecosystems on which is based our development model, have led to a behavioral model in which the unavoidable opulence gave gradually way to sobriety and austerity, to be interpreted also in terms of awareness and rejection of a consumption and growth model which is no longer sustainable. The consumption gradually becomes more critical or responsible, launching a more mature and aware new relationship with the goods, focused on both pleasure pursuit and awareness of new social duties, on new ethical demands. This forms of consumption have emerged, stimulated and supported also by new ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). The Network is the social structure that best represents the contemporary age, which marks a step beyond the hierarchical twentieth-century communication, beyond a weak-strong broadcast dichotomy, where all the players are network nodes. The concept of node is useful to understand the Internet appearence and how information are disseminated; it’s not any longer a one-to-many communication but a peer-to-peer one. The environmental sustainability issues, along with those of social responsibility, help to define characteristics and forms of critical and responsible consumption that are meaningful and effectively represented, among other things, by those alternative types of food products commercialization, the so-called ‘short food supply chains’: EPG (ethical purchasing groups) and especially ‘farmers’ markets,’ which result as the convergence of goals and interests belonging to different stakeholders. Farmers’ markets are capable of promoting social and cultural capital, partially due to the weakening of trust between institutions and citizens, that’s because they can activate alternative forms of participation aiming at responsible citizenship. The centrality of the direct relationship, that ’face-toface, typical of farmers’ markets, can found in the social web not a substitute but rather a mode of facilitation and support of the trusty relationship. Specifically, the adoption by the stakeholders involved (producers, farmer’s markets and consumers) of web 2.0 tools can allow to re-evaluate and organize in an innovative way the proximity relationship, relations between local networks of producers and responsible consumers.
The Farmer’s Market in the Web Society
MEZZACAPO, UMBERTO
2014
Abstract
The socio-economic contingencies along with gradual qualitative and quantitative decay of the ecosystems on which is based our development model, have led to a behavioral model in which the unavoidable opulence gave gradually way to sobriety and austerity, to be interpreted also in terms of awareness and rejection of a consumption and growth model which is no longer sustainable. The consumption gradually becomes more critical or responsible, launching a more mature and aware new relationship with the goods, focused on both pleasure pursuit and awareness of new social duties, on new ethical demands. This forms of consumption have emerged, stimulated and supported also by new ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). The Network is the social structure that best represents the contemporary age, which marks a step beyond the hierarchical twentieth-century communication, beyond a weak-strong broadcast dichotomy, where all the players are network nodes. The concept of node is useful to understand the Internet appearence and how information are disseminated; it’s not any longer a one-to-many communication but a peer-to-peer one. The environmental sustainability issues, along with those of social responsibility, help to define characteristics and forms of critical and responsible consumption that are meaningful and effectively represented, among other things, by those alternative types of food products commercialization, the so-called ‘short food supply chains’: EPG (ethical purchasing groups) and especially ‘farmers’ markets,’ which result as the convergence of goals and interests belonging to different stakeholders. Farmers’ markets are capable of promoting social and cultural capital, partially due to the weakening of trust between institutions and citizens, that’s because they can activate alternative forms of participation aiming at responsible citizenship. The centrality of the direct relationship, that ’face-toface, typical of farmers’ markets, can found in the social web not a substitute but rather a mode of facilitation and support of the trusty relationship. Specifically, the adoption by the stakeholders involved (producers, farmer’s markets and consumers) of web 2.0 tools can allow to re-evaluate and organize in an innovative way the proximity relationship, relations between local networks of producers and responsible consumers.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
