Socially Responsible Food E-consumption: An Exploratory Investigation About the Role of Socially-Oriented Online Purchasing Choices in Sustaining the Social/Civil Agrifood Economy in Italy

Proportionally to the increasing awareness about environmental issues and the crisis of welfare-state, the role of socially responsible consumption (SRC) is recently increasing too, supporting the development of the social/civil economy paradigm. The realm of food is widely interesting from this phenomenon and, more recently, more and more socially responsible consumers (SRCrs) have recurred to the e-commerce platforms, also due to the pandemic crisis. Starting from these assumptions and considering specific case study of a CSR-oriented e-commerce food platform, this paper intends to investigate the role of socially responsible econsumption in supporting multifunctional and sustainable food models. Results confirm the relevance of the “longsight self-interest” of the “reflexive middle class” in leading SRC, as well as the potentiality of e-commerce in supporting the social/civil economy turn. The essay also suggests some further directions of research in the field of the “platformisation” of the SRC.