Organizational and Technological Aspects of a Platform for Collective Food Awareness

Can Internet-of-food technologies foster collective food awareness within a food consumer community? The paper contributes to answer this question in a fourfold aspect. Firstly, we model a cooperative process for generating and sharing reliable food information that is derived from food instrumental measurements performed by consumers via smart food things. Secondly, we outline the functional architecture of a platform capable to support such a process and to let a consumer community share reliable food information. Thirdly, we identify main entities and their attributes necessary to model the contextualized interaction between a consumer and the platform. Lastly, we review articles reviewing technologies capable of acquiring and quantifying food characteristics for food performances assessment. The purpose is to give an insight into current research directions on technologies employable in a platform for collective food awareness

FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE KEY DRIVERS OF COMPETITIVENESS

Under an institutional and organizational collapsed environment caused by Argentine cracked economical and political situation, farmers and producers are forced to add value through technological innovation designs in order to be competitive at the international market. Food safety and Quality Assurance systems appear as key drivers of competitiveness. Three emerging models are comparatively analyzed, evaluating real agribusiness that are developing HACCP, Quality & Origin Protocol and ISO 9001 Quality Management. As a result, the different level of success and impact of those agribusinesses immersed in the aforementioned external constraints and no less precarious internal limitations based on cultural, technological and financial limitations are uncertain and variable.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Capabilities For Catching-up: Economic Development and Competitiveness in Uganda: Implications for Human Resource Development

The study summarizes desk research for a GTZ report on the human resource dimension of Uganda's economic development

Sustainable consumption: towards action and impact. : International scientific conference November 6th-8th 2011, Hamburg - European Green Capital 2011, Germany: abstract volume

This volume contains the abstracts of all oral and poster presentations of the international scientific conference „Sustainable Consumption – Towards Action and Impact“ held in Hamburg (Germany) on November 6th-8th 2011. This unique conference aims to promote a comprehensive academic discourse on issues concerning sustainable consumption and brings together scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines. In modern societies, private consumption is a multifaceted and ambivalent phenomenon: it is a ubiquitous social practice and an economic driving force, yet at the same time, its consequences are in conflict with important social and environmental sustainability goals. Finding paths towards “sustainable consumption” has therefore become a major political issue. In order to properly understand the challenge of “sustainable consumption”, identify unsustainable patterns of consumption and bring forward the necessary innovations, a collaborative effort of researchers from different disciplines is needed

Cooperative affordances: how instant messaging apps afford learning, resistance and solidarity among food delivery workers

Questo articolo si propone di comprendere le pratiche e i significati associati alla creazione e all'uso di gruppi di chat privati su servizi di messaggistica istantanea come WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger e WeChat, accessibili solo ai corrieri dei servizi di consegna di cibo online. l'articolo si basa su un anno di osservazione partecipante in cinque Paesi (Italia, Spagna, Messico, Cina e India), su interviste semi-strutturate a 68 corrieri di consegna di cibo e su un anno di etnografia digitale (Pink et al., 2015) all'interno di decine di gruppi di chat privati online di addetti alle consegne di cibo. Il nostro lavoro sul campo mostra che i gruppi di chat privati sono estremamente rilevanti nel lavoro quotidiano dei fattorini e vengono utilizzati per ripristinare forme di mutualismo non previste dalle app di food delivery. Seguendo Costa (2018) e il suo concetto di affordances-in-practice, descriviamo come la pratica dei gruppi di chat privati online creati dai lavoratori delle piattaforme permetta: (1) l'emergere di comunità di pratica; (2) l'emergere di forme di resistenza; (3) l'emergere di di forme di mutualismo e solidarietà. Sosteniamo che questi lavoratori "mettono in atto" le possibilità delle app di messaggistica istantanea per integrare, dal basso, le affordances delle app di consegna del cibo che sono state negate o ignorate dalle aziende di consegna del cibo. Sosteniamo che queste affordances costituiscano delle "affordance cooperative". Questo concetto coglie la natura cooperativa della comunicazione peer-to-peer che avviene all'interno dei gruppi informali di chat online creati dagli stessi lavoratori. Infine, questo articolo contribuisce alla teoria delle affordance evidenziando come esse non siano proprietà immanenti degli artefatti, o "invarianti", come sostenuto da Gibson (1979), ma possano essere "messe in atto" da utenti specifici, come i fattorini, all'interno di specifici contesti sociali e culturali.This paper aims to understand the practices and meanings associated with the creation and use of private chat groups on instant messaging services such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger and WeChat that are accessible only to platform workers of online food delivery services. We draw on participant observation in five countries (Italy, Spain, Mexico, China, and India), in-depth interviews with 68 food delivery couriers and digital ethnography (Pink et al., 2015) within dozens of online private chat groups of food delivery workers. Our fieldwork shows that private chat groups are extremely relevant in the daily work of delivery workers and are appropriated to restore forms of mutualism not afforded by the food delivery apps. Following Costa (2018) and her concept of affordances-in-practice, we describe how the practice of online private chat groups created by platform workers affords: (1) the emergence of communities of practice; (2) resistance and contempt; (3) mutualism and solidarity. We argue that these workers ‘enact’ the affordances of instant messaging apps, to supplement – from below – the affordances of food delivery apps that were denied or ignored by food delivery companies. We argue that these affordances constitute co- operative affordances. This concept captures the cooperative nature of peer-to-peer communication that occurs within the informal online chat groups created by the workers themselves. Finally, this article contributes to affordance theory by highlighting how affordances are not immanent properties of artifacts, or ‘invariants’, as argued by Gibson (1979), but can be ‘enacted’ by specific users, like food delivery workers, within specific social and cultural contexts

Sustainable strategies for SMEs from traditional, regional industries: The case of Messinian Region, Greece

Purpose – Research questions : Products embedded in a region (such as Products of Destinated Origin / PDOs) face significant obstacles to access remote markets, even to domestic ones, since there are a number of inherent difficulties in promoting and managing, in general, such products from the point of production to the market place. This paper addresses to central research questions: • how the sustainability issue relates to regional, traditional industries • what are the prerequisites for sustainability and the corresponding barriers posed to regional food chains • how sustainability relates to the performance of SMEs, operating in a traditional, regional industry • what are the advantages of marketing sustainable products • what region-based strategies could SMEs develop to transform the challenge of sustainability to opportunities ? Design/methodology/approach : Development of a conceptual constructive action framework with reference to regional conditions. Focus on SMEs that produce and/or trade products in the region of Messinia, Greece . Messinian region is well-known for traditional products such as olive oil, olives, raisins, figs, etc. A survey study includes a questionnaire that aims at measuring sustainability, market access, and supply chain performance. Direct contact has been carried out with a number of managing directors of SMEs via semi- structured interviews. Using case study protocol there will be a combination of case analysis and cross-case analysis. Expected Findings : Results will provide insights on how SMEs strategies can achieve sustainability requirements. Originality / Value : Improving know-how by unique focus on the sustainability of regional, traditional products and its effects upon supply chain performance and market access. This study has practical implications for regional-based SMEs in the design of strategies to produce sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, sustainability has significant direct social, economic and environmental implications