Studying the impact of e-commerce on the sustainability of food systems in Vietnam

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Abstract
This chapter investigates the sustainability impact of two food e-commerce innovations in Hanoi: a municipal platform and the use of social media to sell and purchase food. It discusses how a participatory research methodology assisted the stakeholders of these innovations in assessing the impact of their activities on the several dimensions of sustainability. The workshops revealed that the two innovations studied do not aim for sustainability in general, nor do they do so explicitly: they are functional instruments to improve the relationship between suppliers looking for market opportunities and consumers seeking convenient and reliable channels to source safe products. While environmental and ethical issues are rarely targeted per se, they can emerge as potential positive externalities. The interviews and workshops revealed the difficulty of addressing food systems’ sustainability as a holistic and multi-dimensional concept with local actors. This chapter adopts a reflexive perspective, considering both the appropriateness of focusing on a culturally situated concept such as “sustainability”—mainly developed by researchers in the Global North—and the challenges raised by the implementation of a participatory approach in a strong State-driven context.

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