Situated learning Opportunities in Direct Agri-Food Chains: the Role of Mobile-Based Services

Direct Agri-food Chains (DAFCs) give consumers several learning opportunities (SLOs) as they enable continuous direct interactions and knowledge exchange with food producers. It is a form of consumer empowerment since consumers make more informed choices in their consumption process. The phenomenon can be amplified by the introduction of mobile-based services that offer the opportunity to access to more food information and the capability to exchange information and opinion with peers. Despite the emerging importance of learning interaction in food related settings, little research has been devoted to study situated learning in alternative agri-food networks under an organizational perspective. Moreover, few works addressed the role of mobile application in SLOs for food consumers. This work aims to address the following research questions: How learning opportunities for consumers occur in DAFCs? Could they be enhanced through the employment of mobiquitous services? This paper attempts to answer these questions proposing a framework to assess the offering of app-based services supporting food knowledge acquisition for consumers, with a specific focus on situated learning opportunities (SLOs) arising in DAFCs organizational practices.