Place, Process, People: Digital Placemaking across Global Supply Chains

Abstract

Chocolate is a staple of the North American diet whose main ingredient, cacao, can only be grown in equatorial regions that are distant from their principal consumer markets in the Global North. The commodity chocolate industry has been criticized for perpetuating environmental, social, and economic inequities for smallholder cacao farmers, especially those in West Africa, where the majority of cacao is produced. Craft chocolate presents an alternative to commodity chocolate, offering a promise of more ethical consumption and better outcomes for cacao producers. In addition to prioritizing alternative sourcing practices, this morality-driven sector is defined by a wide variety of cacao ‘origins’, or the places where cacao beans are grown. Many craft chocolate companies are dedicated to educating consumers about cacao origins, including the diversity of geographic regions, harvesting processes, and land stewardship—all of which impact chocolate flavour. The ubiquity of online consumption has shifted most of this education to digital spaces, resulting in increased mediation of place in online settings. In this study, we explore how digital placemaking—the construction of place that occurs through digitally-mediated experiences—is employed on direct-to-consumer craft chocolate websites operating in North America. Drawing on a human-place-technology framework of digital placemaking to analyze focus group data, we assert that these websites ‘bridge the gap’ between producing and consuming geographies by sharing experiences connected to place. We also critique the use of simplified location-based marketing narratives within placemaking practices for their potential to construct certain origins as innately ‘good’ and others as ‘bad’.