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27 - The Global Fair Trade Movement: For Whom, By Whom, How, and What Next

from Part VII - Social Movements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

Katharine Legun
Affiliation:
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Julie C. Keller
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
Michael Carolan
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Michael M. Bell
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary

Activists have long used the market as a tool for empowering specific populations, sustaining the environment, and shifting cultural values. Today, these practices are commonly referred to as “ethical purchasing,” “political consumerism,” and “voting with your dollar.” The fair trade movement emerged in the 1940s as a way for consumers in the Global North to support populations in the Global South vulnerable to marginalization, exploitation, or oppression. Since then, the movement has grown in size, expanded in scope, and diversified in many ways. Today, it intersects with the organic movement, climate change advocacy, and other aspects of environmentalism. This chapter reviews the burgeoning fair trade literature, drawing heavily on publications from the past five years, to describe and discuss four provocative debates: 1) Fair trade for whom? 2) Fair trade by whom? 3) Fair trade through certification (or not)? and 4) What next for engaging capitalism and the state? After highlighting the perspectives and questions dominating each debate, this chapter offers several suggestions about the future of fair trade.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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