Fair Trade Coffee: The Prospects and Pitfalls of Market-Driven Social Justice , by Gavin Fridell

2009 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-149
Author(s):  
Stephen Chekmar
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Fair Trade ◽  
Fair Trade Coffee ◽  
Market Driven

Fair-trade Coffee: The Prospects and Pitfalls of Market Driven Social Justice: Brewing Justice: Fair-trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival: Fair-trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Hudson ◽  
Mark Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Fair Trade ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Critical Juncture ◽  
Fair Trade Coffee ◽  
Market Driven

AbstractFair trade is at a critical juncture as a social movement. In the midst of a sales boom and vastly increased visibility, the tensions and contradictions that exist within the movement are intensifying. In particular, expansion of the fair-trade system to cover new commodities, and the process of 'mainstreaming' fair trade have opened rifts in the movement and called into question the meaning of 'fairness'. This essay reviews three recent books on fair trade, and examines current threats to the system, as well as fair trade's potential for supporting a broad process of social, economic, political, and ecological transformation.

Fair-Trade Coffee and Commodity Fetishism: The Limits of Market-Driven Social Justice

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 79-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Fridell
Keyword(s):  
Fair Trade ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Commodity Fetishism ◽  
Fair Trade Coffee ◽  
Ethical Consumerism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Independent Life ◽  
Market Driven ◽  
Coffee Sector ◽  
Profit Maximisation

AbstractThis paper explores the claims made by various authors that the fair-trade network provides an initial basis for a challenge to the commodification of goods under global capitalism. Proponents of fair trade generally advance two essential arguments in this regard. First, they claim that fair trade reveals the social and environmental conditions under which goods are produced and brings producers and consumers together through 'ethical consumerism', which challenges the commodification of goods into items with an independent life of their own. Second, they argue that fair trade affirms non-economic values of co-operation and solidarity which challenge the capitalist imperatives of competition, accumulation, and profit-maximisation. Drawing from cases in the fair-trade coffee sector, these assertions are critically examined and it is argued that, while fair trade can provide a symbolic challenge to commodity fetishism, in the end this challenge is strictly limited by the power of global market imperatives and the network's market-driven approach.

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