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Resistance, redistribution, and power in the Fair Trade banana initiative

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  • Aimee Shreck

Abstract

The Fair Trade movement seeks to alter conventional trade relations through a system of social and environmental standards, certification, and labels designed to help shorten the social distance between consumers in the North and producers in the South. The strategy is based on working both ‘in and against’ the same global capitalist market that it hopes to alter, raising questions about if and how Fair Trade initiatives exhibit counter-hegemonic potential to transform the conventional agro-food system. This paper considers the multiple levels at which Fair Trade alternatives operate to identify the different forms of social action that the movement engages with, and to clarify where the movement’s counter-hegemonic potentials are being realized. I suggest the Fair Trade movement is most successful in encouraging consumers and producers to commit acts of resistance and in supporting redistributive action that shifts resources from North to South. Up to now, however, Fair Trade alternatives appear to hold only a theoretical potential to provoke transformative change in the agro-food system. A reconceptualization of the Fair Trade model and how it is implemented could allow it to manifest more of its implicit, oppositional promise. Copyright Springer 2005

Suggested Citation

  • Aimee Shreck, 2005. "Resistance, redistribution, and power in the Fair Trade banana initiative," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 22(1), pages 17-29, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:22:y:2005:i:1:p:17-29
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-004-7227-y
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Darryl Reed & Bob Thomson & Ian Hussey & Jean-Frédéric LeMay, 2010. "Developing a Normatively Grounded Research Agenda for Fair Trade: Examining the Case of Canada," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(2), pages 151-179, April.
    2. Fort, Ricardo & Ruben, Ruerd, 2009. "The impact of Fair Trade on banana producers in northern Peru," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 50964, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. David Phillips, 2014. "Uneven and unequal people-centered development: the case of Fair Trade and Malawi sugar producers," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(4), pages 563-576, December.
    4. Anna Hutchens, 2011. "Playing games of governance: How and why Fair Trade pioneers evade corporate capture," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 5(2), pages 221-240, June.
    5. Auld Graeme & Cashore Benjamin & Balboa Cristina & Bozzi Laura & Renckens Stefan, 2010. "Can Technological Innovations Improve Private Regulation in the Global Economy?," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-42, October.
    6. Vincent Terstappen & Lori Hanson & Darrell McLaughlin, 2013. "Gender, health, labor, and inequities: a review of the fair and alternative trade literature," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(1), pages 21-39, March.
    7. Nick Clarke & Clive Barnett & Paul Cloke & Alice Malpass, 2007. "The Political Rationalities of Fair-Trade Consumption in the United Kingdom," Politics & Society, , vol. 35(4), pages 583-607, December.
    8. Lindsay Naylor, 2014. "“Some are more fair than others”: fair trade certification, development, and North–South subjects," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 273-284, June.
    9. Darryl Reed, 2009. "What do Corporations have to do with Fair Trade? Positive and Normative Analysis from a Value Chain Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 86(1), pages 3-26, April.
    10. S. Feeley & Bas Wijnen & Joshua Pearce, 2014. "Evaluation of Potential Fair Trade Standards for an Ethical 3-D Printing Filament," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 7(5), pages 1-1, September.
    11. Sylvaine Poret, 2007. "Les défis du commerce équitable dans l'hémisphère Nord," Working Papers hal-00243061, HAL.
    12. Vivien Blanchet, 2011. "The two faces of Janus: a postcolonial problematization of the fair trade ambivalence," Post-Print halshs-00676060, HAL.
    13. Robin Roff, 2009. "No alternative? The politics and history of non-GMO certification," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 26(4), pages 351-363, December.
    14. Madeleine Fairbairn, 2012. "Framing transformation: the counter-hegemonic potential of food sovereignty in the US context," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(2), pages 217-230, June.
    15. Maki Hatanaka & Jason Konefal & Douglas Constance, 2012. "A tripartite standards regime analysis of the contested development of a sustainable agriculture standard," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(1), pages 65-78, March.
    16. Joni Valkila & Anja Nygren, 2010. "Impacts of Fair Trade certification on coffee farmers, cooperatives, and laborers in Nicaragua," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(3), pages 321-333, September.
    17. Garance Gautrey, 2014. "L'appropriation par les producteurs du Sud des pratiques organisationnelles responsables exigées dans le commerce équitable : l'influence des contextes social, relationnel et organisationnel," Post-Print halshs-01054661, HAL.
    18. Jess Bonnan-White & Andrea Hightower & Ameena Issa, 2013. "Of couscous and occupation: a case study of women’s motivations to join and participate in Palestinian fair trade cooperatives," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(3), pages 337-350, September.
    19. Anna Torgerson, 2010. "Fair trade banana production in the Windward Islands: local survival and global resistance," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(4), pages 475-487, December.
    20. Ken Peattie & Anthony Samuel, 2018. "Fairtrade Towns as Unconventional Networks of Ethical Activism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 265-282, November.
    21. Sini Forssell & Leena Lankoski, 2015. "The sustainability promise of alternative food networks: an examination through “alternative” characteristics," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(1), pages 63-75, March.
    22. Ruben, Ruerd & Fort, Ricardo, 2012. "The Impact of Fair Trade Certification for Coffee Farmers in Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 570-582.

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