Fair Trade and justice: a comment on Walton and Deneulin

Abstract

In this article we first point out that the different conceptualisations of Fair Trade, which are sometimes analytically contradictory, actually form a coordinated set. Understanding the Fair Trade project is impossible without taking these interlinked conceptualisations into consideration. Second, this set basically forms a mechanism of structural, institutional and moral reforms that guide actions. In this way Fair Trade sets out to produce less injustice than is usually the case with the structures and institutions that govern conventional trade. Nevertheless, it does not try to define what a just society is or even to perfectly define ‘fair trade’. This implies the adoption of a comparative justice angle. It is precisely by linking comparative individual situations with the structures that produce these situations that relative justice can find its strength and purpose.

Keywords:

• corporate social responsibility and fair trade
• poverty and inequality
• livelihoods and sustainability
• justice

Notes

1. FINE, “Fair Trade Definition and Principles,” December 2001. http://wfto.com/fair-trade/definition-fair-trade.

2. PFCE, “Le commerce équitable en France et dans le monde,” 2013 figures. http://www.commercequitable.org/lecommerceequitable/quelques-chiffres.html.

3. See, for instance, http://www.ed.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.125181!/fileManager/Whatisfairtradeinfosheet.pdf.

4. Walton, “What is Fair Trade?”

5. We distinguish between the Fair Trade project and the normative idea of fair trade. We use uppercase letters to differentiate the former from the latter.

6. Barratt Brown, Fair Trade.

7. Nicholls and Charlotte, Fair Trade.

8. Sen, The Idea of Justice.

9. Deneulin, “Development.”

10. Walton, “What is Fair Trade?,” 434.

11. Ibid., 439.

12. Ibid., 440.

13. Ibid., 441.

14. Nicholls and Charlotte, Fair Trade.

15. Reinecke, “Beyond a Subjective Theory of Value.”

16. Valkila and Nygren, “Impacts of Fair Trade Certification.”

17. Jaffee, “Better, but not Great.”

18. Becchetti and Costantino, “The Effects of Fair Trade.”

19. Walton, “What is Fair Trade?,” 436.

20. Ibid.

21. De Pelsmacker et al., “Do Consumers care about Ethics?”; Ozcaglar-Toulouse et al., “In Search of Fair Trade”; Tagbata and Sirieix, “Measuring Consumers’ Willingness to Pay”; and Mahé, “Are Stated Preferences Confirmed?”

22. Arnot et al., “Do Ethical Consumers care about Price?”

23. Low and Davenport, “Mainstreaming Fair Trade.”

24. Walton, “What is Fair Trade?,” 438.

25. Ibid.

26. Vagneron and Roquigny, What do we really Know?

27. Klier and Possinger, Assessing the Impact of Fairtrade.

28. Nelson et al., Assessing the Poverty Impact.

29. Hoebink et al., The Impact of Coffee Certification; and Cramer et al., Fairtrade, Employment and Poverty.

30. Walton, “What is Fair Trade?,” 440.

31. Ruben and Fort, “The Impact of Fair Trade Certification”; Becchetti et al., “Development Projects and Life Satisfaction”; Imhof and Lee, “Assessing the Potential of Fair Trade”; Zuniga-Arias and Segura, “The Impact of Fair Trade”; Parrish et al., “What Tanzania’s Coffee Farmers can teach the World”; and Utting-Chamorro, “Does Fair Trade make a Difference?”

32. Le Velly, “Sociologie du marché.”

33. Satz, Why some Things should not be for Sale.

34. Le Velley, “Sociologie du marché.”

35. Pouchain, “Le commerce équitable.”

36. Walton, “What is Fair Trade?,” 441.

37. Polanyi, The Great Transformation.

38. Van der Hoff, “The Urgency and Necessity.”

39. Walton, “What is Fair Trade?,” 435.

40. Raynolds, “Consumer/Producer Links.”

41. Glassman, “From Seattle (and Ubon) to Bangkok.”

42. Goodman, “Reading Fair Trade.”

43. Raynolds, “Consumer/Producer Links.”

44. To use an expression coined by Berthoud, “Marché-rencontre.”

45. Raynolds, “Mainstreaming Fair Trade.”

46. Ballet and Carimentrand, “Fair Trade.”

47. Maldidier, Fair Trade.

48. Reinecke, Beyond a Subjective Theory of Value.

49. Raynolds, “Re-embedding Global Agriculture.”

50. Raynolds and Murray, “Fair Trade.”

51. Renard and Pérez-Grovas, “Fair Trade Coffee in Mexico.”

52. Ibid.

53. Raynolds and Murray, “Fair Trade.”

54. Goodman, “Reading Fair Trade.”

55. Thompson, “The Moral Economy.”

56. Goodman, “Reading Fair Trade.”

57. Walsh-Dilley, “Negotiating Hybridity.”

58. Sen, The Idea of Justice.

59. Ibid.

60. Rawls, A Theory of Justice.

61. Deneulin, “Development,” 791.

62. Ibid., 793.

63. Ibid., 794.

64. Ibid., 795.

65. Walton, “What is Fair Trade?,” 432.

66. Ballet and Carimentrand, “Evaluer l’impact.”

67. Jaffee, Brewing Justice.

68. Nelson et al., Assessing the Poverty Impact; and Hoebink et al., The Impact of Coffee Certification.

69. Moore, “On the Implications.”