Class dynamics and ideological construction in the struggle over fairness: a neo-Gramscian examination of the Fairtrade initiative

Abstract

This paper develops a neo-Gramscian conceptual framework in order to examine the ideological constructs and political dynamics that frame the day-to-day workings of the certification-based Fairtrade initiative. To accomplish this goal, the paper resorts to the notion of a ‘comprehensive concept of control’, which accounts for the main ideological elements that constitute the Fairtrade vision of the world. The analysis of these imaginaries is complemented with an examination of the concrete ways in which they have been institutionalized in the Fairtrade system and the specific power relations between class fractions they promote. This is followed by an exploration of the way in which Fairtrade articulates the contradictory interests of a variety of class fractions, bringing them together under the shared objective of advancing the situation of small producers and workers in the global South. The paper finishes with a reflection on the main limitations inherent to Fairtrade’s concept of control and the political dynamics it entails.

Keywords:

• Fairtrade
• certifications
• ideology
• Gramsci
• class fractions

Acknowledgements

Successive versions of this paper benefited from the comments and suggestions provided by Bastiaan van Apeldoorn, Steen Vallentin, Hubert Buch-Hansen, Stefano Ponte, Morten Ougaard, Magnus Paulsen Hansen, Janine Leschke and Tim Holst Celik.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Juan Ignacio Staricco http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5056-9850

Notes

1 Throughout the paper, I follow the distinction made by Raynolds and Bennett (2015, 5–6), according to which Fair Trade refers to ‘the concept, the movement or products/organizations/businesses promoting the general fair trade vision’, whereas Fairtrade refers to the ‘specific certification system’ governed by Fairtrade International.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Juan Ignacio Staricco

Juan Ignacio Staricco is a postdoctoral fellow at the Management Institute of the School of Economics (National University of Cordoba) and Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). His current research seeks to critically examine the capacity of voluntary certifications to advance the agri-food sector in the direction of social, economic and environmental sustainability. Email: [email protected]