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Abstract
The objective of fair trade to achieve economic justice through markets depends on establishing, via moral education, bonds of solidarity between Northern consumers and impoverished Southern producers. Moral education is increasingly realised by commercial brands who take advantage of the opportunities offered by social media. This article analyses the discursive construction of solidarity in the brand communication of Pukka (UK) and Pizca del Mundo (Poland) on Facebook. It identifies 3 discourses of solidarity: ‘solidarity through legitimation’, which presents the rationale for solidarity with Southern producers; ‘solidarity through affinity’, which constructs a moral economy between Southern producers and Northern consumers; and ‘solidarity through lifestyle’, which proposes everyday actions that can be undertaken by consumers to support Southern producers. These discourses are employed by the brands to different extents, with Pizca del Mundo attempting to establish a fair trade market in Poland and Pukka with an aim to increase sales of their fair trade products. The article concludes that primarily the discourses of ‘solidarity through legitimation’ and ‘solidarity through affinity’ serve moral education whose objective is to generate sustained commitment towards Southern producers as distant others.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 The ‘Fairtrade market’ refers to the market for products licensed by Fairtrade International, while the ‘fair trade’ market encompasses all fair trade products available on the market.
2 The population estimates in 2014 equalled 64.1 million for the UK and 38.5 million for Poland.
3 Fair Trade Certified is a label managed by Fair Trade USA, a non-profit organisation independent from Fairtrade International.
4 Fairtrade Fortnight is an annual promotional campaign organised in the UK by the Fairtrade Foundation in order to spread awareness of Fairtrade products. Fairtrade Fortnight is lifestyle-based, involving leisure events such as tastings, fashion shows, and fairs.
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Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius
Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius is a doctoral student in media and communication at the Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki. She is currently working on her dissertation about social media in moral education of ethical consumers. In particular, the research investigates how different actors dealing with ethical consumption in Finland and Poland construct through their communication the feelings of solidarity with, as well as care and responsibility for, Southern producers and workers as the distant others.
Mervi Pantti
Mervi Pantti is currently Head of Media and Communication Studies and Lecturer at the Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki. She is also Director of the International Master’s Degree Programme Media and Global Communication (MGC). Her research addresses two main subjects. The first concerns the way in which recent technological, economic, and social change is reconfiguring the media, especially journalism. In particular, she is interested in citizen witnessing and visual user-generated content. The second subject of her research interests relates to the role the media play in the shaping of the dynamics of the public sphere and public life, and it has a particular emphasis on crisis, war, humanitarianism. Within this area, her current research focus is on digital volunteerism and notions of responsibility in the contexts of charity and humanitarian communication.