IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v31y2014i4p563-576.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Uneven and unequal people-centered development: the case of Fair Trade and Malawi sugar producers

Author

Listed:
  • David Phillips

Abstract

This paper advances critical Fair Trade literature by exploring reasons for and lessons from uneven and unequal lived experiences of Fairtrade certification. Fieldwork was conducted in 2007 and 2008 to explore views and develop interpretations from various actors directly and indirectly participating in a Fairtrade certified sugar organization in Malawi. By exploring an embedded social and political context in a production place, and challenging assumptions and expectations of a Fair Trade community empowerment approach, research reveals intended and unintended consequences since certification. Findings propose lessons to adopt more nuanced understandings of place and context in Fair Trade approaches to facilitate more balanced community empowerment outcomes. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:31:y:2014:i:4:p:563-576
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-014-9500-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10460-014-9500-z
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-014-9500-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anne Tallontire & Maggie Opondo & Valerie Nelson & Adrienne Martin, 2011. "Beyond the vertical? Using value chains and governance as a framework to analyse private standards initiatives in agri-food chains," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(3), pages 427-441, September.
    2. Neil M. Coe & Peter Dicken & Martin Hess, 2008. "Introduction: global production networks—debates and challenges," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 267-269, May.
    3. Raynolds, Laura T., 2004. "The Globalization of Organic Agro-Food Networks," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 725-743, May.
    4. Bacon, Chris, 2004. "Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Can Fair Trade, Organic, and Specialty Coffees Reduce Small-Scale Farmer Vulnerability in Northern Nicaragua?," Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Working Paper Series qt0xn3f86t, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, UC Santa Cruz.
    5. Gordon MacLeod, 2001. "Beyond Soft Institutionalism: Accumulation, Regulation, and Their Geographical Fixes," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(7), pages 1145-1167, July.
    6. John M. Luiz, 2009. "Institutions and economic performance: Implications for African development," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(1), pages 58-75.
    7. Andy Cumbers & Corinne Nativel & Paul Routledge, 2008. "Labour agency and union positionalities in global production networks," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 369-387, May.
    8. 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.
    9. Neil M. Coe & Peter Dicken & Martin Hess, 2008. "Global production networks: realizing the potential," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 271-295, May.
    10. Casson, Mark C. & Della Giusta, Marina & Kambhampati, Uma S., 2010. "Formal and Informal Institutions and Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 137-141, February.
    11. Ash Amin, 2001. "Moving on: Institutionalism in Economic Geography," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(7), pages 1237-1241, July.
    12. Alberto Arce, 2009. "Living in times of solidarity: Fair trade and the fractured life worlds of Guatemalan coffee farmers," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(7), pages 1031-1041.
    13. Peter Leigh Taylor & Douglas L. Murray & Laura T. Raynolds, 2005. "Keeping trade fair: governance challenges in the fair trade coffee initiative," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(3), pages 199-208.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Manda, S. & Tallontire, A. & Dougill, A.J., 2020. "Outgrower schemes and sugar value-chains in Zambia: Rethinking determinants of rural inclusion and exclusion," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    2. Witness Maluleke & Mandlenkosi Richard Mphatheni & Sphamandla Lindani Nkosi, 2022. "A systematic study on stock theft contributory factors during the South African lockdown," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 11(2), pages 462-476, March.
    3. Karla Rubio‐Jovel, 2023. "The voluntary sustainability standards and their contribution towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals: A systematic review on the coffee sector," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(6), pages 1013-1052, August.
    4. Filippa Pyk & Assem Abu Hatab, 2018. "Fairtrade and Sustainability: Motivations for Fairtrade Certification among Smallholder Coffee Growers in Tanzania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-18, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Céline Louche & Lotte Staelens & Marijke D’Haese, 2020. "When Workplace Unionism in Global Value Chains Does Not Function Well: Exploring the Impediments," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 379-398, March.
    2. 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.
    3. Linqing Liu & Shiye Mei, 2016. "Visualizing the GVC research: a co-occurrence network based bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 953-977, November.
    4. Hamilton-Hart, Natasha & Stringer, Christina, 2016. "Upgrading and exploitation in the fishing industry: Contributions of value chain analysis," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 166-171.
    5. Shannon Sutton, 2012. "Add Producers and Stir? (Re) politicizing Fairtrade participation," Working Papers 38, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research.
    6. 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.
    7. Hindsley, Paul & McEvoy, David M. & Morgan, O. Ashton, 2020. "Consumer Demand for Ethical Products and the Role of Cultural Worldviews: The Case of Direct-Trade Coffee," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    8. Shengjun Zhu & Canfei He, 2016. "Global and local governance, industrial and geographical dynamics: A tale of two clusters," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(8), pages 1453-1473, December.
    9. Ernesto Noronha & Premilla D’Cruz & Muneeb Ul Lateef Banday, 2020. "Navigating Embeddedness: Experiences of Indian IT Suppliers and Employees in the Netherlands," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 95-113, June.
    10. 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.
    11. Paulina Ramirez & Helen Rainbird, 2010. "Making the connections: bringing skill formation into global value chain analysis," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 24(4), pages 699-710, December.
    12. Elena Baglioni, 2018. "Labour control and the labour question in global production networks: exploitation and disciplining in Senegalese export horticulture," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 111-137.
    13. Sara D. Elder & Jane Lister & Peter Dauvergne, 2014. "Big retail and sustainable coffee: A new development studies research agenda," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 14(1), pages 77-90, January.
    14. Noronha, Ernesto & D'Cruz, Premilla, 2020. "The Indian IT industry: A global production network perspective," IPE Working Papers 134/2020, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    15. Annelien Gansemans & Marijke D’Haese, 2020. "Staying under the radar: constraints on labour agency of pineapple plantation workers in Costa Rica?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(2), pages 397-414, June.
    16. Dennis Arnold, 2013. "Workers’ agency and re-working power relations in Cambodia’s garment industry," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series ctg-2013-24, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    17. Vivien Blanchet, 2011. "The two faces of Janus: a postcolonial problematization of the fair trade ambivalence," Post-Print halshs-00676060, HAL.
    18. Costantini, Valeria & Liberati, Paolo, 2014. "Technology transfer, institutions and development," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 26-48.
    19. Praveen Jha & Paris Yeros, 2019. "Global Agricultural Value Systems and the South: Some Critical Issues at the Current Juncture," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 8(1-2), pages 14-29, April.
    20. Xinyu Yang & Weidong Liu, 2022. "Agricultural Production Networks and Upgrading from a Global–Local Perspective: A Review," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:31:y:2014:i:4:p:563-576. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.