Justice—Advantages and Disadvantages

The primary focus of Fair Trade institutions is to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged people in developing countries through market access (Nicholls & Opal, 2005). Fair Trade studies largely find that Fair Trade increases income and economic stability for producers; creates access to credit, organic certification, and export markets; and brings benefits from diversification, structural improvements, and market control (Nelson & Pound, 2009). Lives are improved through economic growth. However, economic growth is just one aspect of one’s well-being. An individual’s advantage, or happiness, is also important. Economic gains do not necessarily create happiness. Amartya Sen writes that an individual’s advantage is judged by the person’s “capability to do things he or she has reason to value” (2009, p. 231). Happiness is understood as a feeling of self-satisfaction both personally and within one’s community, which includes one’s ability to achieve different combinations of functionings that can be compared and judged against each other in terms of what one had “reason to value” (Sen, 2009, pp. 175–193). In order for Fair Trade institutions to improve lives, participants’ functionings as well as their economic advantage need to be considered. Women participating in Fair Trade identify six functions that are important to them and affect their well-being.