Author(s):
Heather R Putnam* - University of Kansas
Abstract:
The messages presented to consumers in places of consumption about fair trade coffee force us to consider what falls within the realm of fair and what does not, as large corporations enter into fair trade. Different actors in the fair trade network assume varying interpretations of fairness. This creates confusion among consumers who must make choices about their purchases and within the fair trade network, in effect creating a movement without clear moral basis, opening it to possibilities of perpetuating postcolonial understandings, social relations, and trade geographies through a simplistic understanding of "helping" others in the global south, which is the dominant message found in places of consumption. I explore how the fair trade network that exists was not inevitable, and has developed because of the convergence of geohistorical processes at different moments, and has resulted in certain dominant actors being mediators of meaning. I then analyze what the impacts are when the dominant meaning of a consuming place is imposed on producers, and whether unmediated exchange between consumers and producers in a fair trade agrotourism program in Nicaragua allows actors to identify common morality and goals. Using an analysis of marketing propaganda, participant-observation experience, and surveys and interviews of actors within the Fair Trade coffee network, I find that when direct contact occurs between consumers and producers in Matagalpa, consumers preserve their understanding of fair trade, cooperative members experience changed perspectives and practices, and savvy cooperative leaders exploit that dominant meaning in positive ways to further their cooperative's development.
