Abstract
In October of 2005, over 750 consumers, store owners, and activists attended the first national FT conference, entitled ‘Living a Fair Trade Life’, in Chicago, IL. Pauline Tiffen, author, activist, and founding member of the North American Fair Trade Alliance, gave the keynote address and explained how ‘the market’ should be reframed as a place where people come to interact and actively make decisions:
Conventional wisdom now suggests that ‘the market’ is a neutral, uncontrollable force, immune to morality or persuasion, and not to be blamed for the harmful impact of certain trade practices. I suggest we all view ‘the market’ as ‘the marketplace’ where people come to buy and sell their goods, and where people — not some invisible, unaccountable force — decide what is acceptable and saleable.
This chapter benefited greatly from the thoughtful comments and critiques on earlier drafts by Dan Cook, Robin Leidner, Stefan Klusemann, and Kathleen O’Malley. I would also like to thank Bill Bielby, Joe Cesa, Randall Collins, Adair Crosley, Jill Fink, David Grazian, Bryant Simon, and Fred Wherry for their advice and assistance throughout this project. I gratefully acknowledge financial support for the collection of these data from the Pollak Summer Research Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
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© 2008 Keith Brown
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Brown, K. (2008). Framing a Fair Trade Life: Tensions in the Fair Trade Marketplace. In: Cook, D.T. (eds) Lived Experiences of Public Consumption. Consumption and Public Life. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230591264_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230591264_10
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