Description
Book SynopsisSheds new light on the potential for the fair trade market to reshape the world into a more socially-just place
Trade Review"BrownsBuying into Fair Tradeis a thoughtful, articulate, critical, and compelling study of limitations of potentials of fair trade, ethical consumption, and the many forces that make certain kinds of consumers and activists in this day and age." * Political and Legal Anthropology Review Online *
"Buying into Fair Trade provides readers with insights into how consumption trends shape food cultures... [The author] examines the potential of fair trade to create a more socially just world, drawing on interviews, reality tour experiences, interactions with fair-trade advocates, and volunteering at Ten Thousand Villages, a company dedicated to promoting the fair trade of products made by artisans in developing countries." * Contexts *
"Brown's sociologically sophisticated treatment of the symbolic, moral and practical aspects of fair trade is a significant advance over much of the literature. Highly recommended" -- Juliet Schor,author of True Wealth
"In Buying into Fair Trade, Keith Brown explores how global consumers and entrepreneurs invest products from organic coffee beans to handmade jewelry with morality and meaning. Along the way we meet Third World reality tourists, sustainable coffee bar owners, social-justice activists, and conscientious consumers, all of whom negotiate the confusing contradictions between charity and commerce, altruism and authenticity." -- David Grazian,author of Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs
"Keith Brown turns a sympathetic yet critical eye on the new generation of consumers who want to buy morally rather than contribute to exploitation of indigenous producers and ruining the ecology. The ethical turn in markets is part social movement, part social construction of belief, part frontstage performance. Brown takes us inside the altruism and the contentions of this supply chain where emotions shape markets." -- Randall Collins,author of Interaction Ritual Chains and Violence: A Micro-Sociological Theory
"The first book-length social science work to focus exclusively on the consumption side of fair trade, and as such it represents a much-needed contribution." -- Daniel Jaffe * American Journal of Sociology *
Table of ContentsC o n t e n t sAcknowledgments vii1. A Taste of Life in the Nicaraguan Campo 12. "Just One Normal Coffee": Crafting Joe's Moral Reputation 313. "Buy More Coffee": Becoming a Promoter throughExtraordinary Experiences 554. "Who Are We Pillaging from This Time?": Managing Value Contradictions in Shopping 735. How to Appear Altruistic 956. The Great Recession and the Social Significance of Buyinginto Fair Trade 121Appendix: Research Methods 141Notes 155Bibliography 171Index 181About the Author 18
