The Cultural Politics of Fair Trade Coffee: Commodifying Social Justice

这个多地点的人种学研究项目涉及有机“公平贸易”咖啡的生产、消费和文化营销。公平贸易是一种全球监管体系，其基础是有社会意识的消费者和贫穷的农村生产者之间的直接市场联系。大多数关于商品链的研究都涉及生产者/消费者关系的经济影响。从这些方面出发，本研究将考察通过公平贸易商品链建立的社会关系，以及与产品一起交易的意图、价值观、理想和政治。研究的目的是(1)从恰帕斯州种植者和营销者的角度了解咖啡种植制度的变化。(2)了解有机和公平贸易的标签对生产者和买家/消费者意味着什么；(3)从每个参与群体的角度了解当地对公平贸易关系的政治或经济变革的希望；以及(4)了解参与有机公平贸易制度在多大程度上和以何种方式与关于自我和身份的观念相联系。这项为期一年的研究项目基于对墨西哥和美国的参与者观察，以及对咖啡生产商、公平贸易领导人和消费者的采访。美国的环保主义经常被粉饰为消费者驱动的，渴望拥有纯净的食物、绿色空间和野生动物。相比之下，墨西哥的社会运动更多地被认为是生产者驱动的，因为人们渴望公平分配土地，需要保护森林资源以供自给自足，以及希望进入利基有机食品市场。全球公平贸易运动意义重大，因为它结合了新的环境运动和基于生存需求的旧农民运动的元素。这项研究将提供新的知识，概述一场将奢侈品咖啡消费与对基本社会正义的关注联系起来的运动的优势和劣势。它将通过将经济和文化过程联系起来，为全球化的社会科学理论做出贡献。

This ethnographic, multi-site research project concerns the production, consumption and cultural marketing of organic "fair-trade" coffee. Fair trade is a globally regulated system based on direct market links between socially conscious consumers and poor rural producers. Most studies of commodity chains concern the economic effects of producer/consumer relationships. In departure from these, this study will examine the social relationships established through the fair trade commodity chain, as well as the intentions, values, ideals, and politics that are traded along with the product. The research objectives are (1) to understand changes in the coffee cultivation system from the perspective of growers and marketers in Chiapas. Mexico; (2) to understand what the labels of organic and fair trade signify to producers and buyers/consumers; (3) to understand, from the perspective of each participating group, local hopes for political or economic change vis a vis the fair trade relationship; and (4) to understand to what extent and in what ways involvement in organic fair trade regimes are linked to ideas about self and identity. The one-year research project is based on participant observation Mexico and the United States, and interviews with coffee producers, fair trade leaders, and consumers. American environmentalism is often glossed as consumer-driven, by desires to have pure food, green spaces, and wildlife. In contrast, Mexican social movements have been more often regarded as producer-driven, by desires for the equitable distribution of land, the need to preserve forest resources for subsistence use, and the desire to access niche organic food markets. The global fair-trade movement is significant because it combines elements of both newer environmental movements and older peasant movements based on subsistence demands. This research will provide new knowledge by outlining the strengths and weaknesses of a movement that links a luxury, coffee consumption, to concerns for basic social justice. It will contribute to social science theory of globalization by linking economic and cultural processes.