Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Participation, Social Inequality and the Making of Fair Trade as a Transnational Social Movement in the U.S. and Nicaragua

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Fair trade has become a part of everyday life for consumers in the United States, Canada, and Europe. In this research project, graduate student Joshua Fisher, supervised by Dr. Lynn Stephen, will address the question of how fair the movement really is by conducting a multi-sited, ethnographic study of a small fair trade network spanning Nicaragua and the United States.In the first part of this project, the researcher will evaluate the received image of fair trade as an equitable, democratic, and participatory alternative to globalization. He will delineate decision-making structures and the participation of each group involved. Research questions include: How does fair trade variously define the roles of certifiers, producers, and other non-governmental organizations? Who among these groups has the power to shape fair trade policy and practice and why? In the second part of the project, he will investigate fair trade as a transnational social movement that spans a number of geographic, cultural and linguistic lines, with potentially different meanings of fairness at each level.The research will be carried out over 14 months in three separate fair trade enterprises in Nicaragua, an urban garment production cooperative, a rural coffee cooperative, and a faith-based micro-credit enterprise. Research methods for this comparative design will include a range of qualitative and quantitative techniques including surveys, interviews, and participant observation, supplemented by collecting life histories, analysis of media information, and archival research. The research is important because it will contribute directly to clarifying the local impacts of an international consumer and producer movement that has been increasing steadily in social and economic importance. It also will help to develop social science research methodologies for social movements associated with globalization, and it will contribute significantly to the education of a graduate student.