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

公平贸易已经成为美国、加拿大和欧洲消费者日常生活的一部分。在这个研究项目中，研究生约书亚·费舍尔将在林恩·斯蒂芬博士的指导下，通过对横跨尼加拉瓜和美国的一个小型公平贸易网络进行多地点、人种学研究，来解决这场运动到底有多公平的问题。在这个项目的第一部分，研究人员将评估人们对公平贸易作为全球化的公平、民主和参与性替代方案的接受形象。他将描述决策结构和每个相关小组的参与情况。研究问题包括：公平贸易如何以不同的方式定义认证机构、生产者和其他非政府组织的角色？在这些群体中，谁有权制定公平贸易政策和实践？为什么？在该项目的第二部分，他将调查公平贸易作为一种跨国社会运动，它跨越了许多地理、文化和语言界限，在每个层面上对公平的含义可能不同。研究将在尼加拉瓜的三个不同的公平贸易企业--一个城市服装生产合作社、一个农村咖啡合作社和一个基于信仰的小额信贷企业--进行，历时14个月。这种比较设计的研究方法将包括一系列定性和定量的技术，包括调查、访谈和参与者观察，并辅之以收集生活史、分析媒体信息和档案研究。这项研究很重要，因为它将直接有助于澄清国际消费者和生产者运动对当地的影响，这一运动在社会和经济方面的重要性一直在稳步增加。它还将有助于发展与全球化相关的社会运动的社会科学研究方法，并将对研究生的教育作出重大贡献。

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.