Doctoral Dissertation Research: Fair Trade Organizations Across Nations and Over Time

美国加州大学欧文分校博士论文研究：公平贸易组织在国家和时间上的持续不平等构成了当代最重要的社会问题之一。公平贸易组织（FTO）的出现是为了解决这些不平等，在贸易伙伴之间重新分配利润，为社区发展提供民主渠道，并保护自然环境免受破坏性生产行为的影响。这项研究将解释公平贸易（FT）在过去60年中的不均衡增长。越来越多的社会科学文献探讨了金融时报现象，但这种研究仅限于商品或生产者社区的案例研究。此外，大多数关于金融时报的研究都假设，利他主义的个人价值观和对可持续发展的承诺推动了其组织和实践的发展。与此相反，本项目采用了宏观制度的方法，并强调规范，结构和制度的力量在解释FT的时间和跨国差异的重要性。该项目试图回答以下三个问题：（1）什么解释了新的FTO超时的基础？(2)如何解释FT生产者组织集中在某些发展中国家而不是其他国家，从而为某些社区而不是其他社区的不平等现象提供更多资源？以及（3）如何解释发达国家之间FT商品消费量的跨国差异？更广泛的影响这项研究将提高对规范性，结构性和制度性力量如何塑造全球市场的理解。它还将扩大对一种新的组织和经济现象的了解，这种现象使发展中世界的生产者受益，并有可能减少持续存在的国际不平等。从这项研究中发现的扩散和变化的原因，在FT商品是必不可少的信息，为当前的FT社区和努力扩大该行业，从而促进第三世界的发展。

SES-1129796Nina BandeljKristen ShoretteUniversity of California-IrvineABSTRACTDoctoral Dissertation Research: Fair Trade Organizations Across Nations and Over TimePersistent inequalities between countries constitute one of the most significant contemporary social problems. Fair trade organizations (FTOs) emerged as a way to address these inequalities, redistribute profits between trading partners, provide a democratic outlet for community development, and protect the natural environment from destructive production practices. This research will explain the uneven rise of fair trade (FT) over the last sixty years. A growing body of social science literature addresses the phenomenon of FT, but this research is limited to case studies of commodities or producer communities. In addition, most research on FT assumes that individual values of altruism and commitment to sustainability drive the growth of its organizations and practices. In contrast, this project adopts a macro-institutional approach and emphasizes the importance of normative, structural and institutional forces in explaining the over-time and cross-national variation in FT. The project seeks to answer the following three questions: (1) What explains the foundation of new FTOs overtime? (2) What explains the concentration of FT producer organizations in some developing countries rather than others, and thus provides more resources to fight inequality in some communities rather than others? and (3) What explains cross-national variation in the amount of FT goods consumed among developed countries? Broader ImpactThis study will improve understanding of how normative, structural and institutional forces shape global markets. It will also expand knowledge of a new organizational and economic phenomenon which has benefited producers from the developing world and has potential to reduce persistent international inequalities. Findings from this study about the causes of proliferation and variation in FT goods are essential information for the current FT community and its efforts to expand the industry and thereby promote Third World development.