Synopses & Reviews
Stamped on products from coffee to handicrafts, the term “fair trade” has quickly become one of todays most seductive consumer buzzwords. Purportedly created through fair labor practices, or in ways that are environmentally sustainable, fair-trade products give buyers peace of mind in knowing that, in theory, how they shop can help make the world a better place. Buying into Fair Trade turns the spotlight onto this growing trend, exploring how fair-trade shoppers think about their own altruism within an increasingly global economy. Using over 100 interviews with fair-trade consumers, national leaders of the movement, coffee farmers, and artisans, author Keith Brown describes both the strategies that consumers use to confront the moral contradictions involved in trying to shop ethically and the ways shopkeepers and suppliers reconcile their need to do good with the ever-present need to turn a profit. Brown also provides a how-to chapter that outlines strategies readers can use to appear altruistic, highlighting the ways that socially responsible markets have been detached from issues of morality. A fascinating account of how consumers first learn about, understand, and sometimes ignore the ethical implications of shopping, Buying into Fair Trade sheds new light on the potential for the fair trade market to reshape the world into a more socially-just place.
Review
"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
Review
"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
Review
"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
About the Author
Keith R. Brown is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Saint Josephs University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Table of Contents
C o n t e n t sAcknowledgments vii1. A Taste of Life in the Nicaraguan Campo 12. “Just One Normal Coffee”: Crafting Joes 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