| Fair trade has emerged in the context of various struggles, collectively termed the global justice movement, that challenge neoliberal efforts to deregulate international markets in the name of free trade. Although often characterized simply as an isolated reform initiative, the fair trade system exhibits radical possibilities when considered in the context of these struggles. With attention focused on a case study of fair trade banana production, as well as the literature on coffee, fair trade is itself treated here not as fixed in form, but as a site of struggle. Informed by a Polanyian perspective, moreover, the thesis argues that fair trade opposes reliance on the free market and presents an alternative that tends to re-embed the economy in social relations. Polanyi's concept of "countermovement" is employed to maintain that the radical possibilities of fair trade depend upon strengthening connections with radical initiatives in the global justice movement. |
