Fair Trade: PROSPECTS FOR SOCIAL STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN THE TIME OF GLOBAL CRISIS
Author
Scholz, Katrin
Term
4. term
Publication year
2010
Submitted on
2010-06-30
Abstract
Dette speciale undersøger Fair Trade som en ny social-økonomisk bevægelse i en tid præget af sammenvævede globale kriser og spørger, om en bevægelse, der udfordrer den neoliberale handelsorden, men opererer inden for de globale markeder, kan skabe transformativ social forandring. Specialet gennemgår Fair Trades historiske udvikling og placerer bevægelsen i det globale civilsamfund, og analyserer dens strategier og virkninger ved hjælp af verdenssystem-analyse, gramscianske og neogramscianske begreber samt ny social bevægelsesteori med særlig opmærksomhed på mainstreaming og institutionalisering. Med disse teoretiske perspektiver peger undersøgelsen på et ambivalent resultat: Fair Trade rummer både praksisser, der fremmer forandring, og dynamikker, der reproducerer elementer af den dominerende økonomiske orden, herunder tendenser til passiv revolution. Specialet vurderer dermed Fair Trades potentiale og begrænsninger som led i et bredere kontra-hegemonisk projekt i krisetider.
This thesis examines Fair Trade as a new social economic movement amid interlinked global crises and asks whether a movement that challenges the neoliberal trade order yet operates within global markets can drive transformative social change. It traces the historical development of Fair Trade and situates the movement within global civil society, then analyzes its strategies and effects through world-systems analysis, Gramscian and neo-Gramscian concepts, and new social movement theory, with attention to mainstreaming and institutionalization. Using these theoretical lenses, the study finds an ambivalent outcome: Fair Trade combines practices that push for change with dynamics that reproduce elements of the dominant economic order, including tendencies of passive revolution. The thesis thus assesses the potential and limits of Fair Trade as part of a broader counter-hegemonic project in times of crisis.
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