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

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

SES-1129796 Nina Bandelj Kristen Shorette University of California-Irvine ABSTRACT Doctoral Dissertation Research: Fair Trade Organizations Across Nations and Over Time Persistent 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 Impact This 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.