The Fair Trade Movement in Historical Perspective: Explaining the "In and Against the Market" Predicament

This work offers a detailed analysis of the alternative/fair trade movement’s progression from small-scale direct-purchase schemes to increasingly mainstream prominence. I employ a framework first suggested by Anne Tallontire, which delineates four key stages in the development of fair trade: goodwill selling, solidarity trade, mutually beneficial trade, and the simultaneous development of trading partnerships and marketing of the fair trade brand. These stages are dealt with individually in sections 1.1 to 1.4, while section 1.5 provides a snapshot of fair trade’s scale and some of its impact.
Part 2 highlights potential misunderstandings that may result from the preceding historical overview, then proceeds to an argument by Gavin Fridell, who has offered an alternative analytical frame for the history and philosophical underpinnings of the fair trade movement. Part 3 pulls together critical aspects of the previous sections in an effort to engage one of the movement’s core tensions: the dualism that fair trade posits itself as both an alternative to conventional trade and a part of that system—the so-called "in and against the market" predicament.
I propose an analytical model that delineates what I call the idealist and realist tendencies of the fair trade movement. By contextualizing the roots of the “in and against the market” tension through a careful examination of the alternative/fair trade movement’s history, I seek to unpack this paradoxical polarity. By demonstrating that the idealist and realist perspectives are not mutually exclusive, it is hoped that a more holistic understanding of the fair trade movement and its intentions can emerge.

Masters Thesis, New School, Graduate Program in International Affairs