Hidden Hands in the Market: Ethnographies of Fair Trade, Ethical Consumption, and Corporate Social Responsibility (Research in Economic Anthropology)

325 Pages·2008·2.78 MB·English

by  Geert de Neve

RESEARCH IN ECONOMIC
ANTHROPOLOGY
Series Editor: Donald C. Wood
Volume 20: Research in Economic Anthropology – Edited by
B. L. Isaac
Volume 21: Social Dimensions in the Economic Process –
Edited by N. Dannhaeuser & C. Werner
Volume 22: Anthropological Perspectives on Economic
Development and Integration – Edited by
N. Dannhaeuser & C. Werner
Volume 23: Socioeconomic Aspects of Human Behavioral
Ecology – Edited by M. Alvard
Volume 24: Markets and Market Liberalization:
Ethnographic Reflections – Edited by
N. Dannhaeuser & C. Werner
Volume 25: Choice in Economic Contexts: Ethnographic
andTheoreticalEnquiries–EditedbyD.C.Wood
Volume 26: The Economics of Health and Wellness:
Anthropological Perspectives –
Edited by D. C. Wood
Volume 27: Dimensions of Ritual Economy – Edited by
E. C. Wells & P. A. McAnany
RESEARCH IN ECONOMIC ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 28
HIDDEN HANDS IN
THE MARKET:
ETHNOGRAPHIES OF FAIR
TRADE, ETHICAL
CONSUMPTION, AND
CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
EDITED BY
GEERT D NEVE, PETER LUETCHFORD,
E
AND JEFFREY PRATT
Department of Anthropology, University of Sussex, UK
DONALD C. WOOD
Department of Social Medicine,
Akita University School of Medicine, Japan
United Kingdom – North America – Japan
India – Malaysia – China
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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Amanda Berlan Saı¨d Business School, University of
Oxford, Oxford, UK
James G. Carrier Department of Anthropology, Oxford
Brookes University, Oxford, UK;
Department of Anthropology, the
University of Indiana, Indianapolis,
IN, USA
Catherine S. Dolan Saı¨d Business School and Templeton
College, University of Oxford, Oxford,
UK
Tama´s Dombos Department of Sociology and Social
Anthropology, Central European
University, Budapest, Hungary
Jennifer S. Esperanza Department of Anthropology, Beloit
College, Beloit, WI, USA
Rebecca Lawrence Department of Sociology, Stockholm
University, Stockholm, Sweden;
Department of Human Geography,
Macquarie University, Sydney,
Australia
Peter Luetchford Department of Anthropology, University
of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Lisa Markowitz Department of Anthropology, University
of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA
Geert De Neve Department of Anthropology, University
of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Jeffrey Pratt Department of Anthropology, University
of Sussex, Brighton, UK
vii
viii LIST OFCONTRIBUTORS
Rebecca Prentice Department of Anthropology, University
of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Dinah Rajak Department of Anthropology, University
of Sussex, Brighton, UK
PREFACE
Always on the lookout for good material for the REA series, at the end of
March, 2007, I contacted Geert De Neve about a workshop he and his
colleagues,PeterLuetchfordandJeffreyPratt,werepreparingtohostinlate
AprilattheUniversityofSussex.Wordoftheworkshophadinitiallycome
to me via the Society for Economic Anthropology Listserv months earlier.
At thetime Iwastied up withVolume26,ahealth-relatedinstallment,and
so had only hoped to pick up a few quality papers for a later volume,
thinkingthattheycouldperhapsbegroupedintoaspecialsectiontogether.
Fortunately, however, I got much more.
Geert acted quickly, and many of the workshop participants showed
interest, so within 1 month of my initial enquiry, plans for this book were
underway. Geert, Peter, and Jeff at Sussex made the decision on which
workshop papers to include in this volume, and guided the authors in their
initial revisions. Each author then submitted a revised version of his or her
paper, which I in turn put through a blind peer-review, in accordance with
REApolicy.Whenthereviews(whichweregenerallyquitepositive)camein,
I responded to each author with the feedback of the referees, along with
suggestions of my own, in most cases, and the authors began their final
revisions. As chief coordinator of the initial workshop, Geert played a
central role in the editing and revisions of the papers, and I shared
anonymous referee feedback with him along the way.
Thisvolumemakesaveryspecialcontributiontoeconomicanthropology
in general, and to the REA series. With first-hand data from a variety of
geographic areas, its comparative ethnographic take on fair trade and
corporate social responsibility (CSR) is unparalleled. It also very clearly
elucidatesalternativeconceptionsofhowmarketsoughttoworkandalsoin
whatwayscontroloverpowerfuleconomicforcesmightbeachievedamong
relatively disempowered people – producers and consumers alike – in a
variety of situations. This edition also combines the strengths of two
different types of edited volumes in one book. Normally, those that grow
outofconferencesorworkshopscontainchaptersthatevolvedfrompapers
initially presented orally. All chapters are edited by the same person or
people, who generally also write the introduction, and then the final
manuscript is submitted to a publisher, who may have the entire thing
ix
x PREFACE
reviewedbyoneortwootherreferees.Themainstrengthsofthesevolumes
are that their chapters are usually thematically or methodologically related
tooneanother,andthattheauthor(orauthors)ofeachareatleastfamiliar
with the other chapters because they were present at their initial
presentation. In addition, discussions of the papers and their findings at
the workshop or conference usually help the authors shore up the weak
points of each prior to their publication, and also serve to reinforce the
linkages between the chapters of the finished product.
Peer-reviewed bookseries,suchasREA,aredifferent.Withoneofthese,
itisgenerallyuptotheeditor(oreditors)alonetofindlinkagesbetweenthe
chapters,fortherespectiveauthorsareusuallyunawareofwhatelsewillbe
contained in the volume until it appears in print. However, the great
strengthofsuchvolumesliesinthepeer-review process,foreachindividual
chapter is read by one or more specialists in its particular thematic and/or
geographicarea(inadditiontotheeditor)andthenisrevisedaccordinglyif
it passes the initial review. The present book possesses the strongest points
of both types of edited volumes. First, the workshop organizers in Sussex
selected certain presented papers for the volume. Second, they were revised
beforetheirinitialsubmission.Third,theyunderwentarigorouspeer-review
process. Fourth, they were revised again by their authors. Finally, the
contributions to this volume were edited one final time before the
manuscript was submitted to the publisher. Although all REA volumes
to-datehavemadestrongcontributionstothefield,IbelievethisisanREA
volume of which all editors and contributors together can be especially
proud.
Although it delayed the publication of the chapters in this volume by
about 6 months, adhering here to the peer-review policy of REA was an
important part of the preparation of this volume, as explained above.
However, this volume deviates slightly from the REA standard in that it
containsonepreviouslypublishedchapter,authoredbyJeffreyPratt,which
appeared in Vol. 27, No. 3, of Critique of Anthropology (September, 2007).
This is something that, to my knowledge, has not been done by REA since
George Dalton edited the series. I stated clearly in the introduction to
Volume 25 (2007) that as editor I would not be interested in previously
published work, and this holds true. However, in this case I have made an
exceptiontotherulebecausePratt’scontributionwasanintegralpartofthe
workshop, and because many of the chapters in this volume refer to, and
rely on, it. I feel that it is deserving of being reprinted here along with its
fellow workshop papers. Incidentally, Pratt’s paper was not subjected to
a peer-review for inclusion here.
Preface xi
One more matter that deserves mention is REA’s recent move from the
offices of Elsevier to those of Emerald Publishing, based in Bingley, UK.
This is the second such move in REA’s history, for Elsevier had originally
acquired the series from JAI Press shortly after the publication of Volume
19in1998,whenBarryIsaacwaseditor.Volume27(2008),guest-editedby
Christian Wells and Patricia McAnany, with which I was essentially
uninvolved, was actually the first REA volume published by Emerald, but
the manuscript was initially submitted to Elsevier during the transition
period just after the deal between the two companies had been inked.
Therefore, while Volume 28 is actually the second REA volume with the
Emeraldlabel,itisthefirstthatIhaveactivelyedited,anditisthefirsttobe
submitted to Emerald. As editor of REA, I look forward to working with
Emerald in further developing the series. Indeed, as I write this Preface in
Aprilof2008Itakenoteofthefactthatthisisthe30thanniversaryyearfor
REA – JAI published Volume 1 in 1978 – perhaps a good occasion for
making a new start.
Before closing, I would like to thank my co-editors and the other
contributorsforhelpingtoproducesuchanoutstandingREAvolume.Ialso
extend my gratitude to the 24 scholars who were kind enough to serve as
official readers for the chapters of this book. Their suggestions helped to
significantly improve what was already an excellent set of papers. Finally,
I would like to acknowledge Mark Newson of Elsevier for his work on
Volumes 25, 26, and 27 of REA. Mark served as Development Editor in
charge of REA (among other projects) from the time that I took over as
editoruntiltheserieswassoldtoEmeraldinlate2007.HehandledVolumes
25and26fromstarttofinish,workedonVolume27attheinitialstage,and
alsohelpedmegetVolume28startedwithadviceonthepublishingschedule
andothermatters.IamindebtedtoMarkforhisfineworkonthesevolumes
and for his excellent support.
Donald C. Wood
Editor
INTRODUCTION: REVEALING
THE HIDDEN HANDS OF GLOBAL
MARKET EXCHANGE
Geert De Neve, Peter Luetchford and Jeffrey Pratt
The central theme running through this volume is the relationship between
producers and consumers and questions about the moral and political
contentofthatrelationship.Inevermorepartsoftheworldthisrelationship
unfolds within a market economy; indeed producers and consumers, as
categoriesofpeople,areconstructedthroughmarketrelations.Ifthemarket
ispartofourcentraltheme,thecontextforthearticlesisthespreadofneo-
liberal globalisation, with its roots in the reforms pioneered in the US and
the UK in the 1980s.
While post-war economists and politicians have entrenched a neo-liberal
view of the Market, to use Carrier’s (1997) capital letter, across the globe
there have always existed alternative strands of thought and practice that
contest this dominant model of market economy. Fair trade and local food
movements, for example, are one expression of anti-market feelings, while
corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives on the other hand seek to
emphasise (and protect) capitalism’s inherent human and sustainable
character. Such alternatives are ‘‘ethical’’ perspectives in as far as they
engage in the very old ‘‘conversation’’ about the rights and wrongs of
economic behaviour and market exchange. They are ‘‘alternative’’ in that
they imply or directly articulate a critique of the unfettered Market and
HiddenHandsintheMarket:EthnographiesofFairTrade,EthicalConsumption,andCorporate
SocialResponsibility
ResearchinEconomicAnthropology,Volume28,1–30
Copyrightr2008byEmeraldGroupPublishingLimited
Allrightsofreproductioninanyformreserved
ISSN:0190-1281/doi:10.1016/S0190-1281(08)28001-7
1
2 GEERT DE NEVEET AL.
locate themselves either in opposition to the Market, or in struggles to
reformorreplacetheMarketwithexchangecarriedoutonadifferentbasis,
under different principles. As Kahn put it, ‘‘contemporary understandings
of the market are informed as much by critical anti-Market strands in
modern thought as by the Market triumphalism of Adam Smith and his
successorsor,perhapsbetter,yMarketandanti-Marketpolemicsstandin
an interior rather than exterior relationship one to another’’ (Kahn, 1997,
p. 76). While it is precisely the manifold manifestations of this critical
polemic that we seek to discuss in this volume, the introduction is meant
as an exploration of some recurrent ideas in the social sciences (and hence
in society) that inform much contemporary anti-Market thought and
activism.
Alternative ethical perspectives, however, are rarely systematic or
coherent. Rather, they are made up of a series of overlapping themes that
at times support one another, but at other moments move in different
directions. In this sense, discourses that drive these ‘‘alternative hands’’ in
the economy are as problematic to map as those relating to ‘‘local’’ and
‘‘authentic’’ food discussed by Pratt in his article in this volume.1 Some of
these perspectives are more ‘‘textual’’ and appear more systematic, at other
points these more ‘‘erudite’’ formulations become entangled and intersect
with embedded everyday life and practices. Yet, in both guises they remain
ethical and political in as much as they are part of a conversation about
economic conduct and the purpose of the economy and the Market.
As a step towards untangling these discourses we have identified four
separate, but related, strands. In each case the alternative can be presented
as a mirror image of the Market, although there is always a dialogue
between the polarities: (1) social relations are opposed to impersonality;
(2) ideas about boundedness and autonomy reject open markets and the
separation of production and consumption into distinct domains; (3) fair
prices based around livelihoods contest intermediaries and profit, which is
also a conversation about where and how value is created and how it
circulates;and(4)regulationstandsagainsttheunregulatedmarket.Someof
these strands are expressed in the negative: they oppose the breakdown of
face-to-face social relations, contest the compromising of local autonomy
and object to the moral emphasis in the dominant market model on
exercising individual self-interest. But there is also a more positive
vocabulary that imagines and seeks to create an inversion of the world as
conjured up by the market, often expressed in terms of defending specific
forms of collective organisation: households, communities, regions, and
nation-states.