Fair Trade

Fair Trade is a system of private governance that aims to improve working conditions and compensation for producers of certain goods. The primary intention is to create a more socially just and environmentally sustainable trade arrangement. Having said this, Fair Trade is subject to various interpretations and, as such, the concept, its practice, and subsequent results are not consistent. Although there is considerable support for Fair Trade, there has also been much criticism of the approach. In particular, many have questioned the power and spread of Fair Trade discourse on the grounds that empirical understanding remains only modestly (if not increasingly) developed.

Although Fair Trade is usually considered to have emerged at the end of World War II, more recent scholarship has suggested that in some ...