Can a Plantation be Fair? Paradoxes and Possibilities in Fair Trade Darjeeling Tea Certification

dateAdded2024-08-05T05:04:28Z
keyVGUM6AMA
date2008
version1014
languageen
volume29
libraryCatalogWiley Online Library
childItem
itemTypejournalArticle
titleCan a Plantation be Fair? Paradoxes and Possibilities in Fair Trade Darjeeling Tea Certification
accessDate2024-05-21T16:43:54Z
creators
  • Besky, Sarah (author)
issue1
collections
DOI10.1111/j.1548-1417.2008.00006.x
publicationTitleAnthropology of Work Review
rights© 2008 American Anthropological Association
shortTitleCan a Plantation be Fair?
dateModified2024-08-05T05:04:28Z
abstractNoteThis paper explores interactions between the Indian government's colonially inspired Plantations Labour Act and TransFair USA's fair trade standards. Although fair trade makes claims to universalistic notions of social justice and workers' empowerment, what “fairness” means and how it is experienced varies by locale. In this paper, I discuss how state laws and fair trade certification agencies complement and contradict each other on Darjeeling tea plantations. I argue that by reinforcing neoliberal logic, fair trade undermines the state, which has maintained the responsibility of regulating the treatment of workers on plantations. Certification often leads to the dissolution of unions, which are regarded as a barrier to trade.
ISSN1548-1417
pages1-9
tags
urlhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-1417.2008.00006.x
extra_eprint: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1548-1417.2008.00006.x