Solidarity™: Student Activism,Affective Labor,and the Fair Trade Campaign in the United States

Abstract: Ethical labeling campaigns have become a central means for diffusing and negotiating conflicts between social movements and market actors. Fair Trade was a pioneering ethical label and, by many accounts, a success. For nearly a decade, United Students for Fair Trade (USFT) activists worked to build the reputation of the Fair Trade Certified (FTC) label, but in Fall 2011 they withdrew their support and urged ethical consumers to do the same. This paper is an urgent reflection on USFT's trajectory from guerrilla marketing to boycotting FTC products. While their actions may appear shortsighted and contradictory, their decision to withdraw support from the FTC label has roots in a long struggle for control of Fair Trade. We argue that their actions signal a new stage in consumer action, as activists lose faith in the legitimacy of ethical labels and instead target the agencies that own the ethical brandscape.     

Government, Business, and U.S. Economic Expansion in the Americas in the Late Nineteenth Century: A Reappraisal

Books reviewed in this article:
Pletcher, David M. The Diplomacy of Trade and Investment: American Economics expansion in the Hemisphere, 1865-1900     

ECONOMIC REGULATORY POLICY

Robert A. Katzmann, Regulatory Bureaucracy: The Federal Trade Commission and Antitrust Policy
Allan Stone, Economic Regulation and the Public Interest     

Intellectual Piracy

Book reviewed:
Doron S. Ben-Atar. Trade Secrets: Intellectual Piracy and the Origins of American Industrial Power . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004. 304 pp. Illustrations. $38.00 (cloth).     

‘Constructing’ Ethical Mineral Supply Chains in Sub‐Saharan Africa: The Case of Malawian Fair Trade Rubies

Over the past decade, sales of Fair Trade agro‐products have risen sharply, fuelled by innovative marketing campaigns that use imagery to ‘connect’ Western consumers to impoverished farmers in developing countries. The success of Fair Trade has led to speculation over whether its portfolio could be broadened to include non‐agricultural products, a debate which, in recent years, has focused heavily on the precious minerals and stones being extracted by impoverished artisans. A lack of policy oversight, however, has resulted in Fair Trade being interpreted very differently in this context. In the absence of certified, internationally‐recognized guidelines for the implementation of Fair Trade mineral schemes, designers have drawn inspiration from a global mining development agenda that has become preoccupied with anti‐corruption and traceability. This article draws on the case of Malawi's Nyala^TM ruby, described as a ‘Fair Trade Gem’ by its supplier, to illustrate how ethical mineral programmes are potentially being misbranded as Fair Trade. Although the scheme delivering Nyala^TM ruby to markets is supplying a traceable commodity, in the process helping to alleviate consumers’ concerns about conflict minerals, it seems to be providing very little benefit to poor producers — the primary objective of Fair Trade.     

LITERATURE REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEW ESSAY
Stephen Breyer, Regulation and Its Reform
Kenneth W. Clarkson and Timothy J. Muris, eds., The Federal Trade Commission Since 1970: Economic Regulation and Bureaucratic Behavior
Susan M. Phillips and J. Richard Zecher, The SEC and the Public Interest
BOOK REVIEWS
Robert G. Healy and James L. Short, The Market for Rural Land – Trends. Issues, Policies
John J. Kirlin, The Political Economy of Fiscal Limits
T. J. Pempel, Policy and Politics in Japan: Creative Conservatism
Forest W. Horton and Donald A. Marchand, eds., Information Management in Public Administration
BOOKNOTES
L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan, Africa South of the Sahara: The Challenge To Western Security
Peter Duignan and L. H. Gann, The Middle East and North Africa: The Chaknge to Western Security
Rosalie L. Tung, U.S.-China Trade Negotiations
Richard L. Gordon, Reforming the Regulation of Electric Utilities     

BOOK NOTES

Trade and Employment in Mexico , by Jaime Behar.
Sustaining Agriculture Near Cities , edited by William Lockeretz
Understanding Peasant Agriculture: An Integrated Land-Use Model for the punjab , by Joseph H. Astroth, Jr.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
New Directions in Spatial Econometrics , edited by Luc Anselin and Raymond J.G.M. Florax.
Urban Travel Demand Modeling: From Individual Choices to General Equilibrium , by Norbert Oppenheim.
The Economic Growth of Singapore: Trade and Development in the Twentieth Century , by W. G. Huff.
Water in the Arab World: Perspectives and Prognoses , edited by Peter Rogers and Peter Lydon.
China Deconstructs: Politics, Trade and Regionalism , edited by David S. G. Goodman and Gerald Segal.
Technological Change, Economic Development and Space , edited by Cristoforo S. Bertuglia, Manfred M. Fischer, and Giorgio Preto.
Local and Regional Development During the 1990s Transition in Eastern Europe , edited by Markku Tykkyliiinen.
Territorial Competition in an Integrating Europe , edited by Paul Cheshire and Ian Gordon.
State Per-Capita Income Change Since 1950 Sharecropping's Collapse and Other Causes of Convergence , by Leonard F. Wheat and William H. Crown.     

REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS

Crossing Boundaries: Mine Migrancy in a Democratic South Africa edited by Jonathan crush and wilmot james, irdc and idasa (International Development Research Centre and Institute for Democracy in South Africa) Ottawa
Free Trade: Neither Free nor about Trade by CHRISTOPHER 0. MERRETT, Black Rose Books, Montrkal
Noms et lieux du Quebec: dictionnaire illustre par COMMISSION DE TOPONYMIE DU QUEBEC, Les publications du Quebec
Coastal lagoon Processes edited par BJORN KJERFVE, Elsevier, Oceanography series no 60, New York
Third World in the First: Development and Indigenous Peoples by elspeth young, Routledge, New York, 1995
A Persistent Spirit: Towards Understanding Aboriginal Health Care in British Columbia edited by peter h. stephenson, susan j. elliott, Leslie t. foster and jill Harris, Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Western Canadian Geographical Series
The Resources of Poverty: Women and Survival in a Mexican City by mercedes González de la rocha, Blackwell, Cambridge, 1994
Emigration from Hong Kong: Tendencies and Impacts edited by ronald skeldon, The Chinese University Press, Hong Kong
Transport Planning and Policy Issues: Geographical Perspectives edited by JEAN andrey, Department of Geography, University of Waterloo, Waterloo     

Trade and sorcery accusations in East Africa

Gerald W. Hartwig. The Art of Survival in East Africa: The Kerebe and Long‐Distance Trade 1800–1895. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc. Africana Publishing Company, 1976. Maps, appendix, references, and index. $24.00.     

Reviews/Comptes rendus

Fur Trade Posts of the Northwest Territories 1870–1970
The Evolution and Economy of the Delta Community
The Bankslanders: Economy and Ecology of a Frontier Trapping Community (3 vols.)
Great Britain's Woodyard: British America and the Timber Trade
The Study of Urban Geography
Urban Geography: A Social Perspective
Systems Theory: A Framework for Human Geographical Enquiry
National Resource Policy in Canada - Issues and Perspectives
Farming and Food Supply: The Interdependence of Countryside and Town
Polish Agriculture, Characteristics, Types and Regions
The World Ocean: An Introduction to Oceanography     

中国境外经贸合作区的文化适应性研究——以中埃·泰达苏伊士经贸合作区为例

不同国家在政治体制、经济发展水平、社会文化习俗等方面存在巨大差异,使得中国境外经贸合作区嵌入东道国时产生了制度和文化方面的冲突,出现“水土不服”的窘境,因此境外经贸合作区如何克服文化差异以更好地融入东道国成为研究的科学问题。本文以中埃·泰达苏伊士经贸合作区为例,基于文化尊重、融合和创新等原则,从物质文化、行为文化、制度文化和精神文化四方面探讨合作区的文化适应性。研究发现：①合作区的文化适应性不能一概而论,需要先识别文化类型,再明确各类文化的属性与特征,最后选择恰当的文化适应路径。合作区在物质文化、行为文化、制度文化和精神文化方面的有效适应,可以凝聚成推动其嵌入东道国“土壤”的文化合力,为合作区可持续、高质量发展提供动力。②中埃·泰达苏伊士经贸合作区遵循求同尊异、创新融合的理念,在文化适应性方面取得良好的效果,但也存在属地化管理困难、制度文化有待优化等问题。     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Review in this Articles
Jesus and God in the Christian Scriptures
The Christian Scriptures
The Cross of the Messiah
The Divine Trinity
The Church and the Churches
By Gordon Huelin, 1970. viii plus 87 pp.
Syrian Christians in Muslim Society : An Interpretation
A Modern History of Syria including Lebanon and Palestine
Islam and the Trade of Asia : A Colloquium.
Libyan Independence and the United Nations : A Case of Planned Decolonization.
Self-Determination and History in the Third World.     

Reviews / Comptes rendus

Book reviewed in this article:
Quantitative Geography: A British View , edited by N. W rigley and R.J. B ennett
Partners in Furs: A History of the Fur Trade in Eastern James Bay, 1600–1870 , by D aniel F rancis and T oby M orantz
Science, God, and Nature in Victorian Canada , by C arl B erger
Arctic and Antarctic: A Modern Geographical Synthesis , by D avid S ugden
Heartland and Hinterland: A Geography of Canada , edited by L.D. McCann     

论清代官营茶马贸易的延续及其废止

茶马贸易是中原农业民族和周边从事畜牧业的少数民族之间物物交换的一种互惠互利的经济活动。官营茶马贸易发端于唐代,兴起于宋代,在明代达到高度垄断,清初承明之旧,重新恢复和延续了这种特殊的民族贸易制度。本文引用了大量文献资料,着重论述了清代官营茶马贸易的恢复以及衰落并最终废止的状况,认为清代特定的政治、经济背景是其废止的根本原因。     

A Fleet in Being: The Rise and Fall of Italian Sea Power, 1861–1943

JAMES D. TRACY, ed. The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and World Trade 1350–1750. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. vi, 504.

K.N. CHAUDHURI. Asia before Europe: Economy and Civilisation of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. xviii, 477.     

The strategic effects of preferential trade agreements

Most analysts agree that the recent proliferation of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) is largely the result of exasperation with multilateral trade liberalisation through the World Trade Organisation and a defensive response to the large-scale adoption of PTAs by major economies. The spread of PTAs, however, suggests that there are motivations other than economic that are inspiring these trade deals. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the use of PTAs to gain or reinforce strategic benefits, or to forestall strategic disadvantage, has been a major but largely unacknowledged driver of the recent trend towards PTAs. Three profound shifts in the international system over the past 15 years have led to the declining utility of traditional security institutions and thus the search for new forms of strategic deal-making: an enduring crisis of security institutions; the rise of new great powers; and the arrival of non-state security threats. In response, both large and small powers have resorted to a range of instruments, including strategically-driven PTAs.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: P. H. Cullum and Katherine J. Lewis (eds), Holiness and Masculinity in the Middle Ages Laura Gowing, Common Bodies: Women, Touch and Power in Seventeenth‐Century England Joan DeJean, The Reinvention of Obscenity: Sex, Lies, and Tabloids in Early Modern France Susan Broomhall, Women and the Book Trade in Sixteenth‐Century France     

Cultural policy‐making in the free trade era: an evaluation of the impact of current world trade organisation negotiations on audio‐visual industries

The delicate compromise concerning the regulation of world trade in audio‐visual materials is about to be upset. Ongoing negotiations under the World Trade Organisation's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) are seeking to establish, in the words of US negotiators, “clear, dependable and predictable trade rules” for transnational media exchanges. This article evaluates the impact of the GATS on audio‐visual industries and considers the extent to which cultural industries fit into the framework of multilateral trade talks. Based on interviews with trade officials in the WTO and the UK Department of Trade and Industry, the article concludes that liberalising and deregulatory policy shifts are more likely to emanate from corporate and state environments than from the slow and detailed negotiations in WTO headquarters in Geneva where “defensive” interests appear to be dominating over “offensive” ones.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Haruko Fukuda, Britain in Europe: Impact on the Third World David Jones, Europe's Chosen Few, Policy and Practice of the EEC Aid Programme Peter Tulloch, The Seven Outside, Commonwealth Asia's Trade with the Enlarged EEC Feliks Gross, Violence in Politics. Godfried van Benthem van den Bergh Institute of Social Studies Harry W. Richardson, Regional Growth Theory V. Jagannadham (ed.), Family Planning in India: Policy and Administration Ernest Feder (Hrsg), Gewalt und Ausbeutung: Lateinamerika's Landwirtschaft