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While recent changes to Fairtrade's governance structures aim to facilitate “stronger voices” for producers, relatively little is known about the impact on individual farmers. This paper aims to consider the nature of participation and representation, assessing the role of Fairtrade International (FLO) in representing the interests of its members through an exploration of collaborative governance.

The author utilizes Fung and Wright's framework of empowered participatory governance to explore the nature of individual participation in Fairtrade governance.

This paper finds that, while FLO has demonstrated a commitment to improving producer participation and its governance structures appear to be evolving accordingly, much remains to be done in order to ensure that individual producers are genuinely engaged in decision making and have a voice. The concept of countervailing power may provide a means of achieving this.

This paper highlights gaps in the literature that future research might serve to fill. It also finds that there are practical implications for FLO's structures and policies that aim to encourage individual participation and representation, particularly with regards to capacity building and leadership. In addition, the notion of countervailing power is outlined as a useful concept for further addressing diversity and heterogeneity in Fairtrade participation.

This paper focuses on Fairtrade's emerging agenda related to producer voices, while applying EPG in a novel manner. This theoretical framework allows for an original interpretation of the existing empirical material on Fairtrade, and the introduction of countervailing power as a useful concept within Fairtrade may be of interest to both practitioners and researchers.

The purpose of the article is to move beyond positivistic political economy analysis of fair trade, and to examine competitive dynamics between competing interpretations in terms of the very fair trade concept itself.

Grounded in an ideational ontology, the paper provides a theoretical framework concerned with the contestation of meaning. Analysis applies this framework through a heuristic reading of fair trade's history, drawing on secondary literature, documents and primary qualitative research; and the discursive construction of Fair for Life – a new programme seeking to negotiate the “constitutive rules” of fair trade.

The article identifies that the history of fair trade and its current competitive dynamics are constituted by a negotiation and contestation of the constitutive rules that set the parameters of the fair trade concept.

The paper complements political economy analysis of socially constructed governance such as fair trade, and adds value to academic analysis by exposing important, yet previously unconsidered, micro‐politics of language and practice. The description and initial analysis of “Fair for Life” opens a new area of empirical interest for scholars of fair trade and sustainability governance.

Analysis highlighting the important implication of discourse and practice for the very definition of fair trade offers practitioners important insights into little considered implication of their practices and their representations in language.

The article complements political economy analysis by demonstrating the value of an ideationally grounded analysis of fair trade and similar socially constructed governance systems.

This paper seeks to explore the consumption of Fairtrade products in a municipal catering organisation from the viewpoint of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

In the paper, a theoretical foundation is established, concerning CSR, and a few studies related to CSR procurement are presented. Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International and its tasks are introduced. In addition, previous research related to the sustainable food procurement in the catering sector is introduced. Empirical data were collected from a municipal catering organisation by using a theme interview structure.

The findings indicate that the consumption of Fairtrade products encompasses eight Fairtrade products. Two products are consumed in each unit of the case organisation, whereas six products are consumed occasionally. The procurement of Fairtrade products were based on the values of the case organisation, the environmental programme and the laws and the European Union's communications.

The empirical results may be utilised when planning the consumption of Fairtrade products in the municipal catering organisation, and when preparing the competitive tendering of the catering services. The findings offer valuable information when transforming the catering operations into a more sustainable direction.

The extent of consumption concerning Fairtrade products by displaying an empirical case study is described.

Since the introduction of product certification in the 1980s, fair trade has grown apart from its social justice roots and the focus has steadily shifted away from calls for institutional market reform, corporate accountability, and fair prices, and toward a celebratory embrace of poverty alleviation and income growth through market integration and business partnerships. This paper examines fair trade's narratives of poverty and partnerships, focusing on the brand communication strategies employed by influential fair trade organizations and businesses. These are compared with how fair trade coffee producers in southern Mexico understand and practice partnership, demonstrating some of the ways in which the latter resist narrative framings which position them as entrepreneurial businesspeople first and cooperativistas second. The business partnerships between coffee buyers and producers are highly asymmetrical, and the partnerships that matter most for the Oaxacan coffee farmers are not with global businesses and certifiers, but instead with each other and their producer organizations. These relationships did not originate with fair trade, although, they are, in part, sustained by this system which supports democratically organized producer groups, the sharing of technical and market information, and communal management of the fair trade premium. In contrast to the organizations that certify and market their products, the paper demonstrates how farmers regard their precarious economic circumstances as an issue of social justice to be addressed through increased state support rather than market empowerment. The analytical juxtaposition of farmers' attitudes with fair trade organizational priorities contributes to the expanding literature examining how fair trade policies are experienced on the ground.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the historical position of the ethical consumer as a driver of change within the Fair Trade movement. Fair Trade was originally envisaged as a model of South-North trade; however, with Fair Trade labels now available to consumers in India, Brazil, South Africa and Kenya, the geographies of production and consumption appear increasingly fluid and dynamic.

Using a historical comparative case study approach this paper draws on the records and archives from eight leading Fair Trade organisations based in the UK.

The paper develops an exploratory framework based on an assessment of Fair Trade’s theory(ies) of change and the role of the ethical consumer as an agent of change. Four consumer narratives are identified: simpler living and moral action; co-operation and solidarity; consumer demand and choice; and citizen-consumers. The paper concludes by considering the implications for globalising the concept of the “citizen-consumer” and the (re)politicisation of Fair Trade consumption.

Primary data collection was mainly based on UK organisations. Additional comparative studies could develop an understanding of the context and geographies of Fair Trade practices.

New and emerging Fair Trade markets may offer valuable areas of further study.

Increased understanding of the drivers of social change may lead to improved decision-making by Fair Trade organisations and policy-makers.

The paper contributes to the development and understanding of Fair Trade’s theory of change model by offering an historical dimension that is absent from the majority of existing studies.

This paper seeks to bring together ethical governance theory and empirical findings to examine the shifting nature of governance in global value chains, and the implications of this shift for mainstream companies. In particular, it aims to examine one of the more mature models of ethical value chain governance, Fairtrade, and how this is being used by business.

Information is derived from a longitudinal study of multi‐stakeholder co‐governance in Kenya and the UK, and an analysis of the literature on similar co‐governance models.

The paper shows that mainstream companies are looking to multi‐stakeholder models not only to protect their reputation, but as a way of governing ethical dimensions of their value chains. However, rather than a form of co‐governance, it has become a way of outsourcing governance, enabling companies to strengthen their public credibility, while simultaneously transferring an especially difficult element of modern value chain governance to organizations enjoying high consumer trust. Yet, primary data suggest that these governance systems are not delivering the benefits promised, at least at the producer level.

By outsourcing governance to initiatives with dubious credibility in this way, companies may seem at risk. However, the mismatch between the promise and delivery of Fairtrade does not seem to be affecting consumer confidence and, until it does, companies may continue to benefit from the halo effect of being a Fairtrade ally. But there are also opportunities for companies to use Fairtrade's weaknesses to make the value chain a better avenue for delivering ethical governance, with implications for similar co‐governance models.

The study draws on one of the very few pieces of longitudinal field research on the impacts of Fairtrade. It approaches Fairtrade from a governance rather than reputations perspective, and emphasizes the implications for mainstream business rather than the co‐governance movement.

The recent departure of Fair Trade USA (FTUSA) from Fairtrade International is the most seismic event in the fair trade movement in the past decade. This paper aims to analyse recent dynamics between and within multiple fair trade strands and the attendant changes in vision and approach.

The authors use and develop a framework focusing on the relationship between business and development to analyse the dominant narratives and practices of each different strand of fair trade. To unpack the various fair trade narratives, they have conducted a narrative analysis of policy documents and online debates in the wake of the split in the fair trade movement and they draw on recent impact studies.

The politicising narrative in fair trade stresses governance and voice based on clear structures of representation within the standards body, and recognizes the value of development inputs that do not focus solely on technical and quality development, but lead to organisational advocacy and representational capacity of producer organisations and the regional networks. In contrast “pragmatism” focuses more on economic empowerment and using the market to drive change, an approach that is gaining greater traction with the split of FTUSA from FLO, the most prominent body within Fairtrade International.

The analysis raises implications with regards to how impact analysis captures both the pragmatic and politicising narratives.

The paper's originality/value lies in its novel use of narrative analysis and its early analysis of the shifting dynamics within fair trade precipitated by the departure of FTUSA.

Since fairtrade labels are upcoming market instruments, the purpose of this paper is to identify and quantify consumers’ willingness to pay for fairtrade coffee products and tea. Thereby, this paper contributes to the discussion in favour of a non-private regulation of ethical food labels (FLs). Moreover, the paper provides information about the consumer behaviour of the German buying public.

The empirical analysis is based on homescan panel data of 13,000 representative German households, which includes actual purchase data of ground coffee, single-serve coffee, espresso, and tea for a five-year sample period from 2004 to 2008. As a methodological approach, the hedonic technique is used to model coffee and tea prices as a function of time, store, and product characteristics.

Regarding the variables of interest branding a product leads to an average price premium of 22.1 per cent, while the organic FL achieves an average price premium of 34.3 per cent. The highest average price premium of 43.1 per cent is ceteris paribus paid for fairtrade labels. In the case of fairtrade labels, tea products earn the highest implicit prices with 74.0 per cent, followed by ground coffee (54.9 per cent), espresso (24.7 per cent), and single-serve coffee (18.9 per cent).

The present analysis supplements the discussions around the willingness to pay for fairtrade certified products by the German buying public, a product differentiation between coffee products and the introduction of labelled tea. As the data set includes daily purchases, it allows analysis of consumer behaviour on a disaggregated level, given detailed information on prices, stores, origins, FLs, and so on.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how chocolate lovers balance taste and ethical considerations when selecting chocolate products.

The data set was collected through a survey at the 2014 “Salon du Chocolat” in Brussels, Belgium. The authors distributed 700 copies and received 456 complete responses (65 percent response rate). Choice experiments were used to estimate the relative importance of different chocolate characteristics and to predict respondents’ willingness to pay for marginal changes in those characteristics. The authors estimate both a conditional logit model and a latent class model to take possible preference heterogeneity into account.

On average, respondents were willing to pay 11 euros more for 250 g fairtrade labeled chocolate compared to conventional chocolate. However, taste clearly dominates ethical considerations. The authors could distinguish three consumer segments, each with a different tradeoff between taste and fairtrade. One group clearly valued fairtrade positively, a second group valued fairtrade to a lesser extent and a third group did not seem to value fairtrade.

Chocolate can be seen as a self-indulgent treat where taste is likely to dominate other characteristics. Therefore it is unsure to what extent ethical factors are included in consumer decisions. Interestingly the results indicate that a significant share of chocolate buyers still positively value fairtrade characteristics when selecting chocolate varieties.

The evolution of the Fair Trade movement offers an apposite case through which to examine the idea of regulating risk through a “social sphere.” An analysis of Fair Trade through the lens of “defiance” reveals discrete models and actors of risk regulation that evolve in an iterative fashion. These findings not only add complexity and heterogeneity to the social actors and mechanisms of regulation in the social sphere, but also highlight the challenges this diversity poses for the project of alleviating market risk. In turn, the framework of defiance offers a fertile analytical framework for the study of transnational risk regulation by capturing the dynamic actor and institutional complexities that underpin, and embody challenges for, the regulation of risk through the social sphere. The article begins with an overview of the Fair Trade movement and consideration of Fair Trade’s approach to regulating market risk. It then introduces the notion of defiance, focusing on two of its subtypes: game playing and resistance. Following a short overview of the methodological framework employed to analyze these dynamics, the third section applies these analytical categories of defiance to explore primary data gathered on Fair Trade’s evolution. The article shows that the motivational posture of game playing, through its continued experimentation and entrepreneurship in transnational risk regulation, is pregnant with potential to mitigate the risks generated by economic activity.