In parallel to the fair trade movement activities, the notion of fairness is at the heart of a conflict of interpretation between developed and developing countries in multilateral trade negotiations. Recently, this conflict has mutated along with the rise of numerous Global South inter-state...

Fair Trade aims at promoting fairness through the market. However, in Fair Trade, fairness is far from being clearly defined. Furthermore, Fair Trade has to tackle new trends, such as sustainable development. It is also facing changes as North-North Fair Trade or questionings concerning...

Partnership is one of the less well-defined concepts of fair trade, yet one central to its definition. It has three components (representational regime, control mechanisms and spaces of negotiation) that coexist and have a variable importance depending on the moment of the history of the...

We would like in this article to investigate the ambivalent relations between fair trade and market. Is the objective of development advanced by fair trade compromised or facilitated through the use of market exchanges? Fair trade activists seem very critical towards the market logic, as the...

Fair trade has become an important part of responsible consumption. But how is fair trade more fair than traditionnal trade? And what kind of fairness does it embody? Building on moral philosophy and justice theory of Aristote, Hume and Rawls to analyse fair trade practices as presented in many...

Since its emergence, now more than twenty years, the social project of Sustainable development is becoming institutionalized in France, especially in the context of prioritization of the environment. Fair trade, institutionally defined as contributing to Sustainable development, while renewing...

Through the justice principles –equality, time, status, need, efficiency and worth– developed by Jon Elster, we show in this article how fair trade certification for producers is legitimatised by stakeholders. Based on a field investigation with coffee growers in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia...

This paper argues that fair trade schemes in the quinoa market of south Bolivia are not an effective instrument to reduce social inequalities. Beyond the façade of fair trade marks and labels, the reality of Bolivia points to an important way in which customer expectations are disappointed.