Entangled trajectories of counter-hegemonic transformation - dilemmas and choices of fair trade movement in South and East Asia

Abstract

While it may seem that "there is no alternative" under the domination of neoliberal globalization, in the past two decades, fair trade has emerged as a promising movement to demonstrate that "another world is possible". Although the character of fair trade has so far been maintained, as a social movement, its original vision is fading rapidly with its enormous market success. The wide acceptance and growth of the certification and labeling system, in particular, has generated much complex debate and controversy. More specifically, the system is now seen by many as a form of mainstreaming and co-optation by the corporate sector as a move by fair trade from de-commodification to re­commodifying, as well as shifting from a promising counter-hegemonic movement to become another form of corporate hegemony. Fair trade is thus viewed at a crossroads with its foundation severely jeopardized. Nonetheless, the future possibilities of fair trade are still wide open, albeit continually subject to the strategic choices and competing trajectories of its stakeholders. The different counter-hegemonic trajectories, namely ruptural, interstitial and symbiotic strategies, as identified by Erik Olin Wright, offer a good starting point to capture the essentially contested nature of the movement. For one thing, in responding to the challenges and crisis, many not only see that symbiotic strategies may eventually "hit the ceiling" and face strong "limits of possibility", but also the promises of new ideas and resources that could be brought along by alternative strategies and transformative trajectories implemented in the recent fair trade movement. It is in such contexts that the current research attempts to capture the continuous transformation of the movement, documenting not only its fluid, contingent nature, but also the processes of muddling through all the tensions and contradictions it has encountered in non-unilinear and non-monistic manner. This study thus argues that the fair trade movement has been continually entangled with "unfair trade" in the mainstream market. Both fair trade and the so-called ethical trade (with corporate social responsibility) projects seem to converge as part of an international standardization initiative or private regulation system. However, some fair trade organizations remain active in using fair trade to fight against "unfair trade" and continue to advocate for justice through rebuilding and innovating mainstreaming, alternative circuits and political campaigning. Last but not the least, as indicated by dramatic rise of Fair Trade Town Movement, the locationality and contextuality of the fair trade network has seemed to consolidate the collective identity of "citizen-consumers" and their transformative trajectories through injecting new localized and place-specific values and interactive fair trade practices. This location and contextual specific interface probably will be the beginning of a new direction for the Fair Trade movement in South and East Asia.