Growing Fair Trade in South Africa

Fairtrade certification is part of a larger, transnational movement aiming to preserve or create sustainability for workers and the environment. For export-food producers in the global South, it means a fair price, fair labor conditions, direct relationships with buyers, and democracy within their organizations. In democratic South Africa, Fairtrade is linked to government-incentivized Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) initiatives. The movement is, in effect, certifying and labelling transformative programmes to economically empower members of previously disadvantaged groups. This paper explores the intersection of BEE and Fairtrade in the post-apartheid wine industry. Based on interviews with relevant stakeholders and secondary sources, it shows that the South African context has necessitated some re-negotiation of fairness, and of the role of the international Fairtrade certifier. Although Fairtrade products from South Africa are primarily sold in Europe and North America, NGOs and businesses in the global North have not simply handed down the rules, asking for compliance in return for a label, as might be expected under neoliberal globalization. Rather, the Fairtrade label on South African products means that it was produced according to South African rules that aim to promote social transformation.

La certificación de Comercio Justo hace parte de un mayor movimiento trasnacional que intenta preservar o crear sostenibilidad para trabajadores y el medio ambiente. Para los productores de alimentos para la exportación en el sur global, esto significa un precio justo, condiciones de trabajo justas, relaciones directas con sus compradores y una democracia dentro de sus organizaciones. En la democrática Sudáfrica, el Comercio Justo está ligado a las iniciativas incentivadas por el gobierno al Empoderamiento económico negro (BEE, por sus siglas en inglés). El movimiento es en efecto, la certificación y etiquetación de programas transformativos para empoderar económicamente a miembros de grupos previamente en desventaja. Este artículo explora la intersección del BEE y el Comercio Justo en la industria vitivinícola del post apartheid. En base a entrevistas con las partes interesadas y fuentes secundarias, se demuestra que el contexto sudafricano ha necesitado alguna renegociación justa, y en el rol de certificador internacional de Comercio Justo. Aunque los productos del Comercio Justo de Sudáfrica se venden primariamente en Europa y Norteamérica, las ONG y los negocios en el norte global no han transmitido las reglas, pidiendo cumplimiento a cambio de una etiqueta, como se podría esperar bajo la globalización neoliberal. Por lo contrario, la etiqueta del Comercio Justo en los productos sudafricanos, significa que fue producido de acuerdo a las reglas sudafricanas que intentan promover la transformación social.

公平贸易认证属于一场更大规模的跨国运动的组成部分,该运动旨在维持或创造工人和环境的可持续发展。对于南方国家的出口食品生产商而言,公平贸易认证意味着公平价格、公平劳动条件、与买家的直接联系和组织内部的民主。在民主国家南非,公平贸易与政府鼓励的南非黑人经济振兴政策（BEE）倡议相关。这项倡议实际上通过对变革方案的认证和分类,谋求改变从前处于弱势地位的群体成员的经济地位。本文探讨了在后种族隔离时代的葡萄酒行业中,南非黑人经济振兴政策和公平贸易的交集。根据与有关利益相关者的访谈和二手资料,本文证明了在南非的环境下,公平这一概念和国际公平贸易认证机构的作用有必要进行重新谈判。在新自由主义全球化的背景下,尽管南非的公平贸易产品主要销往欧洲和北美,北方国家的非政府组织和企业却出乎意料地没有简单地制定规则并要求南非遵守,以换取其对南非公平贸易产品的承认。相反,南非产品的公平贸易标签意味着它按照南非制定的规则进行生产,这些规则旨在促进南非的社会转型。

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The rise and fall of collective identity in networked movements: communication protocols,Facebook, and the anti-Berlusconi protest

This paper explores the impact of communication protocols on the development of collective identity in networked movements. It focuses primarily on how communication protocols change patterns of interactions and power relationships among the constituents of social movements. The paper suggests that the communication protocols of commercial social networking media lead to organizational centralization and fragmentation in social movements by eroding one of the preconditions of collective identity, namely solidarity. The empirical material presented is part of a PhD dissertation on a political protest movement and their use of Facebook as a core communication and organizational platform. The data gathering is multi-methodological and relies on both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques in the form of a historical analysis of interaction patterns, and a content analysis of online conversations among activists.     

Whose Knowledge Counts? Developing Fair Trade Skills in South Africa

Fair trade scholars and professionals have recognized the importance of capacity building to producers, but few studies have examined the provision of services. This article asks whether support networks provide certified producers with the capacity needed to thrive in markets. Drawing from ethnographic action research conducted with South African rooibos tea farmers, I highlight the power dimensions involved in producer support and discuss strategies to improve outcomes. I begin by theorizing a political economy of knowledge and skills within the context of neoliberal globalization and post-apartheid development. Next, I provide an overview of fair trade, clarifying differing approaches to governance and practice. I then share case-study findings, including coverage of a farmer leadership training program that sought to build a more collaborative foundation for learning and engagement. I conclude by arguing that training represents a primary site for the reproduction of inequality as well as a pivotal point for achieving social transformation. Whereas top-down transfers of packaged skills subordinate producers and underestimate the expertise needed to navigate certified markets, solidarity-based approaches build collective capacity by redefining whose knowledge counts.     

Managing relationships on Facebook: A long-term analysis of leading companies in Germany

The purpose of this study is to investigate how companies manage relationships with publics on social media. Based on the concepts of functional and contingency interactivity, the study examines the long-term implementation of three interactive strategies derived from research on organization-public relationships: dialogic communication, transparent communication, and informal communication. The study sheds further light on relational outputs and outcomes. The results of content analyses of leading German companies’ Facebook pages in 2012, 2015, and 2018 indicate the growing importance of dialogic communication and informal communication. There is a constant relation between dialogic communication and the extent of user interaction, with the analysis suggesting that dialogic communication is used to manage critical user comments. Hence, the long-term study contributes to a deeper understanding of professionalization in corporate social media communication. It provides evidence for PR scholars and professionals that there are effective features on Facebook for managing sustainable relationships.     

Go viral on the Facebook! Interactions between candidates and followers on Facebook during the Hungarian general election campaign of 2014

The study addresses the question of what type of political content can trigger reactions from electoral candidates’ followers on Facebook. Citizens’ reactivity is increasingly important in contemporary political communication. The politicians’ posts can reach the wider public through the citizens’ public reactions. While we have extended knowledge about mass media reactivity, citizens’ political reactivity on social media is highly underexplored. This study is intended to fill this gap by examining what type of political content can trigger reaction from followers on politicians’ Facebook pages. The data contain 7048 Facebook posts by 183 single-member district candidates posted during the Hungarian general election campaign in 2014. The unit of analysis is the individual Facebook post, and the dependent variables are the numbers of likes, comments, and shares. The independent variables are the structural (text, picture, video, etc.) and substantial (content, emotional tone, etc.) characteristics of each post, after controlling for, inter alia, a general follower-activity score on politicians’ Facebook pages. Results showed that citizens are highly reactive to negative emotion-filled, text-using, personal, and activity-demanding posts. Virality is especially facilitated by memes, videos, negative contents and mobilizing posts, and posts containing a call for sharing.     

Facebook political communication in Taiwan: 1.0/2.0 messages and election/post-election messages

Facebook's use in political communication has been increasingly popular around the world. Although studies have investigated Facebook political communication in various contexts, related research in Chinese communities has been rare. The current study analyzed candidates' Facebook pages during and after the 2012 Taiwanese presidential election. Considering the interactive nature of Facebook, this study also compared the 1.0 (candidate messages) and 2.0 messages (candidate messages highlighted by “friends”). Comparative analysis revealed that while the 1.0 messages emphasized policy more than character, the 2.0 messages emphasized character over policy. This study also suggests that politicians have shifted the main functions of their Facebook posts based on their roles in campaigning and governing.     

Open media or echo chamber: the use of links in audience discussions on the Facebook Pages of partisan news organizations

This study evaluates the use of hyperlinks in audience discussions on the Facebook Pages of two partisan cable news organizations: the liberal-leaning Rachel Maddow Show and the conservative O'Reilly Factor, to investigate to what extent linking might intensify partisan political discussion or infuse a variety of perspectives into online communication. The results suggest that these Facebook audiences show a preference for a small group of information resources; furthermore, the two audiences shared an even smaller number of information resources in common. The findings support previous research that suggests a relatively small number of information resources receive most of the news audience traffic, and provide some support for other studies that indicate that partisan political discussions on social media are segregated by political orientation.     

服务贸易出口退税研究

当前,服务贸易蓬勃发展日益成为各国贸易竞争的新领域和世界经济增长的新引擎。我国在服务贸易发展潜力巨大但相对于货物贸易仍明显滞后的情况下,把传统的主要针对货物贸易的出口退税政策扩大到服务贸易,势在必行。服务贸易出口退税符合WTO基本原则,是国际通行的做法,有很多国际经验值得借鉴。我国服务贸易出口退税政策的制订,在遵循属地管理、征退对等等四项原则的前提下,可实现扩大出口规模、优化出口结构;减轻财政压力、平衡财权事权;平衡国际收支、优化产业结构的总体目标。据此,提出实现服务贸易退税政策目标的路径和对策。     

Campaigning in the fourth age of political communication. A multi-method study on the use of Facebook by German and Austrian parties in the 2013 national election campaigns

Starting from the contribution to the discussion on a fourth age of political communication, here we argue that, as a consequence of how the Web 2.0 has changed political campaigns, the theoretical time-bound three-phase models of political campaigning must be reconsidered. We propose four ideal campaign types based on their ideal-typical target audience: partisan-, mass-, target group- and individual-centered campaigns. In reality, each campaign combines elements of all types. To examine this mixture empirically, we apply a most similar systems design and investigate five German and six Austrian parties’ use of Facebook in the 2013 national election campaigns. On the basis of face-to-face interviews with the campaign managers and a quantitative content analysis of the respective parties’ Facebook pages, we analyze how parties used Facebook as a campaigning tool to inform, interact with, and mobilize voters, as well as which target audiences they addressed. We find that, although the campaign managers declare Facebook their most important Web 2.0 campaigning tool, the German and Austrian parties did not make use of Facebook’s interactive and mobilizing potential, rather relying on mass-centered information, possibly due to the framework conditions in both countries. Based on our findings, we conclude that the role of context for election campaigning should be discussed more carefully.