Bringing the “Moral Charge” Home: Fair Trade within the North and within the South*

Abstract Fair trade is typically understood as an alternative market system that aims to right historically inequitable terms of trade between the geopolitical North and South and foster more direct producer/consumer linkages. We suggest that a more expansive application of the term “fair trade” to encompass agro‐food initiatives within the North and South has considerable analytic and practical utility. We profile five such initiatives in the United States and two in Mexico. The U.S. undertakings are best understood as “proto‐” fair trade projects that frame their work principally as an effort to preserve “family farming” rather than as an exercise to achieve fairness in the marketplace. The Mexican initiatives more explicitly embrace the certification‐criteria‐labeling model of international fair trade. Both, we conclude, hold potential to harness fair trade's “moral charge” to improve conditions for small producers and laborers in North and South experiencing most directly the negative effects of economic globalization.     

Nongovernmental Organizations,Business, and the Management of Ambiguity

Partnerships between business and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that seek to promote fair trade between small scale producers in poor countries and Western consumers are opening up new and potentially challenging approaches to development in terms of income generation, local capacity building, and alternative sources of NGO funding. However, such ventures face a distinctive set of problems, many of which arise because these ventures are located uncomfortably on the boudary between the nonprofit and the business sectors. The concept of sectoral ambiguity helps to explain observed problems with confused expectations, management tensions, and lack of sustainability. Strengthening these partnerships will require greater transparency, market diversification, long-range planning, and the building of a set of more realistic expectations.     

Seasonality and Flexible Labor in Resorts: Organizations,Employees, and Local Labor Markets

Seasonality, a chronic problem in the resort industry, is addressed in this seven-year participant observation and in-depth interview study of five Hawaiian resorts contiguously arrayed along a sandy beachfront strip. In order to operate profitably, these organizations must keep their labor costs trimmed as they move through annual cyclical fluctuations that place different labor demands on each department. We examine their use of various kinds of "flexible" employees, including both seasonally contingent and adaptable full-time workers. We examine the way these organizations expand and constrict their labor force annually. Studies of contingency labor have shown the benefits of this solution for organizations but have ignored the effects of labor flexibility on employees and local labor markets. In this article we take this broader view, looking at the integration of organizations, employees, and local labor markets and the way their interplay is forged in symbiotic and exploitive ways to maintain a system of human resources that reinforces a stratified social relations of production.     

The political economy of alternative trade: Social and environmental certification in the South African wine industry

Despite recent critical analyses of the nature and impacts of social and environmental certification, the increasingly complex landscape of voluntary, industry and third-party codes and certification processes that have emerged in specific sectors is poorly understood. In particular, little is known about the potential threats posed by an increasingly complex and contested ‘ethical’ landscape in undermining radical initiatives designed to bring about improvements to material and social well-being. In response, this paper explores the current dynamics of social and environmental certification in the South African wine industry. Drawing on fieldwork in the UK and Western Cape, the paper analyses the overlapping and sometimes conflictual processes of social and environmental certification, and the role of key drivers in establishing them within the wine industry. It explores whether attempts to capture a portion of the expanding market for ‘ethical’ wines and the expansion of corporate interests in ‘responsibility’ and ‘ethics’ work to depoliticize the meaning and nature of transformation. The implications of the findings are that, in the absence of legislative requirements to transform the wine industry, social codes and civic conventions are likely to remain significant, but that greater understanding is required of the different meanings and outcomes of transformation and empowerment being deployed within the industry. The paper concludes that a significant problem facing transformation and alternative trade in the wine industry, and more broadly, lies in the growing gap between the abstract ethical discourse of corporate actors, on the one hand, and the moral experience of workers on the other.     

Sustainability standards and certification: looking through the lens of Foucault's dispositif

Over the past few decades, sustainability standards and certification have come to play an important role in the global governance of production and trade. Their purpose is to address the environmental and social problems generated by the globalization of the economy. Yet, as scholars and actors alike have pointed out, framing these problems in terms of technical criteria and procedures might result in rendering some issues invisible and closing potential debate and contestation. Through the empirical analysis of a multi‐stakeholder initiative called the ‘Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil', our aim is to explore how civil society organizations and advocacy networks nevertheless draw new lines of power by using, putting to the test, correcting and constructing formalized knowledge. To shed light on these processes of resistance, we advance an analytic that restores the concept of dispositif coined by Michel Foucault in emphasizing both the disruptive and stabilizing lines that compose a dispositif.     

‘We've Also Become Quite Good Friends’: Environmentalists,Social Networks and Social Comparison in British Columbia,Canada

Social networks influence social movement recruitment and individuals' ongoing participation in social movement organizations. In this article, we use a qualitative approach to explore the meaning of social networks for environmental movement participants in British Columbia, Canada. Our analysis draws on interviews with 33 core members of the movement. Environmental group participation creates multiplex social networks, encompassing work, leisure and friendship. Social movement networks are conduits for information exchange among environmental groups and they amplify the political power of individual participants. Ties to government workers and forest company management are more intense – based on frequency of contact – than ties to forestry labour or First Nations groups. However, forestry workers and First Nations are viewed more positively than government or forest company management. This illustrates how the intensity of social network ties can be distinguished from the subjective meanings attached to them by network participants.     

Local Produce,Foreign Labor: Labor Mobility Programs and Global Trade Competitiveness in Canada*

Abstract Temporary visa workers are increasingly taking on a heightened profile in Canada, entering the workforce each year in greater numbers than immigrant workers with labor mobility rights (Sharma 2006). This paper examines the incorporation of foreign workers in Canadian horticulture under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). I argue that foreign labor supplied under the SAWP secures a flexible workforce for employers and thus improves Canada's trade competitiveness in the global agrifood market. Using multiple research strategies, I track the evolution of Canadian horticulture in the global market and the transformation of labor in this industry. I outline the steady growth in the employment of temporary visa workers in the horticultural industry and show how they have become the preferred and, in some cases, core workforce for horticulture operations. The benefits of SAWP workers to employers include the provision of a workforce with limited rights relative to domestic workers and considerable administrative support in selecting, dispatching, and disciplining workers provided at no cost by labor supply countries. I conclude that the SAWP is a noteworthy example of the role of immigration policy in regulating the labor markets of high‐income economies and thus ensuring the position of labor‐receiving states within the global political economy.     

Environmental certification of forests: The evolution of environmental governance in a commodity network

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) influence social and environmental aspects of commodity production through certification schemes like organic and forest certification. As these become mainstream, however, they are often compromised by the interests of more powerful agents. Utilizing the concept of governance in global commodity networks, this article examines the mainstreaming of forest certification. By working with retailers, forest certification expanded rapidly. The retailer focus, however, limits the spread of forest certification among medium-sized, small, and community forest management operations. It also raises questions of fairness because it imposes costs on forest managers without providing compensation through higher prices. NGOs now implement programs to make Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification more accessible and more useful to forest managers, but these do not resolve the imbalance of power between the big retailers demanding certification and the small forest managers who must absorb increased costs. The dominance of big retailers in commodity networks provides an attractive route to rapidly mainstream certification schemes, but it also limits their reach and compromises their equity.     

A Feminist Trade Union Agenda? The Continued Significance of Class,Gender and Race

During the 1990s attempts to identify a feminist trade union agenda have focused on both the content and process of such a potential agenda. In a period in which trade unions have changed significantly, the general national agenda appears to be changing, acknowledging issues of importance to women. UNISON, Britain's largest trade union, has enshrined proportionality and fair representation in its constitution, developing national initiatives aimed at improving opportunities in work and in the union for women, black workers, manual workers, disabled workers, etc. who traditionally have been less well represented. Many issues affecting women generally have moved to centre stage, yet issues affecting women ancillary workers seem as excluded as ever. Through a study of cleaners in the National Health Service this article argues that workplace interests reflect wider social divisions, but in a variety of patterns depending on the social organization of work. Despite thewidening trade union agenda, particular interests — more specifically the workplace interests of working‐class women and black women — continue to be neglected.     

Social Accountability in Diaspora Organizations Aiding Syrian Migrants

This article presents data from a study of Syrian diaspora organizations providing assistance to conflict‐affected Syrians in Europe, the Middle East, and North America. Using interview data from leaders in four Syrian diaspora non‐profit organizations, this article examines the social mechanisms used to ensure accountability within the challenging environments where the organizations operate. We find that Syrian diaspora organizations benefit from informal social accountability mechanisms that derive from individuals’ social network ties. Personal, social forms of accountability are particularly valuable to these organizations because these mechanisms help circumvent uncertainty and challenges in the operational environment. These findings reflect an important theme in the extant literature on diaspora philanthropy: diaspora members may have an advantage over other actors because of dense personal networks that make them adept at identifying dependable partners and enforcing agreements even in places where banking and legal systems are fragile.     

Small,minority‐based nonprofits in the information age

Pundits of information technology stress that the Internet opens new arenas for nonprofits through the ability to share information both locally and globally. New technology also changes funders' and other evaluators' expectations regarding proposals. Although new technology makes life easier for organizations with budgets, time, and familiarity with technology to buy and use these new tools, nonprofits that lack these resources fall even further behind in their quest to support and improve their programs. Based on ethnographic research in Kenosha, Wisconsin, this article explores the role of changing technology in the ability of small nonprofits to succeed in implementing their organizational mission. Using case studies, this article compares the experience of nonprofits and church mission projects based in the African American and Latino communities in this small city to that of two mainstream organizations in gaining funding and the general perception of those agencies in the local community. The article argues that expectations about the use of technology increase the gaps between a community's haves and have‐nots. Kenosha organizations based in communities of color are particularly at risk due to already low funding and lack of staff familiar with new technologies. The article demonstrates that the key is often not access to technology or technical assistance but the time to make the best use of available technology.     

Evaluation,Accountability and Clinical Expertise in Managed Mental Health Care

In this article, the author identifies a number of policies and practices of managed mental health care organizations that, if allowed to continue unchecked, will have deleterious effects upon the American family. Since this industry is not regulated by either state or federal statutes, managed care organizations have had free reign to disallow coverage for a variety of DSM-III-R diagnostic categories and V-Code conditions. Some organizations severely limit the number of collateral contacts their therapists can schedule with clients' family members and others prohibit their therapists from working with more than one family member at any given time. The author also highlights the complex relationship that exists among insurance companies, managed care organizations, the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry. He then offers some hypotheses about the nature of these relationships and the reasons for their existence. Finally, the author calls for social work to take an active role in bringing these issues to public awareness and suggests that social workers become advocates for the American family in this era of managed care.     

Management und Teilzeit? – Eine empirische Analyse zur Verbreitung von Teilzeitarbeit unter Managerinnen und Managern in Europa

Part-time work helps organizations to ensure flexibility and allows employees to combine work and family duties. However, despite their desire to work reduced hours, many individuals work full-time – particularly those in leadership positions. This article therefore examines which factors contribute to the use of part-time work among managers. By analysing a data set that combines individual-level data from the European Labor Force Survey (2009) with country-level information from various sources, we identify the circumstances under which managers reduce their working hours and the factors that explain the variations in part-time work among managers in Europe. Our multi-level analyses show that normative expectations and cultural facts rather than legal regulations can explain these cross-national differences.     

The rights of migrant workers: Economics,politics and ethics

The labour immigration policies of high‐income countries are characterized by trade‐offs between openness to admitting migrant workers and some of the rights granted to migrants after admission. This empirical observation lies at the heart of the author's 2013 book, The price of rights: Regulating international labor migration. In this article, he reviews its main findings, arguments and policy implications and responds to a critical review of the book that was published in the International Labour Review in 2015. He concludes with a plea for more open debate on the linkages between migrant rights, labour migration and development among national and international organizations concerned with these issues.     

La clôture comme seule protection ? Syndicats du spectacle et marché du travail dans l’entre-deux-guerres (1919-1937)

The case of performers in the entertainment industry during the period between the two World wars serves to test the hypothesis of a monopolistic closure, as workers try to improve their lot by restricting access to the labor market. In line with the predictions of this hypothesis in the sociology of professions, actors and singers did try to close the labor market by instituting a “professional card”. Contrary to expectations however, labor organizations of musicians sought to control pay scales and jobs by opening the market so widely that anyone entering it joined the organization. These two different strategies affected these groups’ identities by drawing legitimate boundaries and influencing the nature and degree of solidarity. Beyond these strategies, two prospects for emancipation contrast with each other: the professional one of an exclusive group among performing artists on stage and in song, and the wage-earning one of an inclusive group among musicians.     

Profession and Workplace Expectations of Social Workers: Implications for Social Worker Subjective Well-Being

The expectations people have of social workers, and those that social workers hold of themselves, can negatively affect social worker's perceived well-being, via work stress and strain and other negative workplace experiences. This qualitative research presents findings that help to better understand what aspects of these expectations have the greatest impact on the well-being of a sample (n = 19) of social workers with reported low levels of workplace and profession satisfaction. Our data support a conceptual framework of social worker's expectations that relate to outcomes of practice, social worker roles, the perceived functioning by other health-related professionals, conflict in direct practice with social worker identity and having to work in adverse situations, as all contributing to the well-being of social workers. Findings are discussed in relation to social work practice and the role and function of professional associations and educational programmes in addressing these issues that emerge in practice.     

Institutional Access,Residential Segregation,and Urban Black Homicide*

Sociologists have frequently cited the importance of the local institutional base for bolstering social organization and control, and ultimately reducing crime rates. Local noneconomic institutions may be particularly relevant to controlling urban Black crime rates, because in the face of limited access to the legitimate labor force, access to institutions such as churches and civic organizations helps to extend social networks, increase civic engagement, transmit mainstream norms, and provide a forum from which to address community problems. This analysis examines the links between measures of access to such noneconomic institutions and Black homicide rates for a sample of large urban areas circa 1990. The results indicate that after controlling for socioeconomic disadvantage, racial inequality and various other relevant measures, institutional access is negatively associated with Black homicide rates. However, this violence constraining impact appears to be most dramatic in urban areas where Blacks are most highly segregated from Whites. Implications of these results are discussed.     

The Performance of Power: Sam Watson a Miners' Leader on Many Stages

This paper draws on the biography of Sam Watson, a miners' leader in the North East of England, to examine the ways in which power relations operated within the British labour movement in the forties and fifties. At that time the Marshall Plan and the concern by the US government to control the spread of communism in Europe provided a critical backdrop with the CIA's labor attaché programme providing links between the AFL and the CIOand the British TUC. Recent research has identified the significant role played in the development of these arrangements by Watson. The reliance of the Labour Party on the networks of national, regional and local trade unions has not been a central concern of students of this period. Certainly in accounts of the Marshall Plan, national figures like Ernest Bevin predominate. The “unveiling” here of Watson suggests the possibility of more fruitful investigations on a wider canvass. His relationship with the US mission in itself raises questions as to the social and political processes that made it possible for a middle ranking trade union official to occupy such a significant position of power and influence. The article draws on archival research and, most significantly, upon interviews conducted by the authors in the late seventies with key trade union officals and polticians. It explores the different ways that Watson dealt with communism and with members of the Communist Party, and the key role he played during critical struggles within the Labour Party. The detail of the “insider” accounts reveals the complex ways in which power was performed across and within different arenas – in North East England as regional secretary of the NUM; in London on the national executive committees of the Labour Party and NUM; and abroad as a member, then Chair, of the Labour Party's International Committee.     

Cross‐Movement Coalition Formation: Bridging the Labor‐Environment Divide*

Relations between the labor and environmental movements exist within a complex web of clashing interests, electoral politics, and attempts to form enduring blue‐green coalitions. Unions and other labor organizations are often portrayed as solely interested in economic growth. Environmental organizations are often seen as solely interested in preserving the natural world at the expense of economic growth, thus creating a direct conflict between the interests of labor and environmental organizations. Despite these perceived differences, efforts to bridge the divide between the two movements are increasingly common. This article examines the formation of a collective identity shared by workers and environmentalists participating in the coalition. I develop this argument through an ethnographic analysis of the formation of a blue‐green coalition, the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, using in‐depth interviews, observations, and content analyses. I demonstrate how coalition leaders and bridge brokers work to bridge and consolidate the identities of labor and environmental groups to campaign for environmental health regulatory changes in Massachusetts.     

Appendix B: A Guide to Staff Self-Awareness

SUMMARY

Norway has been a leading nation when it comes to lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) rights. With the majority of LGB people enjoying a high quality of life, Norway has turned its attention to a minority of the LGB population experiencing a clustering of chronic and other life cycle-related problems. A number of needs assessments have been initiated in order to determine how to meet these challenges. The needs assessments underscore the importance of social networks for health and well-being. An important action is, therefore, to provide arenas for network building. Partnerships between public, private, and voluntary sectors would facilitate these arenas. Existing health, social, and labor market public services need to be sensitized to LGB issues and particular challenges.