The negotiation of fair trade standards within Ecuadorian flower plantations

Fairtrade International (FLO) applies requirements or “standards” for certification in agroindustries in order to channel resources to workers, improve their conditions, and “empower” them, even requiring freedom of association. Researchers have signaled a “dilution” (Jaffee, 2012) of standards in r...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Lyall, Angus
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:Ecuador
Institución:Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales
Repositorio:Revista EUTOPIA
Idioma:español
OAI Identifier:oai:revistas.flacsoandes.edu.ec:article/1226
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.flacsoandes.edu.ec/eutopia/article/view/1226
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Fair trade
Fairtrade International (FLO)
rural workers
agroindustry
alternative economies
labor regimes
Polanyi
florícolas
comercio justo
certificaciones socioambientales
Ecuador
negociaciones laborales
empoderamiento
Descripción
Sumario:Fairtrade International (FLO) applies requirements or “standards” for certification in agroindustries in order to channel resources to workers, improve their conditions, and “empower” them, even requiring freedom of association. Researchers have signaled a “dilution” (Jaffee, 2012) of standards in recent years. I take into account the case of the Ecuadorian cut-flower industry to show that FLO’s impacts on power relations ought to be analyzed not in terms of the standards, but rather in terms of the local negotiation of standards within territorial power relations. For this case, I point out that before FLO’s criticisms of conventional market mechanisms, standards generate better conditions, but also facilitate the re-consolidation of labor control.