As sales of fair-trade goods explode across the globe, Fair Trade and the Citizen-Consumer provides a timely analysis of the organizations, institutions and grassroots networks behind this growing movement. Drawing on examples from the UK, Sweden and USA, this book moves away from models of individualized consumer choice and instead explores the collective cultures and practices that motivate and sustain fair-trade consumer behaviour. Although the fair-trade citizen-consumer has been called to action and publicly represented as an individual 'voting' in the marketplace, this book reveals how market interventions are editing the choices available to consumers, at the same time as 'Fairtrade Town' consumer networks are flourishing. Offering new and critical insights into the fair-trade success story, this book also contributes to debates about sustainable consumption behaviour and the growth of 'new' forms of political participation and citizenship.

"How Congress pillages the consumer and decimates American competitiveness"--Jacket subtitle.

Fair trade critiques the historical inequalities inherent in international trade and seeks to promote social justice by creating alternative networks linking marginalized producers (typically in the global South) with progressive consumers (typically i

This book offers an original contribution to the empirical knowledge of the development of Fair Trade that goes beyond the anecdotal accounts to challenge and analyse the trading practices that shaped the Fair Trade model. Fair Trade represented a new approach to global trade, corporate social responsibility and consumer politics.

Consumption research is burgeoning across a wide range of disciplines. The Routledge Handbook on Consumption gathers experts from around the world to provide a nuanced overview of the latest scholarship in this expanding field. At once ambitious and timely, the volume provides an ideal map for those looking to position their work, find new analytic insights and identify research gaps. With an intuitive thematic structure and resolutely international outlook, it engages with theory and methodology; markets and businesses; policies, politics and the state; and culture and everyday life. It will be essential reading for students and scholars across the social and economic sciences.

CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE AWARD WINNER 2018 It is commonly accepted that the consumer is now centre stage in modern Britain, rather than the worker or producer. Consumer choice is widely regarded as the major source of self-definition and identity rather than productive activity. Politicians vie with each other to fashion their appeal to 'citizen-consumers'. When and how did these profound changes occur? Which historical alternatives were pushed to the margins in the process? In what ways did the everyday consumer practices and forms of consumer organising adopted by both middle and working-class men and women shape the outcomes? This study of the making of consumer culture in Britain since 1800 explores these questions, introduces students to major debates and cuts a distinctive path through this vibrant field. It suggests that the consumer culture that emerged during this period was shaped as much by political relationships as it was by economic and social factors.

In this book historians and social scientists examine boycotts from the eighteenth century to the present day. Employed in struggles against British rule in the American colonies, against racial discrimination in the United States during the Civil Rights movement, and Apartheid in South Africa, today it is Israel that is the focus of a campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). Boycotts have featured in campaigns undertaken by labour, consumer and nationalist movements. Jews were the focus of some boycotts instigated by nationalist movements in Central and Eastern Europe and Jewish businesses were targeted by the National Socialist regime in Germany. In this collection, contributors explore the history of past boycott movements and examine the different narratives put forward by proponents and opponents of the current BDS movement directed against Israel: one which places the movement within a history of struggles for ‘human rights’; the other which regards BDS as the latest manifestation of an antisemitic tradition.