Seeking Post Doc Funding for Fair Trade Study

I am embarking on some post doc research in Peru/Bolivia using ethnographic study and economic theory to measure the differences that country support and gender create in Fair Trade.  This will build on my doctoral research on the effect of Fair Trade on indigenous women in the Andes region.

The rules are the same globally, but different countries support Fair Trade producers in different ways I will do a comparative study of indigenous alpaca knitters in the same Andean region of Bolivia/Peru.  Peru invests more money than Bolivia does in rural economic development and the alpaca industry in particular.  As a result, Peru has a much more vibrant and productive alpaca clothing market than Bolivia does.  Does Fair Trade need to be more country/region specific in its rules? 

Also I want to study how families benefit differently (or not) if the principal Fair Trade member is a male or female.  I suspect that men spend their Fair Trade earnings more on capital investments (equipment, land, larger projects) and women spend their earnings more on the children.  I will do a comparative study of Bolivian Fair Trade families with moms working in crafts versus dads working in agriculture (chocolate, coffee). 

I'm looking for about $6,000 to cover travel and lodging expenses and to pay two helpers (in country).  The study is from May 2012 - July 2012.  I am seeking donations and/or suggestions of where I could go for such funding. 

I now have a publisher interested in the project which is good.

Please respond for more info. Thanks!

Tamara Stenn, DA
Keene State College
Adjunct Professor: Integrative Studies, Fair Trade, Management, Economics

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness." Howard Zinn

Fair Trade and Governance

Public reasoning, explains Sen, is key in advancing justice.  The ability for all people – producers, consumers, institutions, and governments  - to openly discuss ideas brings greater understanding and justice.  Unfair labor conditions, fluctuating production schedules, women’s time constraints, consumer caution in light of mis-information, all can be openly shared and debated in a global forum through public reasoning.  By working together and hearing voices not easily heard, more understanding and appreciation of each others’ situations is created leading to a much more effective resolution of injustice than a code of laws, for example, and coercive legislation could achieve.  Discussion takes time and space and value needs to be lent to this.

Public reasoning is also dependent upon free and open media.  Free and open media has been greatly compromised in the US (and globally) through media consolidation, the ownership of the press by a few large corporations, the influence of advertising in news, a decline the quality of news, and a lack of diversity in reporters and news covered.  What was once called propaganda is now presented as facts.  This has resulted in a misinformed and complacent public, greater consumer mistrust, and an inability of people (especially minority people) to engage in meaningful public reasoning.  The quality of life in the US has declined due to a lack of personal freedoms associated with the loss of the free press.  Though it seems that new electronic and social media would fill the gap that the US’s compromised press left, there is a lack of cohesion and accuracy in this model too.  It is also not accessible by all.  Sen stressed that justice needs public reasoning.  New ways in which for this to take place on a meaningful, global and local scale need to be explored.

Fair Trade institutions, is was previously noted, can not bring justice on their own.  Government and consumers also need to be involved.  Bolivia created (with CAN) their own Fair Trade (Comercio Justo) guidelines which are similar to, but go further than, those being promoted by Fair Trade institutions today.  CAN Comercio Justo compliments the values of Suma Qamana, (well living) adopted into the Bolivian (and Ecuadorian) constitution. Suma Qamana focus on living in harmony with nature and each other in a shared, non competitive, environment.  It compliments the concept of Solidarty Economy which began in South America and is being rapidly embraced by countries around the world.  Fair Trade is part to of Comercio Justo which is part of Suma Qamana which is part of Soldiarity Economy – they are all complimentary, interrelated, and international.  This resonates with the indigenous way of being, where complex relationships and an openness for collaboration are key values.  It is networks like these which create expansiveness, public reasoning, diversity and lead, according to Sen’s interpretations, to a greater realization of justice. 

The CAN Comercio Justo goes further than western Fair Trade institutions in defining Fair Trade.  They include the important requirement for reciprocity which was missing in the western model.  This means that openness and transparency must be shared amongst producers and retailers and that a place for dialogue, discussion, and mutual benefit be built into the trade relationship.  CAN Comercio Justo also includes more specific language about the environment, granting human rights to the Pachamama (earth mother goddess).  These rights include the right against pollution, genetically modified products, exploitation and the protection of the creatures and plants which are a part of her.  Note: The Bolivian constitution also grants human rights to Mother Earth.  The United Nations recently adopted Bolivia’s language, renaming Earth Day as Mother Earth Day, recognizing the Pachamama (United Nations, 2010).

The ideas of CAN Comercio Justo and the work of Solidarity Economy, though promising in the study of justice, are still new.   It will be interesting to continue to study their implementation and impact to see how they unfold over time. 

Fair Trade Knitters' thoughts on institutions

Knitters and Institutions

Indigenous women knitters find access to Fair Trade institutions extremely limited, competition fierce, and the benefits questionable.  Fair Trade institutions, though helpful in mitigating risk and helping to collect funds, could be more active in creating more institutional and market accessibility and value for knitters.  Institutions need to better monitor and provide support for members.  For example, poor workplace conditions reported by almost every knitting group, are in violation with Fair Trade institution guidelines and erodes knitter’s experience of justice in their Fair Trade work.  Instruction for creating safe workplaces at home would alleviate this problem.  By creating a relationship of reciprocity, where knitters are regularly involved in institutional Fair Trade decisions, the needs of knitters could more easily be heard and mitigated, building a better and more just relationship for all.

Thinking of Fair Trade

How does Fair Trade advance Justice for indigenous Bolivian women?

Answering how Fair Trade advances justice entails a long, complicated response, beginning with “it depends.”  Fair Trade takes place on multiple levels and includes many different global partners.  These exist in the form of the institutions that bears its name, consumers, producers, and governments.  These diverse elements all come together under the umbrella of Fair Trade, each having significant impacts and importance on each other.  And each is inherently different in itself.  There are different Fair Trade institutions all serving Fair Trade in different ways; different types of consumers defined by gender, age, region, motivation, beliefs; different producers from vastly different countries who are different themselves, men - women, indigenous - non-indigenous,  urban – rural; and new concepts of governance and economic policy.  Justice itself is not easily understood, and in the context of the different facets of Fair Trade it gets even more convoluted. Indigenous women, though important participants of Fair Trade, are virtually invisible in Fair Trade literature.  Giving voice to the these women through ethnographic study enables the impact of Fair Trade to be understood from their perspective.  Applying the knitter’s experiences to lessons learned through literature and research helps to clarify the experience of Fair Trade amongst Bolivia’s indigenous women illuminating the ways in which justice is served, and not, and identifying new ways in which to advance justice.

The effects of reflection

Working on my dissertation I am planning how I will measure the effects of Fair Trade on Bolivia's alpaca knitting industry. An industry is made up of people. So I'm really asking how has fair trade effected the Bolivian's working with alpaca? And how has it?

How does one measure "effect"? Effect implies a value; something that is better or worse; a judgment. And where is this effect - in the culture, spirituality? How does one put a value on spirituality? If a knitter now owns and uses a cell phone to coordinate knitting, when before she would visit and talk with the person, is that an effect of Fair Trade? Is it good, bad, better, worse, progress, a cultural loss? And who is making this judgment? Me? A western Fair Trade comerciante from my lens of a white, privileged USA business owner? And what is this in comparison to, not having a cell phone? Or not having a reason to talk to a neighbor?

And is it fair to say, or imply, that only we can have an effect of something on something else? Isn't that dominating, condescending, arrogant? Aren't we all effected by each others' actions? So to make the study balanced, we should also look at the effect of Bolivia's knitters on their western Fair Trade customers. They have power to influence too.

The knitters might be effected by participating in the Western structure of Fair Trade commerce by learning to embrace deadlines, consistency, improvement, growth. But if we look at how their Fair Trade activities have effected western customers, we'll see that customers report to have gained feelings of thoughtfulness, connectedness, appreciation and participation; feelings that are priceless in today's impersonal, fast-paced, world.

If I were to draw a model of a sweater production, I would make a circle starting with grass, then the alpaca, then the herder, knitter, product, consumer. In the center would be the earth - since that is what we are all linked to; our common ancestor, pachamama - earth mother. And we revolve around it. In the traditional western trade model, we are always looking ahead at what comes next, planning for more. Fair Trade though, is also the looking back. The remembering of where something came from, who touched it, what nourished it. Human rights and the environment can not be separated. To care for the knitter on must care for the alpaca and the grass. We are all interconnected, we are tied to the earth.

I have discovered over time, "Sweaters slowly knit in silence are worn in fury and last and last, becoming our favorite garment, a friend, soon knit of our own memories." T. Stenn

And perhaps this is the effect Fair Trade has had on me, building my ability to reflect, question, mull, and repeat, again and again; Knitting my own garment of questions that can someday be seen and worn by all.