Fairtrade or fifty-fifty? The consequences of shifts in African perceptions of Fairtrade for development education practitioners more

Jonathan Penson examines the prized reputation Fairtrade has established among consumers for ethical trading, and finds that there is evidence that problems with Fairtrade institutions are encouraging some African coffee producers to exit the Fairtrade system, and that alternatives to Fairtrade are arising. Given that Fairtrade is so often and so successfully used as a synecdoche by development education practitioners for wider issues of advocacy around trade justice, this finding may have important repercussions for them.