NDLI: Fair Trade and the Fetishization of Levinasian Ethics

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Staricco, Juan Ignacio
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	The certification-based Fair Trade initiative has been steadily growing during the last two decades. While many scholars have analyzed its main characteristics and developments, only a few have assessed it against a concept of justice. And those exceptional cases have only focused on distributive justice, proving unable to grasp the important ethical elements that Fair Trade integrates in its project. In reaction to this, this article intends to critically examine what the Fair Trade movement proposes to be ‘fair’ by resorting to the thought of the French philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas. To accomplish this goal, a new understanding of his conception of justice is presented, one that seeks to overcome the limitations that the two most common interpretations in the literature suffer. The idea of Lévinas’ ‘dialectics of justice’ is used to discuss Fair Trade’s relation of alterity, its appropriation of the notion of ‘face’ and its commitment to and responsibility for marginalized producers and workers. This analysis shows that Fair Trade operates with what could be described as a fetishized understanding of Levinasian ethics that justifies a deeply unjust praxis.
Starting Page	1
Ending Page	16
Page Count	16
File Format	PDF
ISSN	01674544
Journal	Journal of Business Ethics
Volume Number	138
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	15730697
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2015-03-17
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Fair trade Lévinas Ethics Justice Face Other Business and Management Management Business Ethics Quality of Life Research
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Arts and Humanities Business and International Management Law Economics and Econometrics

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Corporate Legal Responsibility: A Levinasian Perspective

Fair Trade and the Depersonalization of Ethics

Fair Trade Organizations in Belgium: Unity in Diversity?

Fair Trade: Towards an Economics of Virtue

Fair Trade in France: From Individual Innovators to Contemporary Networks

Can the Fair Trade Movement Enrich Traditional Business Ethics? An Historical Study of Its Founders in Mexico

Of Fair Markets and Distributive Justice

The Role of Social Capital in the Success of Fair Trade

Is There a “Fair” in Fair-Trade? Social Dominance Orientation Influences Perceptions of and Preferences for Fair-Trade Products

Fair Trade and the Fetishization of Levinasian Ethics

Similar Documents

Corporate Legal Responsibility: A Levinasian Perspective

Fair Trade and the Depersonalization of Ethics

Fair Trade Organizations in Belgium: Unity in Diversity?

Fair Trade: Towards an Economics of Virtue

Fair Trade in France: From Individual Innovators to Contemporary Networks

Can the Fair Trade Movement Enrich Traditional Business Ethics? An Historical Study of Its Founders in Mexico

Of Fair Markets and Distributive Justice

The Role of Social Capital in the Success of Fair Trade

Is There a “Fair” in Fair-Trade? Social Dominance Orientation Influences Perceptions of and Preferences for Fair-Trade Products

Fair Trade and the Fetishization of Levinasian Ethics