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Title
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Fairness and/or sustainability? The social, political, and ideological registers of sustainability in the discourses of four fair trade organizations
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Author
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Abstract
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| Starting from discourse theory, this chapter investigates how different organizations draw on the concept of sustainability to position and/or legitimize their vision on fair trade. These organizations are active in Flanders and comprise a social enterprise (Fairphone), a traditional fair trade organization (Oxfam-Worldshops), a government agency (Trade for Development Centre) and a non-fair trade retail chain (Colruyt Group). To this end, a conceptual framework is set out that distinguishes between the social, political, and ideological registers of sustainability. The results show that in the social register, Oxfam-Worldshops is found to invoke sustainability as a characteristic of its concrete trade alternative, while the other organizations present fair trade as a component of sustainability. This distinction becomes even more pronounced in the political and ideological registers. For Oxfam-Worldshops, sustainability is an interest or value that legitimizes its fair trade project, while the other organizations use sustainability more as a technical indicator. We conclude by discussing the potential contribution of discourse theory to a discursive study of sustainability and fair trade. |
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Language
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English
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Source (book)
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The Sustainability communication reader : a reflective compendium / Weder, F. [edit.]; et al.
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Publication
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Wiesbaden
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Springer
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2021
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ISBN
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978-3-658-31882-6
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DOI
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10.1007/978-3-658-31883-3_26
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Volume/pages
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p. 485-506
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Full text (Publisher's DOI)
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