Constructing Alternative Markets

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  • もうひとつの市場をつくる
  • もうひとつの市場をつくる : ラオス南部ボーラヴェーン高原におけるコーヒーの取引からみる倫理的消費
  • モウ ヒトツ ノ シジョウ オ ツクル : ラオス ナンブ ボーラヴェーン コウゲン ニ オケル コーヒー ノ トリヒキ カラ ミル リンリテキ ショウヒ
  • ラオス南部ボーラヴェーン高原におけるコーヒーの取引からみる倫理的消費
  • Ethical Consumption as Observed in the Coffee Trade in the Bolaven Plateau of Southern Laos

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Abstract

<p>This study examines the creation of an ethical consumer market through arrangements that differ from general trading, focusing on Japanese fair-trade import companies purchasing coffee directly from a local farmers' cooperative in the Bolaven Plateau of southern Laos. It also proposes the idea of "people-to-people trade." Through the process of market construction, the author suggests two points, as follows. First, a consumer culture forms not only where commodities are consumed, but also where they are produced and traded, overlapping with the layer of consumption. Second, transparency and traceability—both generally demanded by ethical consumers—are accompanied by uncertainties. An ethical consumer market is thus formed by confining the domain of its uncertainties to the producer sphere, as they are integrated at the edge of the supply chain. The paper goes on to explore the characteristics of ethical consumption, observing the phenomenon from outside the consumer sphere.</p> <p>James Carrier has positioned the phenomenon of ethical consumption within the context of contestation―studied in Western history―between the economic and social spheres. Various discourses, including those of Karl Polanyi, have repeatedly appeared in the history of economic thought which oppose a problematic situation that dis-embeds the economy from society. Namely, such discourses imply the regaining of "something social"—something having the quality of character—within the impersonal exchanges or transactions of economic commodities and money.</p> <p>Carrier has analyzed how ethical consumption can be positioned in the context between the social and economic spheres, in terms of purpose, way, and agent. Its purpose is to achieve such types of "social good" as fairness, a harmonious environment among human beings, and solidarity. However, it achieves that purpose economically, such as via the purchase of commodities certified by third parties that inspect the parties concerned. On one hand, its practicing agent also includes the economic sphere, in that it is not achieved though collective actions such as co-op movements, but rather through the purchasing behavior of individuals. The analysis contained in this paper shows that ethical consumption is a contradictory concept, as it aims to achieve "something social"—lying outside the economic sphere—through the economic actions of individuals.</p> <p>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)</p>

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