Fair Trade from the Ground Up: New Markets for Social Justice

Acknowledgments

ix T his book would not exist without the interest and encouragement of my friend and mentor Margaret Levi. In the wake of the 1999 “Battle in Seattle,” where environmental activists wearing turtle costumes united with hard-hatted unionists, larger-than-life puppets theatrically drew attention to global injustices, Gore-Tex–clad locals came out in droves, and the WTO Ministerial Conference was effectively shut down, Margaret instigated the University of Washington’s WTO History Project.* As her team—in which I assumed a small role—interviewed activists ; collected documents, maps, costumes, and ephemera; and collaborated with amazing librarians, some of us began thinking about how to study “global citizenship” as it is embedded in social movements that mobilize the resources of activists in the global North to abet the efforts of activists in the global South. We focused on campaigns that were strong in our locale, notably Fair Trade coffee. The rest is history, a bit of which I recount in this volume’s introduction. I did not research this book alone. I am immensely grateful to Renee Chou, Rebecca Kahn, Kira Luna, Louise Ly, Marie Murphy, Rebecca Jo * WTO History Project (http://depts.washington.edu/wtohist), accessed September 7, 2011. Acknowledgments x Sanborn, and Leah Wohlin. Our interviewees were unfailingly generous. All are cited and have reviewed and approved or amended what is attributed to them. I especially thank Viraf Soroushian for actively participating from afar in my research about UCSD, and Claire Tindula for putting me in touch with all the right people. TransFair USA (now Fair Trade USA) graciously hosted me as a volunteer /visiting scholar in August 2009. Arnab Basu, Shareen Hertel, and Karla Utting generously contributed figures and unpublished information about their research. For invaluable financial support I thank the Chris and Warren Hellman Foundation and UCSD’s Academic Senate. Melanie DuPuis, Jeff Haydu, Katherine Mooney, two anonymous reviewers selected by the University of Washington Press, and particularly my sponsoring editor, Lorri Hagman, deserve special appreciation for skillfully guiding my many revisions. Writing a book can be a lonely process. It has been immeasurably helpful to connect with academic, activist, and personal supporters. These include many of the individuals mentioned above, but also others who were not involved in the manuscript’s evolution but have nevertheless contributed to its fruition. Many thanks to Lance Bennett, Mary Blair-Loy, Miguel Centeno , Maria Charles, Abigail Cooke, Sara Curran, Edgar Kiser, the Linton family, Isaac Martin, and especially Gary Morgan, who patiently listened to way too many “book stories” and never complained. Fair Trade from the Ground Up ...