SOCIAL MOVEMENT?

FAIR TRADE CONSIDERED A SOCIAL MOVEMENT?

Fair Trade is classified as a concept; the organized social movement is composed by an organization that coordinates different smaller organizations to advocate for an issue with a shared common goal. In reference to this social movement, Fair Trade is an international organization that helps advocate for the fairer trades amongst employers and employees from third world countries. The Fair Trade concept is used as the main focus of the organization, although it encompasses many different organizations that work together for the same cause.

According to Diani’s definition of social movement:

“It consists in a process whereby several different actors, be they individuals, informal groups and/or organizations, come to elaborate, through either joint action and/or communication, a shared definition of themselves as being part of the same side in a social conflict. By doing so, they provide meaning to otherwise unconnected protest events or symbolic antagonistic practices, and make explicit the emergence of specific conflicts and issues … This dynamic is reflected in the definition of social movements as consisting in networks of informal interaction between a plurality of individuals, groups and/or organizations, engaged in a political and/or cultural conflict, on the basis of a shared collective identity. (Diani, 119)

According to this definition of social movement, Fair Trade has been able to address each point listed in the definition. A social movement can be classified as many different factors and tactics. Fair Trade alone is simply just a theory of practice with the intention of creating more equal opportunity for workers from third world countries. The social movement is used as a strategy to gain a strong attention from audiences in order to raise awareness of the certain issue.

“It is certainly important to note that a large proportion of social movement activity is addressed to changing practices and identities in civil society” (Tilly 89). – This means trading in a different way from third world countries and employers from here and changing the way of communication to make it more equal. Our routine of employing workers from third world countries to ensure for less expenses to be put forward in production has ben the norm for businesses to succeed. However, Fair Trade wants to change the practices of businesses and allow them to be exposed to the true reality of circumstances workers in third world countries have to deal with. By being more understanding and creating a better initiative people can help one another develop a better world.

Tilly suggests that the American state creates three main destinations for a social movement: its dissolution (as a result of repression); the merging of organized activists into an existing political party (absorbing it into the polity – this is how the labor movement became established in the corporatism of post – World War II Western Europe); or the constitution of an enduring pressure group working on the government and political parties (the most frequent outcome for social movements in the US). (Tilly 97)

Social movement involves classifying by scope types of change, targets and methods and range. People tend to think that social movements involve protest, although it is one key element of identification, protest does not necessarily define a social movement. In the past, there has been previous protest that occurs surrounding the fair trade imitative. There are different types of social movement and Fair Trade is certainly not a movement that advocates protest, although there are a few occasions. 

Nash, Kate. 2010. Contemporary Political Sociology: Globalization, Politics and Power. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.