Gavin Fridell

Bio: Gavin Fridell is an academic researcher from Saint Mary's University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Fair trade & Supply chain. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 6 publications receiving 52 citations.

Fair trade slippages and Vietnam gaps: the ideological fantasies of fair trade coffee

Abstract: Fair trade coffee sales have boomed since the late 1980s, making it one of the most recognised forms of ‘ethical consumerism’ in the world. Around the same time exports of lower quality coffee beans from Vietnam also boomed, launching Vietnam from an insignificant coffee exporter to the world’s second largest with historically unprecedented speed. These disparate projects have had significant impacts on thousands of farmers – with Vietnam’s new class of coffee producers representing three and a half times the number of coffee families certified by fair trade. Northern actors, however, have given far more public and positive attention to fair trade. This article will argue that this difference does not stem from a strictly objective appraisal of the relative merits and shortcomings of each project, but from the compatibility of fair trade with ‘free trade’ and its emotionally charged ideological fantasies. This includes unconscious beliefs and desires around individualism, voluntarism, democracy and the af...

Ethical Trade and Public Enterprise: Controlling Consumption in Ontario's Liquor Market:

Abstract: This article examines the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) as a form of ethical trade. Its unique public mandate, rooted in “con trolling consumption” and semi-monopoly, has been central to i...

Social Upgrading as Market Fantasy: The Limits of Global Value Chain Integration

Abstract: Confronted with mixed evidence linking economic upgrading in global value chains to improved social outcomes, proponents have called for a new emphasis on “social upgrading” to promote better emplo...

The political economy of inclusion and exclusion: state, labour and the costs of supply chain integration in the Eastern Caribbean

Abstract: The dual emphasis on the benefits of global supply chain integration and private governance to address its ethical gaps have given prominence to an inclusive vision of chains which, this paper argu...

Trade Union Transformation and Informal Sector Organising in Uganda: The Prospects and Challenges for Promoting Labour-led Development

Abstract: Despite celebrations from governments, corporations and international financial institutions around increasing economic growth, the majority of the world’s urban labour force continues to work under informal conditions, lacking enforceable contracts, adequate earnings, democratic representation, secure employment and social protection. The pervasiveness of informal labour globally has given rise to numerous calls to adopt a wider and more diverse understanding of what constitutes labouring classes and what is required to organise them. Our case study assesses the outcomes and effectiveness of informal sector organising in Uganda, focusing on the transportation, market and textile sectors. Drawing on Guy Standing’s distinction between “business” and “community” unions and Benjamin Selwyn’s contrasting of “capital-centred development theory” (CCDT) and “labour-led development” (LLD), we argue that community unionist approaches are most effective in addressing the decent work deficit in the informal economy. Simultaneously, the trade unions face constant barriers to successful community organising in the informal economy that cannot be easily overcome without wider changes to the structural conditions under which union organisers must operate. KEYWORDS: Trade unionism; informal labour organising; labour-centred development; Uganda; decent work

The New Imperialism

Abstract: From a world history perspective, the most noticeable trend in the history of the late 19th century was the domination of Europeans over Non­Europeans. This domination took many forms ranging from economic penetration to outright annexation. No area of the globe, however remote from Europe, was free of European merchants, adventurers, explorers or western missionaries. Was colonialism good for either the imperialist or the peoples of the globe who found themselves subjects of one empire or another? A few decades ago, the answer would have been a resounding no. Now, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the more or less widespread discrediting of Marxist and Leninist analysis, and the end of the Cold War, political scientists and historians seem willing to take a more positive look at Nineteenth Century Imperialism. One noted current historian, Niall Ferguson has argued that the British Empire probably accomplished more positive good for the world than the last generation of historians, poisoned by Marxism, could or would concede. Ferguson has argued that the British Empire was a \" liberal \" empire that upheld international law, kept the seas open and free, and ultimately benefited everyone by ensuring the free flow of trade. In other words, Ferguson would find little reason to contradict the young Winston Churchill's assertion that the aim of British imperialism was to: give peace to warring tribes, to administer justice where all was violence, to strike the chains off the slave, to draw the richness from the soil, to place the earliest seeds of commerce and learning, to increase in whole peoples their capacities for pleasure and diminish their chances of pain. It should come as no surprise that Ferguson regards the United States current position in the world as the natural successor to the British Empire and that the greatest danger the U.S. represents is that the world will not get enough American Imperialism because U.S. leaders often have short attention spans and tend to pull back troops when intervention becomes unpopular. It will be very interesting to check back into the debate on Imperialism about ten years from now and see how Niall Ferguson's point of view has fared! The other great school of thought about Imperialism is, of course, Marxist. For example, Marxist historians like E.J. Hobsbawm argue that if we look at the l9th century as a great competition for the world's wealth and …

Governance in global value chains

Abstract: This book opens a fresh chapter in the debate on local enterprise clusters and their strategies for upgrading in the global economy. The authors employ a novel conceptual framework in their research on industrial clusters in Europe, Latin America and Asia and provide new perspectives and insights for researchers and policymakers alike.

Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival (Updated Edition)

Abstract: List of Figures List of Tables Preface Introduction 1. A Movement or a Market? 2. Coffee, Commodities, Crisis 3. One Region, Two Markets 4. The Difference a Market Makes: Livelihoods and Labor 5. A Sustainable Cup? Fair Trade, Shade-Grown Coffee, and Organic Production 6. Eating and Staying on the Land: Food Security and Migration 7. Dancing with the Devil? 8. Mejor, Pero No Muy Bien Que Digamos": The Limits of Fair Trade 9. Strengthening Fair Trade Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendix: Research Methods Notes Bibliography Index

Annual Report 2012 -個人別教育研究報告-

Abstract: Our school prides itself on providing the best opportunities for each child. The academic achievements have been and continue to be well above Western Australian and National averages, while the pastoral care programs that operate in the school teach children the specific social and emotional skills they need in order to develop and maintain friendships and a strong sense of selfworth. Students have a strong sense of pride in the school and display significant support for each other. Student success is valued, supported and celebrated by all.

Zombie economics: how dead ideas still walk among us

Abstract: Zombie economics: how dead ideas still walk among us, by John Quiggin, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2010, viii + 238 pp., $24.95 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-691-14582-2