New Frontiers in Fair Trade Workshop
Thursday, April 21, 2016 / 1PM to 4:30PM
UConn Co-Op Bookstore at Storrs Center
CONTACT timothy.dzurilla@uconn.edu for up to date information.
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC / FREE SAMPLES & MERCHANDISE FOR SALE
Bringing together fair trade scholars and practitioners, The New Frontiers in Fair Trade Workshop will take stock of the global fair trade movement’s capacity to protect the social and economic rights of producers.
Our goal is to raise awareness about the impacts of social enterprise and ethical consumption, to open dialogue between scholars and practitioners, and to open discussion about how local communities connect to the global fair trade movement.
The program will consist of two panels – one of scholars and one of practitioners – followed by a workshop to discuss how participants can apply these ideas to their individual and collective lives.
Interest has steadily grown in fair trade, social entrepreneurship, and co-operative enterprises as market-based strategies for protecting the social and economic rights of workers. Fair Trade is one of the more recognizable and formalized examples of social and solidarity economics which advocates for a development model of "trade not aid" going back to the 1960s.
Not everyone is pleased with the mainstreaming of fair trade. There are concerns that international Fair Trade labeling schemes have lost their effectiveness through corporate co-optation and policy dilution. And, some fair traders have responded by generating new models of global exchange which are fairer than Fair Trade.
Featured speakers include: Dean Cycon (CEO of Dean’s Beans); Robert Terenzi (Founder of Vega Coffee); Dr. Tamara L. Stenn (Visiting Prof. of Social Entrepreneurism at Hampshire College); Sister Ruth Rosenbaum (Executive Director of CREA of Hartford, CT); and UConn’s own Prof. Shareen Hertel (Political Science) and Ph.D. Candidate Timothy Dzurilla.
The workshop will conclude by connecting the themes of ethical consumption and social entrepreneurship back to the UConn community. Samples of Fair Trade coffee, olive oil and other products will be available. Open to the public and free of charge. Sponsored by Asian/Asian American Studies Institute, Political Science Department, and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies.
For more information, contact: Ms. Fe Delos-Santos at fe.delos-santos@uconn.edu