In her article, 'Harvesting consent: South Asian tea plantation workers’ experience of fairtrade certification', Dr Karin Astrid Siegmann engages with the puzzling reinterpretation of certification as a reward for workers’ commitment rather than for management's compliance.
Harvesting workers' consent
Based on research conducted in India and Sri Lanka, Siegmann argues that Fairtrade certification provides plantation companies with tools to ‘harvest workers’ consent’ to management's pursuit of profit.
An alternative scenario in which Fairtrade certification becomes a launching pad for critical counterpolitics that truly challenges political economic relationships, would require labour organizations’ active and critical participation in the certification process.
Read the article online - 'Harvesting consent: South Asian tea plantation workers’ experience of fairtrade certification'
Karin Astrid Siegmann
- Associate professor
