[TimorLesteStudies] Canberra Seminar: Social Responsibility in Timor Leste's Coffee Industry

[Jennifer Drysdale]

Apologies for cross postings. A recording of this 
seminar will also be emailed next week.

>Social Responsibility in Timor Leste's Coffee Industry
>Kerry Laughton
> From School of Humanities, Social Sciences & 
> Communications, Monash University
>
>4-5pm, Thursday, 22 February
>Seminar Room B, Level One, Coombs Building, Australian National Unviersity
>
>Social Responsibility has become the popular 
>conceptual framework for imagining a resolution 
>to the social problem of global capitalist 
>inequalities, failures and excesses. However, 
>Social Responsibility is a negotiated social 
>phenomenon. Its substantive contours depend on 
>the way it is interpreted, negotiated and 
>actioned by social actors with competing claims and interests.
>
>In the global coffee industry — which is rife 
>with capitalist induced inequities — this 
>concept is commonly operationalised through 
>practices of ‘Fair’ or ‘Alternative' trade. 
>These practices share the theoretical objective 
>of improving the quality of life of 
>disadvantaged industry stakeholders — notably, 
>producer communities — through payment of a 
>‘fair price’ and varying levels of complementary 
>support services. However, the extent to which 
>these practices actually deliver more equitable 
>market outcomes for disadvantaged coffee 
>industry stakeholders is an open debate. 
>Certainly, the experiences of Southern producers 
>are under­represented in Fair Trade discourses. 
>Yet, these experiences provide a key to 
>understanding gaps between Fair trade in theory and Fair trade in practice.
>
>Kerry's research provides a qualitative case 
>study of Fair and Alternative trade practices in 
>East Timor’s coffee industry. In this seminar, 
>Kerry will discuss three anomalies that impede 
>the impact of Fair Trade in Timor Leste’s coffee 
>industry. The seminar draws on fieldwork 
>conducted in Timor Leste over July­August 2005, 
>in which primary and secondary stakeholders were 
>consulted on their perceptions and experience of 
>Timor Leste’s coffee industry, including Fair Trade practices.


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Jenny Drysdale
PhD Student
Moderator, Timor-Leste Studies Association List
Environment Officer
Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies
Australian National University (ANU)
Room 4.13, 4th Floor
WK Hancock Building [43]
Biology Place
Canberra   ACT   0200

Mobile 0407 230 772
Phone 02 6125 1651
Fax 02 6125 0757
Email Jennifer.Drysdale at anu.edu.au
Personal Website http://cres.anu.edu.au/~jenster
East Timor Studies www.etstudies-aust.org