Consumer, Volunteer, Activist: Defining the British Fair Trade Movement, 1960 – 2006.

In recent years, Fairtrade has achieved a significant presence in the media and within the consumer conscience of British shoppers. This has led to greater academic attention, particularly in the fields of social and economic research. But despite this academic interest, the historical roots of the movement remain significantly under-researched and misunderstood.

This paper will explore the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the historical development of the Fair Trade Movement in Britain from the early 1960s to the present day.

In particular, I am interested in defining the role played by NGOs in relation to other players in the Fair Trade Movement: Alternative Trading Organisations (ATOs), The Co-operative Movement, supermarkets and consumers. This paper will address questions such as: is Fairtrade a form of charity? And if not, how does the Fairtrade Foundation maintain its charitable status? How far have religious NGOs shaped the outlook of the Fair Trade movement? What led NGOs to focus on consumer activism as a form of political action? How have NGOs managed Fairtrade’s ‘positive engagement’ with major supermarkets and multi-national companies?

The role played by NGOs in the historical development of the Fair Trade Movement in Britain will be placed within a wider international context by drawing on examples from the rest of Europe and also Australia.

It is hoped that this paper will also illustrate the potential contribution of research on NGOs to wider socio-economic debates within late twentieth century British historiography, such as: secularisation, the rise of corporate social responsibility and globalisation.