Trojan Horse, Trail Blazers and Sustainable Communities: Collective Action Frames of Fair Trade Consumption.

In this paper, I look at collective action frames (Snow and Benford, 1988) of consumption within the Fairtrade Town (FTT) campaign in the UK. Combining netnographic methods (Kozinets, 2010) with a focus on frames, narrative and culture in social movements, this study tackles the “politics of signification” at work within fair trade networks, to analyse which frames these market-based actions display and what ethics they reflect. If we consider social movements as a “bundle of narratives” (Fine, 1995) and “signifying agents” (Snow and Benford, 1988) what might we learn on market-based movements through a focus on narratives and frames? Can an exploration of the mechanisms through which consumer movements shape the meanings of consumption patterns expand our knowledge on their ability to bring about social change? Taking a longitudinal approach (2001-2017), findings unpack the notion of “mainstreaming” of Fair Trade consumption, uncovering multiple diagnostic and prognostic frames. Networks of Fair Trade activism are grounded in an overarching diagnostic frame: the legacy of colonialism and slave trade is still operating today through structural inequalities, which are reproduced by unjust economic structures and global trade rules. Local groups of activists responded to this call producing different prognostic frames. This paper identifies at least three frames put in place by campaigners to bring about social change through consumption of Fair Trade products: the Trojan horse (changing the economic system from inside); the Trail Blazers (redistributing power across alternative networks of consumption); Sustainable Communities (relying on local authorities and public procurement to drive global social change). The exploration of these different frames allows challenging one of the main criticism to Fair Trade consumption, i.e. its understanding as an elitist rather than subversive phenomenon, questioned in its ability to produce real social change (Sassatelli and Davolio, 2008). This paper shows how FTT networks, drawing on multiple ethics and targeting a plurality of actors, embody multiple projects of social change and enable inclusive non-conventional political participation. This research joins the flourishing field of scholarship that looks at market-based actions as a form of unconventional political participation and bridges literature on ethical consumption and political consumerism. By doing so, it provides new insights on the interplay between consumption frames, ethics and social change. Empirically, it contributes to the growing scholarship that investigates fair trade consumption and the evolution of framing processes in movements that shift from niche to mainstream. References Fine, G. A. (1995). Public narration and group culture: Discerning discourse in social movements. Social movements and culture, 4, 127-43. Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography: Doing ethnographic research online. Sage publications. Sassatelli, R., & Davolio, F. (2010). Consumption, pleasure and politics: Slow food and the politico-aesthetic problematization of food. Journal of Consumer Culture, 10(2), 202-232. Snow, D. A., & Benford, R. D. (1988). Ideology, frame resonance, and participant mobilization. International social movement research, 1(1), 197-217.