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Ethical Consumption in a Fair Trade Town: Global Connections in Local Places

Much of the literature on ethical consumption focuses on the potential of individual
actions, such as buying fair trade products, to produce large-scale change. This thesis
instead examines collective actions by exploring the discourses and interactions of
alternative food movements in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Drawing on interviews with
members of these networks, it argues that ethical consumption initiatives encourage the
circulation of particular social and ethical values through the community. Community
identity and place are made and marketed through networks of value that foster
responsibility in and for the food system. Collective identity alters daily routines of
consumption in order to channel benefits back into the local economy. A sense of place
that includes responsibility for the food system sometimes leads to collective political
action, but it also creates tension among and between different organizations and
individuals who make claims to “the local” as a moral, social and geographical space.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:NSHD.ca#10222/14751
Date04 April 2012
CreatorsSpice, Anne
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish

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