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Effects of Fair Trade Certification on Social Capital: The Case of Rwandan Coffee Producers Elder, Sara D.; Zerriffi, Hisham; Le Billon, Philippe

Abstract

Fair Trade certification may have important social effects on small-scale producers but empirical evidence is limited. We conducted logistic regressions using data from a 2009 survey of Rwandan coffee farmers to estimate the link between Fair Trade and social capital—measured as farmer trust and participation—while controlling for various other factors that could influence social capital, particularly membership in a cooperative organization. The results show a negative association between Fair Trade and farmer trust in cooperative leadership and a positive association with a perceived higher level of participation of women. Social capital is linked most significantly to farmers’ interaction with their neighbors.

Item Metadata

Title
Effects of Fair Trade Certification on Social Capital: The Case of Rwandan Coffee Producers
Creator
Elder, Sara D.; Zerriffi, Hisham; Le Billon, Philippe
Publisher
Elsevier
Date Issued
2012-11
Description
Fair Trade certification may have important social effects on small-scale producers but empirical evidence is limited. We conducted logistic regressions using data from a 2009 survey of Rwandan coffee farmers to estimate the link between Fair Trade and social capital—measured as farmer trust and participation—while controlling for various other factors that could influence social capital, particularly membership in a cooperative organization. The results show a negative association between Fair Trade and farmer trust in cooperative leadership and a positive association with a perceived higher level of participation of women. Social capital is linked most significantly to farmers’ interaction with their neighbors.
Subject
Fair Trade; cooperatives; social capital; coffee
Geographic Location
Africa; Rwanda
Genre
Article; Postprint
Type
Text
Language
eng
Series
University of British Columbia. RES
Date Available
2012-12-21
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0132671
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/43750
Affiliation
Arts, Faculty of; Science, Faculty of; Liu Institute for Global Issues; Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for
Citation
Elder, S.D., H. Zerriffi, and P. Le Billon (2012). Effects of Fair Trade certification on social capital: The case of Rwandan coffee producers, World Development, 40 (11) 2355-2367.
Publisher DOI
10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.06.010
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty; Graduate
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International