Redefining Sustainability Standards to Improve Lives and Livelihoods – Professor Maja Tampe, Esade business school

Sep 23, 2021 | business and economy, social and behavioural sciences, trending

Original Article Reference

This SciPod is a summary of the paper ‘Leveraging the Vertical: The Contested Dynamics of Sustainability Standards and Labour in Global Production Networks’, from the British Journal of Industrial Relations. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12204

About this episode

The International Labour Organisation refers to agriculture as ‘one of the most hazardous of all economic sectors’. Improving labour conditions has been challenging, especially for small farmers. Activists and global buyers have promoted sustainability standards to counteract this problem, for example, Fairtrade certification. Professor Maja Tampe, from the Department of Society, Politics, and Sustainability at Esade business school in Barcelona, investigates the experience of two Ecuadorian cocoa farmer groups that sought access to global markets through certification, but experienced vastly different labour outcomes. This research is a typical example of a qualitative study design in assessing the impacts of voluntary sustainability standards, with a focus on labour outcomes.

 

 

 

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