Fairtrade towns: place(ing) responsibility

Abstract

This paper discusses the nature of place within the context of the Fair Trade Movement, and examines notions of responsibility and authenticity as key factors in the emergence of contemporary places. Fairtrade Towns are considered as the embodiment of socially constructed places that reflect a search for the authentic, combined with an extended responsibility which transcends space and encompasses what authors such as Barnett et al. (2005) and Massey (2005) have suggested to be ‘place beyond place.’ The Fairtrade Town, through its aim to influence patterns and processes of consumption, is consequently considered as a mechanism for place(ing) responsibility, for in effect enabling global citizenship to become part of the fabric of places and for enabling the authentic to return to the place of the here and now, rather than the other and then.