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In Green's final "wrap-up" of her book, she writes, "Of course, as Dewey pointed out, general transformative strategies are not like cookbook recipes that can simply be applied universally without attention to the particular situation. Rather, their contextualized function is to suggest how to look at a particular situation, focusing on the relevant characteristics that must be taken into account while drawing upon information and experience-based insights about other communities' struggles that may suggest some of the elements of a specific, situationally adequate transformative solution" (216).
We talk a lot about big "universal" principles and concepts in this class - so much so that it's easy to forget about context, situations, and specifics. It's important to remember that solutions to problems must be well-suited to the specific context.
Think about the specific context of our situation -- the students in our class, the content of the course, UNC, community dynamics of Chapel Hill, the year 2010 -- and explore how this context shapes the way in which we have approached addressing the issue of fair trade. What obstacles does this context bring? What about this context makes the campaign run more smoothly?
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There are several dynamics in which existed in our particular situational context that allowed us to more smoothly operate towards our goals. To start broad, we were campaigning in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, which are both known to be fairly liberal communities to start with. In fact, just last semester Carrboro ratified Professor Blau's previous class's amendment for Human Rights. The communities general willingness to approve of small businesses and fair ethics, was a tremendous help in our cause. By the same token working towards this in the year 2010, after recent economic crises and scandals where big businesses like enron have shown expansive distrust among the population, has allowed us to pull more support for a cause that gives smaller businesses and independent workers a better/fairer chance at making a decent living. On top of this, we are pursuing our goals amongst a University community which has proven over decades to be a population that is more apt to protesting and activism. At the same time, using Students as we did, might have also proved to be an obstacle. Many of the students in the class could not devote 100 percent of their time to the campaign because of other commitments, test, and papers. Had we not used students, their may have been more time for participants to give towards the cause. Either way, I thought we fared pretty well in our cause and completed many of our goals, with the help of our dynamic situation and despite some of the obstacles and setbacks.
ReplyDeleteSocial transformation is definitely largely dependent upon social context and social reality. The most notable example was the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s where integration of the African American population and their legal recognition as members of US society was at the forefront of social issues. Grassroots movements such as this, is the basis for social transformation. Change does not immediately happen with the government and our politicians- it begins with people just like us who see a problem in our society and mobilize to spread awareness and make this known to our government officials. Fair trade, based on the human rights principles of dignity and respect for all, is a current social issue facing us on both a national and international scale. With increased globalism in the twentieth century, countries worldwide have become interdependent for resources and raw materials. As one of the largest consumers of the world, the US plays a large role in international trade. Therefore, there has been a growing importance given to fair trade, especially considering the role of multinational corporations in exploitation reports throughout the world. Though it is important to acknowledge that sweatshops and toiling in factories continues to exist, for both adults and children alike, it is astounding to know that the vast majority of the world’s child laborers (close to 70%) according to ILO, are working on farms and plantations, often from sunrise to sunset, planting and harvesting crops, spraying pesticides, and tending livestock. These children play an important role in crop and livestock production, thereby helping to supply the food and drinks we consume today, as well as the fibres and raw materials that we use to make other products.
ReplyDelete(continued)
ReplyDeleteThe fact that our class has set out this semester on a fair trade campaign is not without precedence. It’s not a surprise either, considering that we are all university students who are constantly thinking about the world around us and how to make it a better place. We are in the prime years of our lives for intellectual development and being open to critiquing our government and society for the problems we see today. As a University that greatly encourages studying abroad and international experiences through alternative fall or spring breaks, a lot of us have had the opportunity to visit foreign countries and have had the chance to see life from a different perspective. The injustices faced by people in other countries can be structurally attributed to our world economic system, in which the US plays a major part. As students, we realize we need to assume responsibility and make this country a better one in such a way so as to not negatively impact people elsewhere. Assuming we all chose to enroll in this class by choice and not because of a requirement, we are all genuinely interested in the role of human rights not only in the context of American society, but in the context of the entire world at large.
Andrea Solorzano
We are a rather large class, with people from different classes and races, which can be an obstacle to running a smooth fair trade campaign. While we all agree that fair trade would be a positive change in a good direction for Chapel Hill, I don’t think we can all honestly say we are consistent consumers of fair trade products. How can we lead a campaign, if we are not all individually committed to the tenets of fair trade in our own personal lives? I found this sometimes troubling because I am one of those students. I believe fair trade is the right way to go, but I cannot honestly say I fervently buy fair trade products only. Class and status has a lot to do with it. Consumers of fair trade, from my experiences and observations, are more likely to be middle and upper class Americans in the United States. Moreover because of the socio-economic divide in this country amongst ethnic groups, people who buy fair trade products are more likely to be white than any of the ethnic minorities. This is quite surprising, you would think, seeing as ethnic minorities such as Hispanics who are immigrants in this country for example, are most likely aware of the exploitation in the agricultural sector of their home countries. You would think they, the “less privileged,” would use consumption or lack of consumption as a weapon of political engagement, but the reality is that it’s hard to afford fair trade products for many of these families. It is so much easier to go to a Cosco or Walmart to obtain food supplies, than it is to go to a Weaver street market and spend perhaps twice the amount of money.
ReplyDeleteI recently read an article that disclosed conclusions about a study that found that consumers choose “green” products to enhance their status. Bram Van den Bergh of Rotterdam School of Management, one of the study's authors, said: "Driving a luxurious non-green car, like a Hummer, communicates one's wealth, but also suggests that the buyer is a selfish and uncaring individual who is concerned primarily about his own comfort rather than the welfare of society. Driving a hybrid, like a Prius, not only displays one's wealth as it costs many thousands of dollars more than a conventional but highly fuel-efficient car, but also signals the owner cares about others and the environment." I think that the same holds true in regards to fair trade products. People can take a public stance against the exploitation of labor in foreign countries if they have the money to do so by buying more expensive fair trade products. They can show their status while also proving to others that they are caring and considerate of human rights. People who may not be as financially privileged may not be able to engage in such political participation through fair trade consumption, but it does not mean that they care any less about human rights, especially when the people being directly exploited may come from their own home countries. Our class this semester, has nonetheless been fairly organized and has worked well as a group. As part of the retail outreach group, we did a really good job in dividing up tasks and dividing our efforts to reach out to the maximum number of retails and stores we could possibly contact in the Chapel hill- Carrboro area. Having a spreadsheet with everyone’s information was helpful and I’ve learned a lot from my experiences so far. It’s important to develop good communication skills about a topic of interest in order to convey its importance and meaning to others. You have to learn to deal with people who are interested in listening to what you have to say, as well as dealing with people who do not really care to know what you want to say. Overall, the context of our fair trade efforts was a comfortable one that enabled it to be a good learning experience, if anything. We all are after the game goal, so it seems: Making our world, our social reality, a better one.
ReplyDeleteAndrea Solorzano.
The context of our situation is very specific and ideal to fulfill our goals because it is in turn shaped by the goals themselves. It is a class about human rights for which all the students present had to register for. The people that are present, teacher, TA, and students, are not there by chance. Instead, they chose to be there which means that they have something invested in the topic. The professor, Judith Blau, is very experienced and knowledgeable on the issues she teaches. If these groups of people can't get together and take action then nobody can. Our surrounding, however, makes it extremely easy. We're in a liberal arts university, surrounded by liberal towns and communities. We are young and educated individuals who are still relatively altruistic because, for the most part, we haven't been corrupted by the real world. We do not fear being put down or shunned for our beliefs and actions due to our surrounding, which makes us more willing and able to take action. These things is what has made the process so smooth. The same surrounding, however, limits and diminishes our efforts. Although there is a need to protect the human rights of those that live around us, the real need is further away, in other countries and in farms and factories state and nation wide. Therefore, what we are able to accomplish is something but not much in the grand scheme of things. We are taking tiny steps, but those tiny steps are required to make large changes so we should not be discouraged.
ReplyDelete-Steven Quintero
The context of our situation has a great effect on the way we approach the situation. We are college students at one of most prestigious universities in the country that prides itself on student leadership and has many active students that are passionate and driven. Chapel Hill and Carrboro are liberal towns and are the setting for out movement. By putting together persistent students in a a situation with potential for change, the likelihood of success is high. We also have a brilliant professor who last semester had the vision of getting the declaration of human rights passed in Carrboro and it led to a successful campaign. With her leadership and inspiration, our class joined in the campaign and began pushing for fair trade. Many students brought special qualities to our team that contributed to the campaign. Thats what great about being at UNC that everyone is bright and brings something different to the table. The process is really smooth when there are so many of us always providing new ideas and taking the leadership to carry them out. There are some obstacles however. Since Chapel Hill and Carrboro are small towns, its hard to get business that are run by large corporations to change to fair trade. The managers say that it is out of their control and they do not have the power to make those decisions. We must keep at it though and just keep taking small steps. If we try to take giant leaps and fail we go nowhere but small steps will lead to progress.
ReplyDelete-Gabriel Retana
Green closes her book with the advice that we must look at each particular situation and its relevant characteristics to create the best strategy. Although we can glean advice from authors such as Green, as well as figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. who have paved the way for social change and historical evidence, we must remember that the greatest knowledge of how to change a situation is within it. While we can apply vague models for social change created by social scientists, we must first look at the specifics of our situation to tailor the model to meet our needs.
ReplyDeleteThe specifics of our situation have been, in my opinion, have been positive in our endeavor. UNC is one of the most prestigious public universities, and so both our professors and students are motivated and knowledgeable about current social justice issues. UNC is a liberal campus and has a strong history of social change and liberal political support. Chapel Hill and Carrboro are also progressive and social justice minded towns. Because these are the towns where we are campaigning, we have been blessed to have abundant community support. While presenting the Fair Trade Resolution to the Chapel Hill town council, I felt the council members and the community members in attendance were receptive and supportive of our endeavor.
The students of the Sociology of Human Rights are also another specific we cannot overlook. The people who sign up for this course are generally from a sociology background and so have knowledge about the way society functions and also the unfair system of social privilege that is omnipresent in all societies. For this reason, the nature of fair trade is another important component of our situation. The fact that we have the opportunity to help empower producers in third world countries to be paid fair wages and thus have a better life is a driving force behind this project. This belief is pervasive in all parts of the project. From Professor Blau, to each individual student, to the retailers who agree to stock fair trade items to the town council, we all know we are contributing to social change.
-Karyn Shealy
Our situation in adapting a fair trade community is unique, especially when considering the global point of view. There are many aspects which give us advantages, such as being a liberal community. On top of this students are known for becoming integrated in the community and becoming activists in current situations. This can be seen around the world with student movements in the 1960's with anti-Vietnam war and such. So, the student voice can be heard and can be influential. Our fair trade campaign also begins by attacking small businesses, which can be a blessing in 2010 with many big businesses having bail out problems causing a disgraceful concern for these institutions. Therefore, small businesses may have been more applicable to our use in striving for fair trade practices than previously before. Some difficulties that I think we have came across is that as students in a class, most of us, including myself, came into this campaign blind. It took some time to understand what we were going for and how to carry it out, whereas people on a bigger scale who put most of their effort into fair trade practices have more resources and knowledge. Another possible downside is that we may have been so concentrated in our community that we honed in to much on our situation while missing out on some of the greater universal goals... so there may be a reverse situation here.
ReplyDeleteThe current world events, our relevance to the small communities that surround UNC, and the goals and principles of the class all shape our situational context and how it operates. To start off, this is a Human rights class, and if anything else, it's goals are aimed at HUMAN RIGHTS. Our campaign is ran by young passionate students who are active in making sure that information about fair trade is spread out in the Chapel Hill and Carrboro community. Our goals are to educate and shape our environments while we are being educated through feed back from our environments. UNC is known for it's diversity and ability to protest for change for the betterment of society. This helps out a lot because the community is more accepting of the University's ideas and policies. A large portion of business transactions are done between the University's students and local vendors. Therefore, it's imperative that local communities take in to account the University's opinions and such. The current events that have taken place in the world such as the Tsunamis and Earthquakes, that have shaken up so many countries, have expanded the world's eye to those who are still at a substantially low standard of living. It's so easy to be caught up in how much progress that has taken place since colonial times. Recently, there have been countries, whose economic conditions have been exposed by natural disasters. Those countries that have always been poor and neglected brings back to reality how much progress the world as a whole has made. At this point, people are more subject to help out those poverty-stricken countries, whether it be by donating money or carrying their fair trade products in the retail stores. This helps our situational context run more smoothly because people have already developed a mentality for getting involved and helping out.
ReplyDeleteLatosha Phillips
I think there are two main contextual elements in our fair trade issue: the current state of the economy and our location (Chapel Hill/Carrboro). First, the entire American economy is recovering from a serious economic downfall. In terms of fair trade, I think of this recovery in terms of a "reboot". I think that it can be easiest to make changes when we have lost a lot of what we had and now must review our past strategies. We can see that many of our economic policies in the past led us to this situation. For example, the greed of those working in the banking and housing markets masked the impending crisis for a while until it could no longer by covered up. Once our economy hit its low point, analysts began to determine what caused the downfall. Many said that more thoughtful, small-scale spending was necessary to bring our economy back to its past powerful state. I think that fair trade is a great example of a new economic spending strategy we can use that follows the rules of the experts. Because many people have lost a lot in the depression, it will be easier to push fair trade because they have somewhat of a blank slate of thinking.
ReplyDeleteOur location is another factor that makes fair trade in this area an easier transition. In general, Chapel Hill and Carrboro are known for their liberal citizens and policies. It will be easier to make these towns fair trade towns than it would be to convince the citizens of conservative areas. Thus, I think the recent economic crash and our location make our fair trade movement a smoother transition.
Our class has approached fair trade as theory and attempted to put it in practice through our project. Many times, molding theory into a real life situation can be difficult, but I think we have done well. The location of UNC has helped us greatly and I think other towns can learn from our experience. The fair trade movement in a more conservative town would need to use different strategies and practices, thus it would be more difficult, but I think it's possible in our current economic "reboot".
Sitting in the year 2010 and looking back at America’s history with the focus of the big grand scheme of the world and how everything is flowing down to the more specific things in mind. I have noticed that what the students, staff and the community dynamics of Chapel Hill engage in, in taking on fair trade as well as human rights are fighting a much bigger battle than just the town that we exist and endure in. Our Sociology 490 class all came in with the same mindset of making the world a better place and by doing this one step at a time. This one step at a time concept was used abundantly during this semester because of the obstacles that many of the students (such as myself) faced. Being a student at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, it is not always an easy thing to do when trying to rid the world of all the appalling effects that go on in everyday life. With that being said ridding the world of its disparities has become one of the biggest obstacle at this time. But by attending an liberal arts university and having the smart and intellectual students that we have, it makes it easier for this campaign to run smoothly because like I said above most of the students that are in this class are here because they believe in the such causes that fair trade supports.
ReplyDeleteThe context of our classes’ fair trade campaign was to shed awareness on the importance of universal human rights through the concept outlined by the UDHR. The UDHR specifically states that it is a basic human right to earn a living wage, to have fair labor practices, the right to social security, the right to suitable working conditions, and the right to have labor groups to name a few. Through our fair trade campaign, we were supposed to outline the importance of human rights and maintain the campaign spirit within those parameters.
ReplyDeleteThe students were charged with running a campaign to help make Chapel Hill the 12th nationally recognized fair trade town. I think that, personally, I got so wrapped up in trying to make this town a fair trade one that I lost track and sight of the bigger picture. I think that during campaigning, sometimes the issue itself (becoming fair trade) overshadows the deeper significance of the reason we became involved in the first place. I constantly caught Dr. Blau reminding me that the most important aspect of the campaign was the belief in certain human rights that all human begins should be entitled to. I always felt like I understood that, but if we wanted to become fair trade in such a short amount of time, we really had to focus on the campaign and not the underlying principles as to why the campaign was so important. Paying someone a living wage is important, but I kept finding myself saying that that will only happen if the town recognizes our resolution and adopts our petition.
I now think that maybe the solution wasn’t necessarily whether we became an official fair trade town or not, but whether people grew during the campaign and became more socially aware. Even if more community members just start asking questions about where their goods are coming from, I think that the solution of a social consciousness of others suffering at your expense was achieved. The solution maybe wasn’t an official title but rather an increased knowledge of what it means to participate in market demands, and how one person at a time can make a difference in the life of someone else. Fair trade town or not, we all were making a difference and I think that that is what human rights is all about. It is about treating all of the inhabitants of this planet with the same respect and courtesy that we expect here.
I believe that because maybe the true solution wasn’t the official title, we were able to accomplish the goal that we set for ourselves as a class by the end of the semester. We increased awareness for third world inhabitants and began to attach human faces to products. This was something that in the context of the UDHR ran very smoothly, because it began to chip away at the dehumanizing process that we all experience as part of a capitalistic society. It began to dissect the intersectionality between racism, classism, sexism, and ageism. The process began to strip away the mentality that third world citizens are objects to be used for our procurement of a more comfortable lifestyle. Rather we began to identify with the citizens in sweatshops and we began to try to invest in them in an attempt to bring them out of poverty. I think that the campaign ran very smoothly in the context of human rights and accomplished so much during such a little time.
Whitney Miller
Being from chapel hill/carrboro we are definitely in a unique situation where the vast majority of the individuals who live here have grown up and are still liberal. This is to our advantage and what our class is trying to achieve. People are more likely to become active not only on campus, but in the community as well. We have sought out small businesses and approached them with the idea of becoming fair trade. We have enlightened them and in turn others who come into their stores and see the decal in the window. Slowly but surely the idea of fair trade will catch on to a greater majority and eventually i believe the towns of chapel hill/carrboro will be certified fair trade towns. The harder we stay after it and the more work and effort we continue to put into this, the sooner it will all come into place. In only 3 and a half months we have come this far, imagine where we could be in a year.
ReplyDeleteThe only obstacles that i have faced persoanlly are people who have not wanted to hear about fair trade at all. There will always be people like this, but hopefully as more and more people catch on to the idea they too will see how great it is and decide to finally give it a chance.
Graham Davis
For starters, as others have already mentioned, we have been working with liberal communities. Chapel Hill, Carrboro and UNC-Chapel Hill are all considered to be liberal communties. So taking that into account, our mission was easier to tackle because we had people who were willing to listen and gave us more opportunity. I would have to say that it made some things a tad bit biased, but regardless, it helped us manuever our goals. Of course, one can say that the campaign could have been more sucessful had we had more devoted participants and volunteers, but to be honest, students get the word out there the best. I say this because we bring it up in conversations, with our friends and can get the word across on campus. I know I learned more about Fair Trade as I was petitioning for it and others learned from me because I had to explain it to them while getting their signatures. Being students and being in a liberal environment our mission was successful because we understand what we are fighting for and the people we want to help.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been in Chapel Hill for over 8 years, and having gone to school here, first at CHHS and now at UNC, Ive experienced first hand what it means to live in a college town. We are, admittedly, a liberal University with “progressive” residents – as least, we like to think of ourselves as such. The reality is, we lean on the side of the democratic ticket, no matter what, and much of our “forward-thinking” is taken from more progressive campuses places which we try our best to emulate – Berkeley comes to mind here. The University has been (and in many ways continues to be) an institution reserved for the white, male, middle-upper class segment of North Carolina’s populace – control over funding, research, outreach, and policy decisions are still handled through ideologies centered around business and profiteering.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the Town itself, the Council and its interests are much in line with what the University is doing and more importantly what the University desires – this means decisions surrounding immigrant rights, living wages, property tax assessments (i.e. school funding), building codes, police partnerships, etc are all very much informed by the vision of UNC-CH admins and their constituents (e.g. the Board of Trustees). The political nature of education today, as well as the power contained in licensing agreements and the questionable relationships between private enterprise in the funding of research, make it a very foggy road to travel when attempting to remedy some of the ills caused by neoliberal policies at the national and international levels of production – the promotion of fair trade, even at the local level, is tied up and held hostage in the “free” market thinking of governments and policy makers everywhere; UNC and the Town of Chapel Hill are no exception. Dr. Blau’s conversations with University procurement officers regarding fair trade and living wage policies are a great start, however the climate is not great for making changes that benefit non-white individuals and families in NC or elsewhere – the context obviously is a good indicator of where we are going, and with all things considered, we have a large hill to climb with regard to Fair Trade in Chapel Hill and in NC.