Browsing by Subject "Politicization"

According to the study done by International Coffee Organization, the years between 1964 to 2013, the volume of coffee consumption has grew on an average 1,9% per year and it grew from 57.9 million bags in 1964 to 142 million bags in 2012 (ICO, 2014). On the other hand, study has also shown the positive relationship between growth of GDP per capita and the growth of national consumption of coffee, in another words, with emerging economies like India, China and other South East Asian countries there will be more demand for coffee in the future (Grigg, 2002). However, the global demand and supply for coffee market has never been bigger but also way more stratified than ever. It is because of the parallel developments of specialty coffee market and ethical consumerism in coffee, the two most recent developments of coffee market used to operate in two different segments, the specialty coffee market is smaller in total volumes and puts more emphasis on taste and quality, for ethical consumerism like fair trade movement it focuses more on the commodity market and targeting multinational companies like Starbucks and Nestles. However, the two parallel developments has shown signs of converging and was called as “Third Wave Coffee” which set out to provide ethically and directly traded coffee but at the same time more delicious than the rest. This thesis scrutinized Third Wave coffee movement which it proposes that with direct and closer relationship between coffee farmers and coffee companies: it will be the guarantee for higher quality coffee to the consumers and also raise the living standards for coffee farmers in the process. I approached third wave coffee movement and direct trade with few questions in mind: how do these professionals understand direct trade and their reflections of it? How did the taste and distinction manifest itself in practice? How did the language of quality and trade justice converge together? How do they tell the story of specialty coffee and direct trade, what kind of representation are used to bridge the gap between the two ends of coffee production chain? In order to answer my questions, I interviewed coffee shop workers and roasters in Helsinki with years of working experiences and also make use of various sources of literatures like internet publications and events.For for the gathering of primary materials and analysis, I relied heavily on qualitative mixed method approach: semi structured interviews, content analysis and participatory observations. I was able to identity the narrative structures of discourses said and performed by specialty coffee professionals in Helsinki and their reflections on direct trade. More importantly, I have also included theories such as moral economy, distinction and alternative globalization in order to better understand and analyze my primary materials. In conclusion, I categorized the language that they used into three distinctive characteristics: quality statement, portrayal of professionalism and connections. By using them in their discourses to wider public, they were able to politicize and differentiate themselves from the rest of the coffee market. My research brought light to a telling example of contemporary development of ethical consumerism and the effort paid by actors to propose a different imagination of global supply chain. Ultimately, it is about the current transition of contemporary consumer society and the different forms of political consumerism.