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Fair Trade Enclaves: Labour and Livelihoods in Costa Rica’s Banana Industry book cover

1st Edition

Fair Trade Enclaves Labour and Livelihoods in Costa Rica’s Banana Industry

By Layla Zaglul Ruiz Copyright 2025
142 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

142 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

142 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Fair Trade Enclaves tells the story of exploitation and inequality in the production of Fair Trade bananas. It draws on immersive fieldwork in Costa Rica, which was the original testing ground for US-owned plantations and is today the world’s third-largest exporter of bananas. The book offers an ethnographic study of Fair Trade’s impact on the ‘Dollar’ banana system and considers how the growth... Read more

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

Disjunctions in the Fair Trade Movement

Fair Trade Enclaves within Neoliberalism

The Discourse of Crisis

Self-exploitation and Co-ownership

Research Methods and Positionality

2.

Producing bananas in Costa Rica

Producing Alianza (and Caché) bananas

Conclusions 

3.

Contracts

Working hours and payment

Freedom of association

Conclusions

4.

Caché: controlling through conflict and violence

Alianza: Relatedness and kindship on the shopfloor

Conclusion

5.

Discourse of crisis in public and private spheres

The shop floor in crisis

Conclusion

6.

The evolution of banana quality standards

Surviving the market with Extra Class bananas

More restrictions, the same ‘perfect fruit’

Is first-class consumption ethical?

Conclusion

7.

The lack of social capital

Agrofair’s modus operandi

Conclusion

8. Conclusion.

Index

Biography

Layla Zaglul Ruiz is a Canning House Research Fellow in the Latin America and Caribbean Center at the London School of Economics, UK.

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