Justice at a Price: Regulation and Alienation in the Global Economy
This article examines the normative principles that underlie efforts to regulate the global coffee market at different points in the global division of labor. I focus on three forms of regulation: local violence against coffee farmers in Honduras, fair trade consumerism, and international regulatory treaties. By comparing the local politics of Honduran coffee production to global forms of consumer activism, I bring contemporary debates about economic justice under a single analytic lens. I suggest that systematic changes in the relationship between states and nations have led alienated citizens to develop new forms of regulation outside the boundaries of the state, and that coffee frequently serves as a metaphor through which people come to terms with their place in the global economy. This metaphor ultimately rests on an alienated representation of the global system that limits the political potential of these regulatory strategies.