ABSTRACT
Increasing in recent decades global challenges of an economic, social, and environmental nature pose serious threats to our civilization. Despite tremendous economic and technological progress and numerous efforts of national governments and international organizations, the problem of hunger and structural malnutrition and all its consequences still affect more than one-fourth of the world’s population. The environment is being degraded and polluted, resources essential for life and development are being exhausted, and climate change is progressing at an alarming rate. It is an emergency. Since the ways in which the state and the market have so far addressed global threats are not sufficiently effective, there is an urgent need to seek new solutions to support both institutions in these efforts. Does the development of socio-economic movements, of which Fair Trade is a flagship example, represent such an opportunity? Can development of this initiative contribute to the evolution of the global economy towards operating more sustainable? This book addresses these questions explaining specific features of Fair Trade market and arguing that Fair Trade constitutes a new specific type of market that contributes to a more pro-social functioning of the entire market challenging the existing role of the state.
