22 May 2009 | All day | CRASSH, 17 Mill Lane |
- Description
Description
Registration for this Workshop is now closed.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY BUSINESS & SOCIETY RESEARCH GROUP
Web-Page http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/page/186/business-and-society.htm
International Workshop
THEME
Market rationality is based on the imperative of profit maximisation and the assertion that the price mechanism, celebrated as the “invisible hand” of the market, transforms individual greed into social welfare. If not the alarming degree of social and economic inequalities, it is certainly the shock of the current financial crisis that challenges the self-healing powers of global capitalism and reopens the debate on market regulation. Who is accountable for the excesses of global capitalism, and who is responsible for preventing them? One could argue, and the philosopher/cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek does so, that it is indeed the invisibility of the forces driving market dynamics that account for a lack of responsibility. Against the anonymity of global economic relations and its resulting faceless forces governing global supply chains, Fairtrade proposes an alternative mechanism that facilitates individual consumers to take immediate action against the headless dynamics of the market logic. Most notably, by setting a minimum price for commodities, Fairtrade contests the justice of the price as the market's coordination mechanism and aims to intervene into the dynamics of the “invisible hand”. With Fairtrade, it is claimed, individual consumption choices can make a real difference to the way that global market operates. Through ethical labelling systems consumers are supposed to take moral responsibility for their economic actions: as such, Fairtrade becomes the guarantor for turning the consumers' purchasing power into a tangible contribution to socio-economic development.
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
– Does Fairtrade change the rules of the game?
– Can Fairtrade survive the economic recession/an economic crisis?
FORMAT
Following the interdisciplinary mission of the Business & Society research group, the workshop provides a forum to connect researchers (faculty members and graduate students) from different disciplines as well as practitioners. Participation will be limited to 30 people. There is no participation fee, but unfortunately we cannot offer travel funding.
ACCOMMODATION
Unfortunately, we cannot offer accommodation. Useful links:
http://www.hotelscombined.com/Education_Support
http://www.cam.ac.uk/visitors/accommodation.html
http://www.visitcambridge.org/wheretostay.php
FURTHER INQUIRIES
Tu?çe Bulut Juliane Reinecke
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences Judge Business School
University of Cambridge University of Cambridge
E: tb318@cam.ac.uk E: j.reinecke@jbs.cam.ac.uk
T: +44 (0) 79 66 79 47 57 T: +33 (0) 6 37 67 41 75