Fair Trade Rebels: Coffee Production and Struggles for Autonomy in Chiapas

Part of the Diverse Economies and Liveable Worlds series, Fair Trade Rebels puts decolonial thinking in conversation with diverse economies theory, eavulating fair trade through a unique, place-based approach that expands our understanding of the relationship between fair trade, autonomy, and economic development.

Is fair trade really fair? Who is it for, and who gets to decide? Fair Trade Rebels addresses such questions in a new way by shifting the focus from the abstract concept of fair trade - and whether it is ‘working’ - to the perspectives of small farmers. It examines the everyday experiences of resistance and agricultural practice among the campesinos/as of Chiapas, Mexico, who struggle for dignified livelihoods in self-declared autonomous communities in the highlands, confronting inequalities locally in what is really a global corporate agricultural chain.