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The Case of Sugar Producers in Malawi

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The Case of Sugar Producers in Malawi Fair trade and community empowerment: the case of sugar producers in Malawi David Phillips Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Geography, Politics and Sociology Newcastle University November 2010 Abstract Whilst there have been many accounts of success stories of fair trade in a variety of low income producer communities, there have been few critical accounts that examine the varied lived experiences of people in such communities. This thesis advances a developing critical literature by exploring reasons for unequal and uneven experiences of members of a Fairtrade certified producer organisation. As fair trade has expanded into new commodities and countries, both sugar and Malawi have to date been under- researched. This thesis addresses these gaps by focussing on Kasinthula Cane Growers Limited (KCGL) in southern Malawi. Developing a critical reflection that incorporates postcolonial and post-Marxist critiques, the thesis problematises definitions and assumptions regarding empowerment as a people-centred development approach and community as a cooperative social and political formation. This reflection is used to expand existing analytical frameworks to create a Postcolonial Agricultural Production Network as a framework to focus on a complex geography embedded in a local postcolonial production place. Doing so opens space to explore uneven geographies of production and empowerment shaped by embedded social and political factors. By un-masking inequalities, hierarchies, and dependencies in the institutional environment of a producer community, and incorporating perspectives from a range of producers, both intended and unintended outcomes from Fairtrade certification are examined. The thesis reveals that despite fair trade intentions to promote democracy, transparency, and participation, unintended consequences of exacerbating inequalities and discrepancies between low income producers, and over expectations of an impoverished society, have led to variable experiences of fair trade. Identifying sites of local inequality and unable and unwilling agents of empowerment highlights the important role of place in analysis. This demonstrates how embedded social and political formations in a particular place shape different experiences of fair trade. The findings propose a lesson to incorporate a more nuanced understanding of place in fair trade approaches that challenge assumptions of harmonious producer communities to sharpen focus on embedded inequalities and uneven producer community landscapes. i Acknowledgements From the course of the long journey of completing this research and thesis there are too many people to thank individually for their time, support, humour, and friendship. All have helped to make this challenging experience more satisfying and constructive. First I must start with the countless number of people in Malawi who participated in and supported this research. This includes research participant members of Kasinthula Cane Growers Limited and the Chikwawa district who welcomed me into their community and offered significant time and effort to share their experiences, opinions, and concerns. It is from that information that all of this work has been built upon and would not have been possible otherwise. My gratitude extends to Jason Agar and associates of Kadale who kindly hosted me in Blantyre and provided priceless advice and support. Also thank you to the research assistants for their excellent work with me in the field and for their friendship, and others in Blantyre who made my stay there a very memorable one. In Newcastle thank you to my supervisors Dr Alex Hughes and Dr Kate Manzo for their guidance, support, and understanding through the highs and lows of this challenging piece of work. I must also thank my CASE partner supervisor Geoff Bockett for his extensive input and support, and other employees of Traidcraft who willingly participated in this project to make the studentship a more enjoyable and productive experience. I am also hugely indebted to Pat Richardson for her time to discuss my project over many cups of coffee and offer many practical tips from her experience of working in Malawi. Finally, a huge thanks to friends and family who have supported me through this, even those who still have no idea what it is I have been doing! Particular thanks to fellow postgraduates who have been there to help retain sanity, often through conversations and pints in nearby watering holes. And last but not least to Erin for all that you have done to help this Brit get to this stage. I would also like to acknowledge the ESRC and Traidcraft for providing the funding to enable this research (ESRC Studentship PTA-033-2006-00041). ii Table of Contents ABSTRACT I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II TABLE OF CONTENTS III LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES VIII ACRONYMS X CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Why research fair trade? 1 1.2 Fair trade definition and origins 2 1.3 Research approach and contributions 4 1.3.1 Multi-scalar enquiry 4 1.3.2 Community empowerment focus 5 1.3.3 Postcolonial agricultural production networks 6 1.3.4 Unequal and heterogeneous producer communities 7 1.4 Case study and research questions 8 1.5 Thesis outline 10 CHAPTER 2: TOWARDS PEOPLE-CENTRED APPROACHES: A POST- MARXIST AND POSTCOLONIAL CRITIQUE 13 2.1 Introduction 13 2.2 Governance of trade and the people-centred alternative 15 2.3 Consideration of power 16 2.4 Global politics of trade: legacies of unequal relations 17 2.4.1 Lack of a level playing field 22 2.5 Promotion and criticism of international development programmes 24 2.5.1 ‘How to develop’ manual for low income countries 25 2.5.2 Neo-Marxist critique of development 27 2.5.3 Neoliberal counterrevolution 28 2.6 Moving beyond structural critiques and approaches 30 2.6.1 Development deconstructed 30 2.6.2 Deconstruction critiqued 31 2.6.3 Politically engaged critical postcolonial reflection 32 iii 2.7 Emergence and language of people-centred development 37 2.7.1 Re-embedding social norms in global trade and production governance 38 2.7.2 People-centred development 39 2.7.3 Language of empowerment 41 2.7.4 Language of community 45 2.7.5 Community empowerment in practice: cooperative contract farming 46 2.8 Problematising community empowerment 49 2.8.1 Romanticising the local 50 2.8.2 Social and political blindness 51 2.8.3 Neglecting exclusion and discrimination 52 2.9 Conclusions: challenges facing people-centred approaches 53 CHAPTER 3: EXTENDING GLOBAL PRODUCTION NETWORKS: ANALYSIS OF POSTCOLONIAL CONTEXT 56 3.1 Introduction 56 3.2 Commodity chain and network governance 57 3.3 World systems and value chains 58 3.3.1 World systems theory 59 3.3.2 Value Chains 60 3.3.3 World systems and value chain contributions 61 3.4 Global commodity chains 63 3.5 Global value chains 64 3.5.1 Global Value Chain governance 66 3.5.2 Conventions theory and governance 68 3.5.3 Linking conventions and fair trade value chain governance 71 3.5.4 GVC contributions and shortcomings 73 3.6 Beyond commodity and value chains in postcolonial places 74 3.6.1 Multi-scalar regulations and standards 75 3.6.2 Filière approach 77 3.6.3 Actor Network Theory 78 3.7 Global Production Networks 79 3.7.1 Developing the GPN approach 80 3.7.2 Institutional analysis 82 3.7.3 Institutional environments 83 3.7.4 Socially embedded and contested networks 84 3.7.5 Local institutional environment 88 3.7.6 Bringing the social and political into analysis 88 3.8 A PAPN approach and postcolonial contribution 89 3.9 Conclusions 91 CHAPTER 4: CONTEXT OF MALAWI, SUGAR CANE AND FAIR TRADE 94 4.1 Introduction 94 4.2 PAPN impact assessment framework 95 iv 4.3 Societal embeddedness: the postcolonial context of Malawi 97 4.3.1 Geography 97 4.3.2 Colonial and postcolonial politics 99 4.3.3 Postcolonial agricultural economy and land use 101 4.3.4 Constrained population 105 4.3.5 Looking towards empowering the local population 106 4.3.6 Societal embeddedness summary 112 4.4 Network embeddedness: political economy of sugar cane 113 4.4.1 Global sugar market 115 4.4.2 The macro political economy of sugar 116 4.4.3 Dissenting voices of sugar cane producers 117 4.4.4 An ACP sugar cane voice 120 4.5 Territorial embeddedness: specificities of local place and commodity production 122 4.5.1 Sugar production and dependent small-scale producers 123 4.5.2 Malawi’s sugar sector 126 4.5.3 Outgrower sugar in Malawi: KCGL 128 4.5.4 Fair trade rules of the game 129 4.5.5 Operationalising fair trade 131 4.6 Conclusions 132 CHAPTER 5: RESEARCHING FAIR TRADE EMPOWERMENT USING MIXED METHODS 135 5.1 Introduction 135 5.2 Case Study and Research Design 136 5.2.1 Accessing the field 137 5.2.2 Visiting the field 139 5.2.3 Mapping the field 139 5.2.4 PAPN impact assessment approach and indicators 142 5.2.5 A learning approach 143 5.2.6 Utilities and shortcomings of a sustainable livelihoods approach 144 5.2.7 Defining fair trade and empowerment 146 5.2.8 Expected empowerment outcomes and indicators 148 5.3 A mixed methods interpretative approach 150 5.3.1 Combining qualitative and quantitative methods 151 5.3.2 Interpretative qualitative methodology 152 5.3.3 Grounded theory 153 5.3.4 Postcolonial contribution 154 5.4 Selecting samples and methods 155 5.4.1 Research Credibility 155 5.4.2 Sampling research participants 156 5.4.3 Selecting mixed methods 159 5.5 Into the field – intersubjective interpretations and representations 160 5.5.1 Intersubjective accounts 160 5.5.2 Disciplined subjectivity 161 5.5.3 Working with triple subjectivity
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