Bottling the Colonial Unconscious Ethical value networks and the commodification of fairness in the South African wine industry Kelle Howson A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Victoria University of Wellington 2019 Abstract The rise of ethical certifications was greeted with optimism by scholars, activists and development practitioners, who predicted they would help to redistribute power and profit more equitably in South- North commodity trade, which has long been an engine of wealth extraction and underdevelopment in the resource periphery. The explicit attachment of value to the social and territorial origin of agro-food products would allow marginalised producers to resist corporate governance, race-to-the-bottom processes, and commodity fetishism. This would result in the retention of higher value at the production end of the chain, thereby fostering sustainable development in rural areas in the Global South. I investigate the extent to which power and profit is indeed redistributed more equitably in these new ‘ethical value networks’, through a case study of the South African wine industry. Complex apparatus of standards-setting, verification and auditing have formed the basis of strategies for post-apartheid transformation, redistribution and development in the South African wine industry, with progress conceptualised as taking place at the level of business. In this context, ethical certification constitutes a contemporary labour relations paradigm which in key ways reproduces ‘colonial unconscious’ discourses derived from the legacies of slavery, apartheid and farm paternalism. These embedded discursive power formations restrict the transformative potential of ethical certification. For ethical development to occur as a result of ethical value network formation, I argue that workers must gain greater agency and regulatory capability in the governance of these networks. I find also that ethical certification has not been an effective economic upgrading strategy for the South African wine industry. Instead, due to their deployment within oligopolistic networks, ethics have become commodified, and subject to neoliberal governance. Northern retailers have used their existing power to accumulate the value created by alignment with ethical conventions, and to avoid the costs. Ethical certifications compound the severe ‘cost-price squeeze’ faced by wine producers. This case study has broader implications for the theory of ethical value networks: showing that they are relational, geographically contingent, and remain susceptible to asymmetric governance and accumulation patterns. Acknowledgements A Ph.D. is often a lonely labour, but I am fortunate to have been supported by many people throughout the process, logistically, academically and personally. I would like to thank my friends in South Africa, who gave generously of their time and advice to an unknown researcher, and who believed in the value of this work. Though I cannot identify you by name, there are many of you, and I am grateful to you all. I am also indebted to Andries Du Toit and colleagues, who kindly received me at PLAAS, at the University of the Western Cape, although field work mostly kept me away. I have been privileged to share the thesis experience with friends at Victoria University, and particularly Pete and Lorena, with whom I have also shared much commiseration, celebration, confectionary and beer. I am also grateful for the help of the staff in the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences – Emma, Miranda and Monika, whose moral support and guidance through the administrative aspects of this process has been invaluable. I am especially grateful to my supervisor, Warwick Murray, for his endless patience, encouragement and feedback, and for giving me the gift of his confidence in me, which has enabled me to build my own confidence as an academic researcher. My thanks also go to my second supervisor John Overton, for his feedback on papers and drafts, and his miraculous ability to carve time out of a very busy week for second-supervisor duties. Thank you also to Robbie, for his thoughtful comments. Thanks are owed to my family, Mum, Dad, Megan, Loren, Moira and Michael, who endured my anxieties with unwavering faith. Finally, my deep and inexpressible gratitude goes to Frank, who has shared the journey. *** This Ph.D. project was funded by the Royal Society’s Te Apārangi’s Marsden Fund, and formed a component of a wider ‘ethical value networks’ research project led by Warwick Murray and John Overton. Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................... v List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ............................................................................................. vi Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Dookoom v. AfriForum 1.1. The rise of ethical certification ..................................................................................... 4 1.2. Case study context and rationale ................................................................................... 6 1.3. Contemporary and theoretical relevance of the research ...............................................11 1.4. Aims of the research ....................................................................................................13 1.5. Structure of the thesis ..................................................................................................14 Theory and Methodology ......................................................................................17 EVeNs as a framework for critical case study research 2.1. Epistemology: Social critique ......................................................................................17 2.2. Theoretical framework: Understanding uneven development .......................................18 2.3. Post-development and alternative development ...........................................................27 2.4. Theorising EVeNs .......................................................................................................30 2.5. Methods: Data gathering and ethics ......................................................................... 3434 2.6. Data interpretation.......................................................................................................40 2.7. Challenges and limitations...........................................................................................45 2.8. Summary ....................................................................................................................46 Can the market care? ............................................................................................47 Scholarly perspectives on ethical trade 3.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................47 3.2. Background: Globalisation and agriculture ..................................................................48 3.3. Ethical trade and ethical certification: Manifestations and definitions ..........................51 3.4. Theorising ethical certification ....................................................................................56 3.5. Critiques of ethical certification: Who has the power? .................................................63 3.6. Discussion: Carrying ethical certification studies forward ............................................75 Bottling the colonial unconscious..........................................................................79 The evolution of labour relations paradigms in the South African wine industry 4.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................79 4.2. Cultivating a slave society ...........................................................................................81 4.3. British rule: Institutionalising socio-economic roles based on race ...............................90 4.4. Apartheid agriculture: Protectionism, paternalism and dependence ............................ 101 4.5. Summary .................................................................................................................. 108 To BEE or not to BEE......................................................................................... 109 Globalisation and the rise of market-led ethical discourse in democratising South Africa 5.1. Deregulation and reregulation ................................................................................... 109 5.2. Neoliberalisation of the wine industry ....................................................................... 115 5.3. Ethical Certification .................................................................................................. 118 5.4. Directing ethical discourse: BEE, B-BBEE and WineBEE ......................................... 122 5.5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 128 Motivations for adoption .................................................................................... 131 Adopters’