Fair Trade, Ethical Business & New Moral Economies (845L6)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

Where and under what conditions are our T-shirts produced? How does Fair Trade affect the livelihoods of small farmers in the Global South? Is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) just clever marketing? Has ethics become a matter of personal shopping choices?

In recent years, global movements such as Fair Trade and CSR have addressed inequality and promoted social change. Development actors, including the UN, DFID and global NGOs, are also more interested in development.

These trends have led to new ethical initiatives such as Fair Trade, CSR and pro-poor enterprise. They’re an alternative to the mainstream market, shifting power to producers in the Global South.

On this module, you’ll use an interdisciplinary approach to explore the role of markets and business in development. This includes global corporations, small enterprises and those working in the informal economy. You’ll study the rise of CSR, Fair Trade, civil society activism and ethical consumption as major attempts to:

  • make markets ethical
  • promote labour rights
  • create market-based solutions for poverty and underdevelopment.

You’ll examine these initiatives using theory and practice, evaluating their power, equality and gender implications.

Teaching

17%: Lecture
50%: Practical (Workshop)
33%: Seminar

Assessment

100%: Written assessment (Report)

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 267 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We鈥檙e planning to run these modules in the academic year 2025/26. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We鈥檒l make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.