Proceedings of 29th International Business Research Conference
24 - 25 November 2014, Novotel Hotel Sydney Central, Sydney, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-64-1
Accounting and Accountability Practices of Fairtrade
International (Flo)
Homaira Semeen1 and M. Azizul Islam2
The aim of the article is to examine accounting and accountability practices
of Fairtrade International (FLO) – one of the largest fair trade umbrella
organization to explore whether and how new forms of accounting and
disclosure emerge to reflect their self-declared social mission of producers’
emancipation and sustainability. Through thematic analysis and reflection
on Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic power, this paper illustrates that
Fairtrade International is using new forms of accounting and disclosures as
symbolic capital to reflect or transmit their social mission of, producers’
emancipation and sustainability. The paper extends an understanding of the
legitimizing efforts of fair trade umbrella organizations.
JEL Code: M41, M49
Keywords: Accounting, Accountability, Fairtrade International (FLO), Legitimation,
Symbolic Capital, Symbolic Power.
1. Introduction
The concept of fair trade brings together the commitment to ensuring social justice,
economic emancipations and sustainability through trading relationships (Lyon,
2006, Raynolds et al., 2007). The unique social missions of the fair trade movement
have not only attracted consumer preferences for fair trade products but also attracts
researchers of various disciplines to examine the opportunities and challenges of this
system (Nicholls, 2005, Moore, 2004). One of the important aspects of the fair trade
system is its unique network of associations supervised by some central umbrella
organizations; this has enabled this trading system to carve out an access to the
conventional market (Sutton, 2013) while operating against conventional trading
practices (Gandenberger et al., 2011). However, there is a lack of research that
examines accounting, reporting and accountability practices of fair trade
organizations (the exception being (Gray et al., 1997)). Research so far conducted to
investigate this issue mostly focused on the normative nature of social accounts
rather than exploring the extant accounting and reporting practices of fair trade
organisations. Consequently, very little is known about the motivation behind the
new forms of accounting and reporting practices of such organisations and, in
particular, there is a complete lack of research that focuses on international fair trade
umbrella organisations which are playing a major role in upholding the image of this
distinctive field of ethical trading. In order to learn about whether and how fair trade
umbrella organizations are practicing new accounts and accountability notions to
carry out their social mission, this study has explored some new accounting and
disclosure themes within the reporting media of Fairtrade International (FLO) – one
of the most prominent fair trade umbrella organizations, to gain an understanding of
how the social missions of this organization are reflected or transmitted into its
accounting and disclosures. For this, the thematic analysis method was used to
1
Homaira Semeen, Research Masters Student, School of Accountancy, Queensland University of
Technology. Email: homaira.semeen@hdr.qut.edu.au
2
M. Azizul Islam, Associate Professor, School of Accountancy, Queensland University of Technology.
Email: azizul.islam@qut.edu.au
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Proceedings of 29th International Business Research Conference
24 - 25 November 2014, Novotel Hotel Sydney Central, Sydney, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-64-1
assess available annual reports and other important reporting of Fairtrade
International (FLO).
This paper employs the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu (1931 – 2001), one
of the famous French anthropologist and sociologists. Bourdieu‘s theoretical
framework of field, habitus and different forms of capital offers a powerful lens to
observe and analyse the translation/transformation of social missions into new forms
of accountability practice. As prior studies could not shed light on how fair trade
umbrella organizations/ certifying bodies strategically use new forms of accounting
notions to translate/transform their missions, this study makes two contributions to
the existing body of literature in this regard. First, by examining the reporting practice
of FLO in the field of fair trade, this paper illustrates how new forms of accounting
and narratives by FLO are utilized to transform its social missions. Second, using
Bourdieu‘s theoretical framework, this paper interprets how new accounting notions
can be utilized as symbolic capital and thus gain symbolic power in legitimizing this
emergent field of trading. In this way, this paper demonstrates new accounting
notions practiced by fair trade organizations and suggests that accounting notions
can be capitalized symbolically as a means of legitimation.
The balance of the paper is structured in the following sections. Section two
discusses the evolution of fair trade. Section three considers the fair trade mission
and consequent forms of accounting and accountability as well as offering a
theoretical underpinning of the use of Bourdieu‘s symbolic capital as a tool to
legitimation. Section four presents the method, and then section five provides the
analysis and the findings. Finally, section six summarizes the findings of the study
along with research implications and the scope of future studies.
2. Evolution of Fair Trade
Recognizing the limitations of conventional corporate practices, the fair trade
movement started its journey in the late 1950s. This movement gained momentum in
1968 when the demands of the representatives of developing nations for the
establishment of fair trading relations gained acceptance from the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (Nicholls, 2005, Ullrich, 2007,
Rice, 2001). However, the first commercial breakthrough of this movement was with
the initiation of the Max Havelaar label in 1988. Starting with this labelling scheme,
the movement has undergone a marked process of institutionalization and has
developed its own network of associations over the last few decades (Gandenberger
et al., 2011). At present, there are three primary umbrella organizations, i.e.,
Fairtrade Labelling International (FLO), World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO)
previously known as IFAT and the European Fair Trade Association (EFTA). These
are setting standards and supervise the network (FTAO, 2014).
While the term ‗fair trade‘ is not new, the fair trade standard setting process, notion
of accounting and accountability within the fair trade organisations and related
stakeholder concerns appears new and distinctive. With a view to establishing a
more coherent set of standard, FLO and WFTO jointly adopted ―A Charter of Fair
Trade Principles‖ in 2009 (FTAO, 2014). This charter has acknowledged the ―social
contract‖ between consumers and producers and thus recognizes a set of principles
that ensures economic emancipation, social justice, human rights, and
environmental sustainability. According to this charter, Fair Trade is a ―trading
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Proceedings of 29th International Business Research Conference
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partnership‖ backed by consumers with a mission to change the rules and practices
of conventional international trade. The charter has stated its common vision as
follows (p. 6):
The Fair Trade movement shares a vision of a world in which justice and
sustainable development are at the heart of trade structures and practices so
that everyone, through their work, can maintain a decent and dignified
livelihood and develop their full human potential. The Fair Trade movement
believes that trade can be a fundamental driver of poverty reduction and
greater sustainable development, but only if it is managed for that purpose,
with greater equity and transparency than is currently the norm. We believe
that the marginalised and disadvantaged can develop the capacity to take
more control over their work and their lives if they are better organised,
resourced and supported, and can secure access to mainstream markets
under fair trading conditions.
Along with the core principles of fair trade, this charter has also adhered to widely
accepted standards of labour rights (ILO convention) as an additional dimension of
fair trade and thus has explicitly recognized the rights of association and collective
bargaining, decent working condition, the elimination of any kind of discrimination
and child labour as well as commitment to environmental sustainability.
3. Literature Review
3.1.
Fair Trade Mission and New Forms of Accounting and Accountability
Accounting is not a static or homogenous phenomenon; rather, it is continuously
changing to what it was not (Hopwood, 1983). Consequently, many prominent
researchers (Hopwood, 1983, Meyer, 1983, Burchell et al., 1980, Roberts and
Scapens, 1985) have attempted to investigate the changes in accounting practices
and their evolution over time from different organizational contexts. Revisiting
twenty-five years of social accounting research, Gray (2002) called for more rigorous
research in supporting the understanding of meta-theory to find out what it is that we
are really interested in and why. Gray‘s call is, in particular, relevant to researchers
who attempt to explore new forms of accounting (including social accounting and
disclosures) within the fair trade organisations. As operating practices of fair trade
organisations are gaining increased attention from accounting researchers (Gray et
al., 1997, Dey, 2007, Nicholls, 2009), prior research gives us a platform to
investigate how some unique social missions of fair trade that aim to ensure
emancipation of the marginalized producers transform into new form of accounting
and accountability practices within such organisations.
In an early attempt to explore the social accounting project of a well-known fair trade
organization –Traidcraft plc., Gray et al. (1997) developed an initial framework of
social accounting and suggested two similar and complementary constructs –social
account and social audit. In a subsequent study, Dey (2007) identified some key
challenges faced by Traidcraft in operationalizing ‗social accounts‘. Furthermore,
Nicholls (2009) explored the emergent reporting practices of five social enterprises,
(one of which was Café Direct –a fair trade organization) to demonstrate how social
entrepreneurs are attempting to create new legitimacies and logic of action by
capturing the holistic complexity of organizational outputs and impacts with a range
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Proceedings of 29th International Business Research Conference
24 - 25 November 2014, Novotel Hotel Sydney Central, Sydney, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-64-1
of social impact reporting options. More recently, in exploring social accounting
practices from the early 1970s till the present, Reed et al. (2013) classified full
impact reporting practices of fair trade organizations into monetized and nonmonetized statements.
Reed et al. (2013) classification of monetized and non-monetized reporting can be
revised by incorporating new items of reporting such as accounts for fair trade
premium (distribution and its impact) under the monetized category and social rights
(such as equality, labour rights and female empowerment) under the non-monetized
category. Furthermore, from the perspective of new forms of accounting notions,
social accounting and reporting can be categorized into traditional and new
accounting tools. Table 1 allows us to visualize how new forms of accounting notions
are attempting to portray the social impact of doing business.
Table 1: Accounting and reporting by fair trade organisations
Traditional Accounting Tools
New Accounting Tools
Monetized
Profit and loss Account,
Social ROI, SVA Statement,
reporting
Income and Expenditure
EVA Statement, social premium
Account, Value Added
accounts,
Statement
Descriptive Statistics.
Non-monetized
Descriptive analysis,
Case Studies, Ethnographies
reporting
general social and
and Special Reports on female
(including
environmental performance empowerment, child labour,
narrative)
disclosures.
climate change, labour rights,
work environment etc.
While prior research explored reporting practices of fair trade organizations (Gray et
al., 1997, Dey, 2007, Nicholls, 2009) , accounting and accountability issues of
standard-setting bodies of the fair trade system received very little attention (with the
notable exception of Ullrich (2007) study). Therefore, prior research could not portray
how the fair trade umbrella organisations are utilizing new forms of accounting and
accountability notions to transform/translate their social mission into practice. To fill
this gap, this paper has explored the reporting of FLO International, one of the
largest and most widely-recognized far trade umbrella organizations that holds a
distinctive position within the fair trade network. Using Bourdieu‘s theoretical
concepts of field, habitus, symbolic capital and symbolic power, this paper has
attempted to shed light on how new forms of accounting practices are used to
transform the social mission of fair trade organizations.
3.2.
Legitimation and Symbolic Capital
The logic of buying fair trade products runs contrary to the concept of rational buying
behaviour and most efficient resource allocation, and thus it represents an anomaly
in consumers‘ buying behaviour (Archer and Fritsch, 2010). Researchers identified
that purchasing a fair trade product is a political decision whereby consumers vote
for doing ethical business (Lyon, 2006). Although fair trade organizations, like all
others, seek to legitimize their existence, anomalies of fair trade phenomena have
made it challenging for researchers to embrace a theory that is able to explain their
actions. Nicholls (Nicholls, 2009, Nicholls, 2010) has also addressed this challenge
from the perspective of legitimization efforts. Drawing upon Suchman (1995)
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Proceedings of 29th International Business Research Conference
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legitimacy typology, (Nicholls, 2010) demonstrated that fair trade organizations enjoy
a cognitive legitimacy surplus because of their unique social mission and
commitments. This surplus adds difficulties in deciding their purpose of reporting and
measuring performance (Nicholls, 2009).
Considering the complexities in fair trade phenomena (Archer and Fritsch, 2010), we
embrace the theoretical framework of a famous French sociologist and
anthropologist Pierre Bourdieu (1931 – 2001) to explore the legitimizing efforts of
Fairtrade International (FLO) through their accounting and accountability practices.
Extant literatures suggest that Bourdieu‘s theory, especially the notions of symbolic
capital and symbolic power, offers an interesting panorama view of the actions of the
organisations (Everett, 2002, Emirbayer and Johnson, 2008). Furthermore, Shenkin
and Coulson (2007) indicated that Bourdieu‘s meta-theory can provide a useful
framework to explore alternative approaches of accountability.
Bourdieu‘s theoretical framework integrates three theories: a theory of social
structure (the field), a theory of the individual (the habitus) and a theory of power
relations (different forms of capitals) (Bertrand et al., 2011). Here, the ‗field‘ is the
network of social relations and the ‗habitus‘ is the schemes of perception thoughts
and actions, whereas possession of economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capitals
act as the criteria in deciding social positions (legitimation) of an agent (Bourdieu,
1989). However, Bourdieu is not the first person to propose different forms of capital.
What is rather new is the concept of symbolic capital and power which is relational
and process oriented (Everett, 2002). Symbolic capital is an ultimate basis of power
for imposing a legitimate vision of the world which arises out of the other forms of
capital when the arbitrariness of the possession and accumulation of other form of
capitals are misrecognized or are deemed as legitimate (Everett, 2002, Bourdieu and
Wacquant, 1992). Thus, Bourdieu‘s theoretical framework views legitimacy as the
possession of different combination of capitals and is determined by the collective
actions of agents within a field which often takes the form of a struggle (Ramirez,
2001).
In exploring environmental accounting praxis through Bourdieu‘s theoretical
framework, Everett (2004) considered accounting as a language (Broadbent, 1998)
and, therefore, like all other languages it must be regarded as a mediator of power.
In his seminal paper he indicated that environmental account can be used as a
symbolic capital which enables the producers of these accounts (and reports) to gain
a good degree of symbolic power to play roles in reproduction and transformation of
social relations. According to his opinion, such accounts reproduce social relation
from both its consciousness and its implicitness. Therefore, social advantages can
be gained by using the language that is rare and sought after.
Following Everett (2004) argument, this paper embraces Bourdieu‘s concept of
symbolic capital and symbolic power to explore whether and how Fairtrade
International is using new forms of accounts and disclosures to legitimize the
distinctiveness of fair trading as compared to conventional trading. As the fair trade
movement originated from a common perception that the conventional trading
system could not incorporate social, environmental and ethical considerations in the
free market economy, it is important to explore how Fairtrade International is
employing its disclosures as symbolic capital to legitimize this fair trading.
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Proceedings of 29th International Business Research Conference
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4. Method
In line with the research question of this study, the thematic analysis method was
used with holistic coding to explore how social missions and strategies are reflected
in the disclosures of these organizations. Even though the content analysis method
was predominantly used to analyse disclosures, Beattie (2014) identified thematic
analysis as an emergent method of analysing accounting narratives which enabled
researchers to overcome the limitations of the content analysis method. As the
disclosures of fair trade organisations have not yet been investigated thoroughly, the
thematic analysis method with holistic coding is deemed to be appropriate for this
study. Annual reports, monitoring reports and other special purpose reports were
used as the sources of data. For data analysis, the first researcher read the whole
range of disclosures to identify the disclosures that support particular themes. Then
the identified disclosures were categorized according to the metrics (Table 1) of new
and traditional forms of full-impact reporting using holistic coding. However, this
process was not completely unstructured, as findings of previous literatures (different
forms of accounts) and Bourdieu‘s theoretical framework were used to extend the
existing concepts of full-impact reporting. To enhance the rigour of this study, data
analysis was refined and interpretation was confirmed by the second author.
5. Findings
Fairtrade International (FLO), established in 1997, is one of the largest fair trade
umbrella organizations that organizes the networks of regional organizations and
sets the fair trading standards and certifications process (Fairtrade International,
2013). The mission of this umbrella organization is:
To connect disadvantaged producers and consumers, promote fairer trading
conditions and empower producers to combat poverty, strengthen their
position and take more control over their lives.
Fairtrade International (FLO) maintains an association of three producer networks,
twenty-five Fairtrade organizations and the independent certification body of the
global Fairtrade system named FLOCERT. The certification mark owned by
Fairtrade International was recognized by ISEAL in 2007 as one of the seven
organizations that have reached the highest standards for defining ethical trade
(Fairtrade International, 2013). Being one of the largest fair trade umbrella
organizations, FLO International embraces a wide range of reporting practices.
Besides the annual review, FLO international regularly publishes monitoring and
evaluation reports, results of commissioned research and commodity benefits
(Fairtrade International, 2013). In addition to this, in order to fulfil their commitments,
this organization publishes position papers on a number of current topics that affect
producers and the world in general. These position papers address Fairtrade rules,
price structures, strategies and successes toward achieving their social missions.
Through the data analysis process discussed earlier, four broad categories of
themes emerged. Following are the findings under each category:
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Proceedings of 29th International Business Research Conference
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Monetized Reporting
Sales and Fair trade Premium (a way of understanding Economic capital)
The first themes to emerge from an analysis of the disclosures are sales growth and
fair trade premium distribution. Being responsible for representing the fair trading
system, Fairtrade International made extensive disclosures on sales of fair trade
products and Fairtrade premium distribution with descriptive statistics and narratives.
The annual review of Fairtrade International (FLO) repeatedly disclosed sales growth
(both by product and by region) and the total amount of Fairtrade premium
distribution for the year. More detailed disclosures were found in the ‗Monitoring the
Scope and Benefits of Fairtrade‘ Report. The fifth edition of this report contains
separate chapters (Chapters 5 & 6) to elaborate on both sales and Fairtrade
premium distributions. While annual progress remains the primary objective,
separate disclosures were made on ‗sales volume‘ and ‗Fairtrade premium receipts
and use‘ by region, by type of producer organizations and by product with numerical
and graphical presentations. In the case of the ‗Fairtrade premium use‘, disclosures
were provided on how utilizations of these premiums were categorised for each type
of organization (i.e. small producers, hired labour) and what percentage of premiums
were used for each category. Besides this, in analysing the Fairtrade product
performances, Fairtrade premium receipts were compared with sales volume of
significant certified products. In these discussions, percentage distributions of
Fairtrade premium use were disclosed for each category of product.
Figure 1: Disclosures from ‗Monitoring the Scope and Benefits of Fairtrade‘, fifth edition, 2013
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Proceedings of 29th International Business Research Conference
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Non-monetized Reporting
Network (a way of understanding Social capital)
The second theme to emerge from the analysis is the disclosures on the fair trade
network. One of the primary objectives of establishing Fairtrade International was to
organize the fair trade network and thus the social mission of this organization starts
with the idea: ―to connect…‖ Accordingly, a range of disclosures are found illustrating
the network coverage and its growth over the period. Among the seven major
performance indicators disclosed in the annual review 2012-13, four were related to
the expansion of the Fairtrade network in one year. Additionally, disclosures on
―powerful partnerships‖ emphasized initiatives undertaken to ‗push the Fairtrade
movement forward‘ across the world, to create new markets for Fairtrade products
and to engage commercial partners, NGOs and campaigners with its targets. In
‗Monitoring the Scope and Benefits of Fairtrade‘, the report discloses descriptive
statistics, facts, figures and ethnographic studies on the growth of Fairtrade
producers, Fairtrade producers‘ organizations and Fairtrade regions separately along
with a comparative discussion (Chapter 3, 4 and 8). For this, the monitoring report
frequently used the world map to show Fairtrade‘s network coverage on each of the
reporting agendas.
Figure 2: Disclosures from Fairtrade International 2012-13 annual report.
Long-term Partnership (a way of understanding Cultural Capital)
Followed by the network, the third theme to emerge from the analysis is related to
building a long-term partnership with disadvantaged producers. The Charter of
Fairtrade Principles (2009) repeatedly emphasized the building of long-term
partnerships with producers. Accordingly, the annual review 2012-13 provided
disclosures on ―powering up producers‖ where highlights on the ‗Access to finance‘,
‗Climate change adaptation and mitigation‘, ‗Child labour‘ and ‗Workers‘ rights and
trade union relations‘ were provided, along with the hyperlink to detailed reports on
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Proceedings of 29th International Business Research Conference
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each program. All these disclosures were narratives that stated strategies,
commitments and achievements. However, in relation to building partnerships, the
‗Monitoring the Scope and Benefits of Fairtrade‘ report provided some distinctive
disclosures. Here, disclosures were provided on the criteria of using Fairtrade
premium for the long-term development of the individual as well as producers‘
organizations along with some ethnographic studies on the impact of assessments of
Fairtrade premium usage.
Figure 3: Disclosures from Fairtrade International 2012-13 annual report.
Empowerment and Emancipation (a way of understanding Symbolic Capital)
The fourth and final theme that emerged from the analysis is producers‘
empowerment and emancipation. In fact, this theme emerged in relation to the three
themes discussed above. The mission of Fairtrade International used two unique
phrases: ―empower producers‖ and ―take more control over life‖ and thus
differentiated Fairtrade from conventional trading system. Accordingly, from annual
reviews to monitoring reports, positioning papers, news etc., disclosures emphasized
the benefits that producers are receiving from fair trading. For this, disclosures
predominantly took the form of case studies, ethnographies backed by statistical
evidence based on survey results.
Throughout the wide ranges of disclosures, the presence of evocative words,
phrases, figures and photos are significantly noticeable. For example, the annual
review 2012-13 was named ―Unlocking the power of many‖. Following this title,
disclosures were provided under the headings ―Powering up producers‖, ―Powerful
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Proceedings of 29th International Business Research Conference
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partnerships‖, ―Learning to grow‖ and so on. In this report, the certification mark of
this organization was claimed as the most widely recognized label of Fairtrade,
although this was not backed by any survey result. Furthermore, each of the
chapters in the ‗Monitoring the Scope and Benefits of Fairtrade‘ report starts with a
happy smiling face and ends up with case results on impact assessments. Even in
the case of position papers, topics covered workers‘ rights strategies, food miles,
poverty reduction and trade, Fairtrade contribution to more sustainable world, child
labour, climate change etc., and discuss how Fairtrade addresses these issues and,
to some extent, how their activities are evaluated by the researchers.
Figure 4: Disclosures from Fairtrade International 2012-13 annual report and ‗Monitoring the Scope and
Benefits of Fairtrade‘, fifth edition, 2013
Figure 5: Extract from position paper, ―poverty reduction and trade: a vehicle to combat poverty‖, May 2011
The finding of this study thus suggests that being the representative of the fair trade
system, Fairtrade International (FLO) illustrated the possession of different forms of
capital (i.e. economic, social, cultural) by disclosing achievements of the fair trade
system in terms of sales growth and Fairtrade premiums distributions, networking
and building long-term partnerships with producers. What received importance in all
these disclosures were the benefits that the fair trade system is generating in favour
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Proceedings of 29th International Business Research Conference
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of producers by mobilizing their capital. In other words, entire disclosures were
focused on giving a sense of how producers are achieving ―empowerment and
emancipation‖ and disclosures on sales, Fairtrade premiums, network, and long-term
partnerships were utilized to demonstrate such empowerment and emancipation. For
this, descriptive statistics were the only tool of monetised form of disclosures, where
narratives were largely used for disclosing strategies, targets, case studies and
ethnographies. Here it is important to note that all of these demonstrations of
achievements were not attained by Fairtrade International (FLO) as a single
organization. Rather these were achieved from collective actions of the members
within the fair trade network.
Sales and Fairtrade Premiums
(Economic Capital)
 Descriptive statistics
 Case studies (impact
assessments on premium
distribution)


Network (Social Capital)



Descriptive statistics
Narratives (targets,
strategies, achievements)
pictures
Empowerment and
Emancipation
(Symbolic Capital)
Narratives (impact
assessments, strategies,
achievements)
Pictures/ photos/ symbols
Long-term Partnerships
(Cultural Capital)
 Case studies and
ethnographies (women
empowerment, child
labour, climate change
adaptation program)
Figure 6: Different forms of capital and the corresponding reporting tools used in FLO‘s disclosures
In contrast to the image of fair trade portrayed by Fairtrade International (FLO),
researchers of different disciplines are uncovering the scenario in a different way.
One stream of researchers (Dey, 2007, Jaffee and Howard, 2010, Huybrechts and
Nicholls, 2013) indicated that intermediary organisations are struggling to incorporate
the social mission of fair trade into their business model which in turn deviates these
organizations from the social mission. Another stream of literatures (Sutton, 2013,
Reed et al., 2013, Cramer et al., 2014, Lyon, 2010) identified that beneficiaries of fair
trade are not getting equal access to the benefits. However, in response to these
criticisms, neither substantive disclosures explaining the activities of the intermediary
organizations, nor disclosures on challenges that members in this field are facing in
operationalizing the mission (negative case analysis) were found. Moreover,
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Proceedings of 29th International Business Research Conference
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emerging monetized disclosure tools for full-impact reporting, for instance, the social
ROI, SVA statement, or EVA Statements, were not used by these organizations to
demonstrate the impact of fair trade. Therefore, in comparing the concerns raised
over fair trading practices and the disclosures of Fairtrade International, it is apparent
that the fair trade organizations are more inclined to provide attractive pictures,
symbols of progress and the positive impact of their activities, graphical
presentations, descriptive statistics, case studies, and simple narratives in their
disclosures, rather than a comprehensive disclosure that is able to portray a
complete picture of the performance of all the players within this field.
Here, using Bourdieu‘s concept of symbolic power imposing a legitimate vision of the
world, it can be argued that Fairtrade International (FLO) attempts to uphold the
image of fair trading in ensuring development through trade. Accordingly, strategies
and success stories in line with social missions were used as symbolic capital of fair
trade that is able to portray a legitimate version of trading. In other words, social
missions of ensuring producers‘ empowerment and emancipation allow the fair
trading system to stand on the legitimate ground of establishing an equitable trading
system, which, in turn, offers symbolic power to achieve a dominant position in the
international trading system. For this, disclosures (descriptive statistics, simple
narratives and ethnographic case studies) were used as a mediator of such power.
Following Everett‘s (2004) argument, here, disclosures were employed as symbolic
capital to reproduce social relations from both its consciousness and it‘s taken-forgranted-ness or implicitness. As the social mission of fair trade is rare and highly
sought after, translating this mission into descriptive statistics and narratives is able
to form a kind of intellectual bias (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992), a bias that lead us
to interprets the world with theoretical logic rather than practical logic and thus
distracts us from the concrete set of problems to be solved (Everett, 2004).
6. Conclusion
The paper examines disclosures practiced by Fairtrade International (FLO) to
provide insights on whether and how new forms of accounts emerge to translate/
transform social mission. Although prior studies raise concerns over the activities of
some specific fair trade organizations, those studies have not shed light on how
Fairtrade umbrella organizations, as a representative of trading, are practicing their
accountability toward their mission. Using thematic analysis, this paper found that
this umbrella organization is more inclined to capitalize attractive statistics and
success stories as symbols of ‗fair trade‘ than substantively disclosing all the
important facets of their activities. The exponential sales growth of fair trade products
indicates that consumers place their trust in the ―Fairtrade label‖ which is indicative
of the state of ―intellectual bias‖ (Everett, 2004) of the consumers. This indicates that
in spite of questions of legitimacy that are arising about fair trading practices, the
symbolic reality of ensuring development through trade is very much shaped by the
way the dominant fair trade umbrella organization is portraying the image of a
legitimate version of trading. However, as this is the first known paper attempting to
investigate the accountability practices of Fairtrade International (FLO) as a
representative of this emergent field of trading, findings of this paper are limited to
the disclosure practices of this particular organization. Accordingly, there is scope for
future research to more comprehensively investigate the propositions of this study on
the accounting and accountability notion within Fairtrade in greater detail.
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