Serve and Certify
Paradoxes of Service Work in Organic-Coffee Certification
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4476208 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tad Mutersbaugh (University of Kentucky, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 533-552 |
| Publication date | 2004-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1068/d396 |
| OpenAlex | W1974556471 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 38 |
| References cited | 36 |
In this paper I argue that certified-organic inspection agents play a key role in reworking transnational organic-product certification standards to the unique conditions found within Mexican (Oaxacan) organic-coffee producer villages. First, I document the steps through which transnational product-certification norms, under the International Organization for Standardization guide 65 rubric, are codified as practical standards by organic-product certifying agencies. These standards are found to embed contradictions between inclusiveness and transparency that lead to difficulties in field-level implementation: in essence, practices required to make organic production legible to transnational certifiers often have the opposite effect of making certification unintelligible at the village level. Second, I show how field-level certification inspectors, working under contract to certifying agencies, cooperate with village organic extension agents to make certification legible both to villagers and to transnational certifiers (thereby helping to ensure its success). A corollary methodological argument is made to the effect that the importance of field-level work becomes evident when inspectors are viewed-through the optic of labor-process ethnography-as 'interactive service employees'. This work thus points to a need to understand with greater clarity how standards are enacted in local contexts and support the efforts of field-level workers with the often-difficult task of making standards legible
Business · Certification · CLARITY · Political science · Product (mathematics · Public relations · Service (business · Standardization · Transparency (behavior · Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Law · Organic Food and Agriculture · Marketing
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Environmental Certification and Eco‐Labeling
Quality revolutions, solidarity networks, and sustainability innovations
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Can origin labels re-shape relationships along international supply chains? – The case of Café de Colombia
Are Sustainable Coffee Certifications Enough to Secure Farmer Livelihoods? The Millenium Development Goals and Nicaragua's Fair Trade Cooperatives
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Building the local food movement in Chiapas, Mexico
The triple burden
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Environmental certification of forests
How close do you like your coffee? - Examining proximity and its effects in relationship coffee models
Smallholder participation and certification of organic farm products in Mexico
Organic rural development
Certified organic agriculture in Mexico
Die Produzenten in moralisierten Märkten
Geographies of exchange and circulation
Standardizing sustainable development? The Forest Stewardship Council’s plantation policy review process as neoliberal environmental governance
Why do some Participatory Guarantee Systems emerge, become effective, and are sustained over time, while others fail? An application of the Ostrom social-ecological system framework
Incorporation of different types of farmers into different coffee markets
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Re-mining the collections
The aesthetic politics of taste
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Dolphin-Safe Tuna from California to Thailand
When Participation Meets Empowerment
As qualidades singulares dos orgânicos
Contested Coffees
Contradiction, intervention, and urban low carbon transitions
The 'Conventionalisation' Thesis Reconsidered
Fair trade coffee exchanges and community economies
Fighting Standards with Standards
Off and Out
Auditing the subjects of fair trade
Qualifying tradition
Manufacturing Consent
Shady Practices
Biodiversity Conservation in Traditional Coffee Systems of Mexico
Secretaries talk
The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Paper))
Regional Advantage
Capital
Estudios Sociologicos
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Noble goals and challenging terrain
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Social Dimensions of Organic Coffee Production in Mexico
Re-embedding global agriculture
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Crossing the Factory Frontier
Changing Scripts at Work
The Cost of Caring
Emotional Labor in Service Work
Migration, common property, and communal labor
The moral economy of grades and standards
Everyday Forms of State Formation
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Consumer/Producer Links in Fair Trade Coffee Networks
Cofradías and Cargos
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Global Processes and Local Identity among Mayan Coffee Growers in Chiapas, Mexico
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| Unique citing works | 38 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,81 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2025 (21) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 38 |