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Fairtrade has experienced tremendous growth in the past years, but a lot of voices also criticize the initiative. Amartya Sen argues in his book "The Idea of Justice" (2009) that justice should be understood as existing to a matter of degree, it should be evaluated along a continuum. Rather than looking for principles, which define the perfectly just society, one should compare unjust situations and choose the less unjust. His theory is a hands-on approach. This book is linking Sen s justice theory and Fairtrade. It is concerned with the question, in how far Fairtrade contributes to more (global) justice. The data, consisting of a substantial literature research and two expert interviews, has been analyzed by a thematic analysis. Amartya Sen s most important concepts of Comparing, Plural Grounding, Objective Public Reasoning and Justice on a Global Scale are linked with Fairtrade critique and used to discuss some challenges Fairtrade faces.

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Elisabeth Wallner, MA. Born in 1989 in the Austrian countryside. Degree in "International Development", University of Vienna. Currently working at Fairtrade Austria. Passionate about traveling, global justice and making trade fairer.

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