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20
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Introduction
I am a sociologist with more than a dozen publications on social justice and sustainable development. Having worked in several world regions, I possess expertise in fair trade studies and am interested in food, energy, and water. My work centers feminist, antiracist, and decolonial approaches that challenge conventional development thought/praxis. I am skilled in the use of qualitative, mixed, and participatory action research (PAR) methods that support multi-paradigmatic knowledge building.
Current institution
Publications
Publications (20)
This article joins feminist theory with testimony to deliver a manifesto for development and change. I begin with a review of the intersectional, postcolonial, and decolonial literatures, showing how transnational feminisms are rethinking development from below. Next, I share my growth as a white feminist scholar engaged with antiracist and decolon...
Energy Democracies for Sustainable Futures explores how our dominant carbon and nuclear energy assemblages shape conceptions of participation, risk, and in/securities, and how they might be reengineered to deliver justice and democratic participation in transitioning energy systems.
Sustainable development scholars are employing participatory action research to establish platforms for collaborative inquiry and knowledge integration. While this action research tradition supports the revitalization of scholarly influence in sustainability policy and practice, its recent expansion into new topics and disciplines suggests the need...
Development ethics emerged as a joint critique of economic development research and practice, giving rise to three alternative traditions: human development, sustainable development, and participatory development. The ethical issues surrounding the mainstreaming of these schools have implications for investigators. In this article, I revisit the tr...
The small-scale producers of Wupperthal reside in a historic mission outpost at the geographical origin for Rooibos tea. Drawing from their experience, this article identifies three features of sustainable heritage development: legacy, enterprise, and resilience. First, I document the formation of Wupperthal and its tradition of artisanal productio...
How can sociopolitical theories inform participatory action research and what are the implications for development? I answer this question by reflecting on a research, training, and networking project that I conducted with small-scale rooibos tea farmers in postapartheid South Africa. My research team was comprised of community-based farmer leaders...
This policy brief considers the impact of sustainability standards and certifications on production and trade arrangements. While the certification revolution is making the economic case for sustainable development, mixed producer outcomes demonstrate the need for fair trade and other market-based sustainability movements to coordinate with industr...
This article employs gendered livelihoods analysis and participatory methods to examine the politics of development among small-scale rooibos tea farmers in a rural coloured area of southwestern South Africa. Differentiating between sources of conflict and cohesion, I discuss how communities navigated resource scarcity, unstable markets, and shifti...
This article discusses the potential for humanizing production and trade relations by extending action research to multilateral commodity networks. Participatory action research and Fairtrade certification both promote social justice, but the first faces difficulties in terms of scalability, while the second experiences challenges in terms of produ...
Sustainability standards and certifications increasingly represent multi-billion-dollar brands that partner with corporate firms. We employ the case of South Africa's Rooibos tea industry to analyze the impacts of this shift. Examining five sustainability initiatives, our research focuses on small-scale farmers and the power dynamics shaping their...
Fair trade scholars and professionals have recognized the importance of capacity building to producers, but few studies have examined the provision of services. This article asks whether support networks provide certified producers with the capacity needed to thrive in markets. Drawing from ethnographic action research conducted with South African...
African Fairtrade is challenging market and development practices historically framed by the institutions of slavery, colonialism, and apartheid. This chapter draws from the scholarly literature, organizational interviews, and fieldwork with small-scale rooibos tea farmers to examine these efforts at three levels of analysis: regional, national, a...
This chapter analyzes Fair Trade's contributions and challenges in developing alternative production and marketing networks. We focus particularly on movement and market dynamics as they relate to Africa since this region is currently experiencing the most rapid growth in the production of Fair Trade certified commodities. Our analysis highlights t...
Latvia's agriculture sector remains economically important despite 50 years of central Soviet planning as well as rapid reorientation to a market economy after independence in 1991 and accession into the European Union in 2004. At independence, many Latvians embraced a local organic farming movement which has evolved during an era of sweeping econo...
