The Darjeeling distinction : labor and justice on fair-trade tea plantations in India / Sarah Besky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Besky, Sarah, 1981-

Series:

California studies in food and culture ; 47.

California studies in food and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tea trade--India--Darjeeling (District).

Tea trade.

Tea plantations--India--Darjeeling (District).

Tea plantations.

Competition, Unfair--India--Darjeeling (District).

Competition, Unfair.

India--Darjeeling (District).

Physical Description:

xx, 233 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2014]

Summary:

Nestled in the Himalayan foothills of northeastern India, Darjeeling is synonymous with some of the finest and most expensive tea in the world. It is also home to a violent movement for regional autonomy that, like the tea industry, dates back to the days of colonial rule. In this nuanced ethnography, Sarah Besky narrates the lives of tea workers in Darjeeling and explores how notions of fairness, value, and justice shifted with the rise of fair-trade practices and postcolonial separatist politics. This is the first book to explore how fair-trade operates in the context of large-scale plantations. Readers in a variety of disciplines-anthropology, sociology, geography, environmental studies, and food studies-will gain a critical perspective on how plantation life is changing as Darjeeling struggles to reinvent its signature commodity for twenty-first-century consumers. The Darjeeling Distinction challenges both fair-trade policy and practice, exposing how these initiatives often fail to consider the larger environmental, historical, and sociopolitical forces that shape the lives of the people they intend to support. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction : reinventing the plantation for the 21st century

Darjeeling

Plantation

Property

Fairness

Sovereignty

Conclusion : is something better than nothing?.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780520277380

0520277384

9780520277397

0520277392

OCLC:

852681824