Abstract
Standards are everywhere. Distinct social spheres such as agriculture, education, medicine, and sports have become the subject of standardization. Corresponding standards have evolved without the enforcement of the hierarchical authority of states, and they “help regulate and calibrate social life by rendering the modern world equivalent across cultures, time, and geography” (Timmermans & Epstein, 2010, 70). In this context, Loya and Boli (1999) highlight that global and private standardizers homogenize the technical base of the world to facilitate unrestricted exchange. As a consequence, a multitude of technical standards is the basis for organizational practices and their coordination. Nonetheless, standardization is not only about technical compatibility and interoperability: some standards are used to differentiate by making largely particular claims (Busch, 2011). Nontechnical standards are often designed to make a difference. Well-known examples include sustainability programmes, such as Organic Fair Trade1 or the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), that aim to offer alternatives to the conventional array of products. In contrast to the usual prevalence of one technical standard, multiple nontechnical standards often coexist (Reinecke et al., 2012) and can easily be challenged by competitors (Leveque, 1995).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahrne, G., Brunsson, N., & Garsten, C. (2000). Standardizing through organization. In N. Brunsson, & B. Jacobsson (eds) A World of Standards, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 50–70.
Aravind, D., & Christmann, P. (2011). Decoupling of standard implementation from certification. Business Ethics Quarterly, 21, 73–102.
Arnold, N., & Hasse, R. (2012). The Escalation of Governance: Standards in the Fair Trade Sector. Unpublished paper presented at the 28th EGOS Colloquium, 5–7 July 2012, Helsinki, Finland.
Bartley, T. (2007). Institutional emergence in an era of globalization: the rise of transnational private regulation of labor and environmental conditions. American Journal of Sociology, 113, 297–351.
Becchetti, L., & Huybrechts, B. (2008). The dynamics of fair trade as a mixed-form market. Journal of Business Ethics, 81, 733–750.
Beck, N., & Walgenbach, P. (2005). Technical efficiency or adaptation to institutionalized expectations? the adoption of ISO 9000 standards in the German mechanical engineering industry? Organization Science, 26, 841–866.
Boiral, O. (2007). Corporate greening through ISO 14001: a rational myth?”. Organization Science, 18, 127–146.
Boström, M. (2006). Regulatory credibility and authority through inclusiveness: standardization organizations in cases of eco-labelling. Organization, 13, 345–367.
Bowker, G. C., & Star, S. L. (1999). Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bromley, P. (2014). Comparing Minority and Human Rights Discourse in Social Science Textbooks: Cross-National Patterns, 1970–2008. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 39(1), 1–44.
Brousseau, É., & Bessy, C. (1997). Brevet, Protection Et Diffusion Des Connaissances: Une Relecture Néo-Institutionnelle Des Propriétés De La Règle De Droit. Revue d”économie industrielle, 79, 233–254.
Brunsson, N., & Jacobsson, B. (2000). A World of Standards. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brunsson, N., Rasche, A., & Seidl, D. (2012). The dynamics of standardization: three perspectives on standards in organization studies. Organization Studies, 33, 613–632.
Busch, L. (2011). Standards: Recipes for Reality, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
Christmann, P., & Taylor, G. (2006). Firm self-regulation through international certifiable standards: determinants of symbolic versus substantive implementation. Journal of International Business Studies, 37, 863–878.
Clark, P., & Rowlinson, M. (2004). The treatment of history in organisation studies: towards an “historic turn”? Business History, 46, 331–352.
Conroy, M. E. (2007). Branded! How the Certification Revolution is Transforming Global Corporations. Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers.
Djelic, M.-L., & Sahlin-Andersson, K. (2006). Transnational Governance: Institutional Dynamics of Regulation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
FLO-Cert (2013). ISO 65 Accreditation. Accessed at http://www.flo-cert.net/flo-cert/40. html on 6 May 2013.
Fransen, L. (2012). Multi-stakeholder governance and voluntary programme interactions: legitimation politics in the institutional design of corporate social responsibility. Socio-Economic Review, 10, 163–192.
Fridell, G. (2004). The fair trade network in historical perspective. Canadian Journal of Development Studies/Revue canadienne d”études du développement, 25, 411–428.
Giovannucci, D., & Ponte, S. (2005). Standards as a new form of social contract? Sustainability initiatives in the coffee industry. Food Policy, 30, 284–301.
Hafner-Burton, E. M., & Tsutsui, K. (2005). Human rights in a globalizing world: the paradox of empty promises. American Journal of Sociology, 110, 1373–1411.
Hallström, K. T., & Boström, M. (2010). Transnational Multi-Stakeholder Standardization: Organizing Fragile Non-State Authority. Cheltenham, UK/Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Hanseth, O., & Monteiro, E. (1997). Inscribing behaviour in information infrastructure standards. Accounting, Management and Information Technologies, 7, 183–211.
Hatanaka, M., & Busch, L. (2008). Third-party certification in the global agrifood system: an objective or socially mediated governance mechanism? Sociologia Ruralis, 48, 73–91.
ISEAL Alliance (2013). Impacts Code. Accessed at http://www.isealalliance.org/our-work/defining-credibility/codes-of-good-practice/impacts-code on 8 November 2012.
ISO/IEC (2004). Standardization and Related Activities - General Vocabulary. ISO/IEC Guide 2:2004 (E/F/R). Accessed at http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_iec_guide_2_2004.pdf on 8 July 2013.
Jacobsson, B. (2000). Standardization and expert knowledge. In N. Brunsson, & B. Jacobsson (eds) A World of Standards, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 40–49.
Kott, S., & Droux, J. (2013). Globalizing Social Rights: The International Labour Organization and Beyond. Houndmills, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lengwiler, M. (2009). Double standards: the history of standardizing humans in modern life insurance. In M. Lampland, & S. L. Star (eds) Standards and Their Stories: How Quantifying, Classifying, and Formalizing Practices Shape Everyday Life, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 95–122.
Leonardi, P. M. (2012). Materiality, sociomateriality, and socio-technical systems: what do these terms mean? how are they different? In P. M. Leonardi, B. A. Nardi, & J. Kallinikos (eds) Materiality and Organizing: Social Interaction in a Technological World, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 25–48.
Leveque, F. (1995). Standards and standards-setting processes in the field of the environment. In R. W. Hawkins, R. Mansell, & J. Skea (eds) Standards, Innovation and Competitivness. The Politics and Economics of Standards in Natural and Technical Environments, Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 105–121.
Loya, T. A., & Boli, J. (1999). Standardization in the world polity: technical rationality over power. In J. Boli, & G. M. Thomas (eds) Constructing World Culture: International Nongovernmental Organizations since 1875, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 169–197.
Meyer, J. W., & Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: tormal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 340–363.
Mohan, S. (2010). Fair Trade without the Froth. A Dispassionate Economic Analysis of “Fair Trade”. London: The Institute of Economic Affairs.
Murphy, C., & Yates, J. (2009). ISO, the International Organization for Standardization: Global Governance Through Voluntary Consensus. Abingdon, Oxon/New York, NY: Routledge.
Nelson, V., & Pound, B. (2009). The Last Ten Years: a Comprehensive Review of the Literature on the Impact of Fairtrade. London, University of Greenwich: Natural Resources Institute.
Orlikowski, W. J. (2007). Sociomaterial practices: exploring technology at work. Organization Studies, 28, 1435–1448.
Orlikowski, W. J. (2010). The sociomateriality of organisational life: considering tech-nology in management research. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 34, 125–141.
Raynolds, L. T. (2009). Mainstreaming fair trade coffee: from partnership to traceability. World Development, 37, 1083–1093.
Raynolds, L. T., & Long, M. A. (2007). Fair/alternative trade: historical and empirical dimensions. In L. T. Raynolds, D. Murray, & J. Wilkinson (eds) Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization, London/New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 15–32.
Reinecke, J., Manning, S., & von Hagen, O. (2012). The emergence of a standards market: multiplicity of sustainability standards in the global coffee industry. Organization Studies, 33, 791–814.
Renard, M.-C., & Pérez-Grovas, V. (2007). Fair trade in Mexico: at the Center of the debates. In L. T. Raynolds, D. L. Murray, & J. Wilkinson (eds) Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization, London/New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 138–156.
Ruben, R. (2008). The Impact of Fair Trade. Wageningen, Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers.
Sandholtz, K. W. (2012). Making standards stick: a theory of coupled vs. decoupled compliance. Organization Studies, 33, 655–679.
Star, S. L. (1999). The ethnography of infrastructure. American Behavioral Scientist, 43, 377–391.
Star, S. L., & Lampland, M. (2009). Reckoning with standards. In M. Lampland, & S. L. Star (eds) Standards and Their Stories: How Quantifying, Classifying, and Formalizing Practices Shape Everyday Life, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 3–24.
Tassey, G. (1995). The roles of standards as technology infrastructure. In R. W. Hawkins, R. Mansell, & J. Skea (eds) Standards, Innovation and Competitivness. The Politics and Economics of Standards in Natural and Technical Environments, Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 161–171.
Timmermans, S., & Epstein, S. (2010). A world of standards but not a standard world: toward a sociology of standards and standardization. Annual Review of Sociology, 36, 69–89.
Valkila, J., & Nygren, A. (2010). Impacts of fair trade certification on coffee farmers, cooperatives, and laborers in Nicaragua. Agriculture and Human Values, 27, 321–333.
Vilnai-Yavetz, I., & Rafaeli, A. (2006). Managing artifacts to avoid artifact myopia. In M. G. Pratt, & A. Rafaeli (eds) Artifacts and Organizations: Beyond Mere Symbolism, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 9–22.
WFTO, FLO, FLO-Cert (2011). Fair Trade Glossary. Accessed at http://www.fairtrade.net/fileadmnin/user_upload/content/2009/about_fairtrade/2011–06-28_fair-trade-glossary_WFTO-FLO-FLOCERT.pdf on 3 November 2012.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Nadine Arnold
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Arnold, N. (2014). Evolution of Non-Technical Standards: The Case of Fair Trade. In: de Vaujany, FX., Mitev, N., Laniray, P., Vaast, E. (eds) Materiality and Time. Technology, Work and Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137432124_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137432124_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-49239-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-43212-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)