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Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2008

Ethics in French wine cooperatives : part of a social movement ?

Résumé

Challenged by the development of Fair Trade and ethical sourcing and confronted with an ongoing crisis in the regional wine industry, wine cooperatives in Languedoc in the south of France are addressing their corporate identity : should an ethical approach to corporate responsibility be part of a marketing strategy or should it from the basis of a larger, renewed collective project ? Fair Trade and ethical sourcing are concerned with equity, solidarity and empowerment and so preference is given to democratic groups of producers. In the case of agrifood supply chains, Southern producer groups involved in these new trade relations are cooperatives, and their promotion of solidarity and small-scale producers’ empowerment is not questioned. Since they share the same principles and values, some Northern wine cooperatives are in tested in taking part in overall Fair Trade and ethical sourcing movement, but find they need to 'earn' recognition. Puzzled by the numerous issues that participation in the Fair Trade and ethical movements raises, some French wine cooperatives directors have asked social scientists to assess their capacity to respond to these new challenges. The first part of this chapter sets out an analytical framework designed to assess the different aspects of ethics that may be at work in organisations such as cooperatives. In the second part, the analysis is illustrated through a study of the history of wine cooperatives in Languedoc from their inception up to the 1980s. The study highlights their relation to the major social movements at the beginning of their existence, and demonstrates how the principles that were prevalent in the early years are similar to those that form the basis of the current Fair Trade movement. This historical study also shows how the second segment of history examined here, which lies between the early and current periods, displayed a cooperative movement tightly framed by the productivist paradigm prevailing at the societal level after the1960s. Cooperative ethics have thus altered from one period to another in response to wider economic and social change. The third part of the chapter presents the current situation and analyses how the nature and realisation of cooperative ethics are changing once again. Finally, the nature of an ethical project and the current conditions for its development in French wine cooperatives is discussed and operational proposals are suggested.
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Dates et versions

hal-02823932 , version 1 (06-06-2020)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-02823932 , version 1
  • PRODINRA : 19822

Citer

Yuna Chiffoleau, Fabrice Dreyfus, Jean-Marc Touzard. Ethics in French wine cooperatives : part of a social movement ?. Creating food futures : trade, ethics and the environment, Gower Applied Business Research, 2008, Management - Reihe Corporate Social Responsiblity, 978-0-7546-4907-6. ⟨hal-02823932⟩
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