Negotiating partnerships, understanding power: doing action research on Chilean Fairtrade wine value chains

Sales in Fairtrade wine have been growing rapidly worldwide, and the UK is the most important market. This paper reports on an action research project undertaken with different economic actors along the value chain of a Chilean Fairtrade wine. The aim of the interdisciplinary project was to explore how the internet and tracking and tracing technologies could be used to render value chains more transparent for consumers and producers. An internet interface combined with a barcode-based data retrieval system could allow actors in the value chain to call up economic, social and environmental information about a product. Early findings from the action research process show that while supermarkets are the lead firms in the Fairtrade wine chain in terms of economic power, the producers and the Fairtrade certification body wield 'moral power' over other actors in the value chain. Fairtrade producers and the Fairtrade certification body relate to each other in cycles of mutual recognition, thus underpinning each others' legitimacy and moral power. The paper argues that action research, in particular the positionality of the researcher team as a collaboration partner, can lead to a better understanding of the nature of linkages and power relations between the economic actors in value chains.     

FREQUENCY AND MAGNITUDE OF BEDLOAD TRANSPORT IN A MOUNTAIN RIVER

Magnitude and frequency of bedload transport was examined in the Lainbach River, Bavaria, using magnetically tagged particles. During the study, 18 small to moderate events and one major event occurred. About 1 per cent of the flow period exceeded the entrainment threshold and at least once every year about 50 per cent of the tagged particles were mobile. Themajor event which occurred during the study period resulted in the deposition of a thick layer of sediment in parts of the channel and passive burial of most of the recovered particles. The step–pool pattern, which characterized the study site prior to the large event, was obliterated. However, the channel recovered quickly and has returned to a new step–pool pattern. The event changed the boundary conditions by increasing the availability of loose sediment and creating higher river-bed slopes in reaches between breached check dams. As a result, movement of individual particles measured for events of both the same magnitude and duration, occurring before and after the large event, yielded different values. For events which occurred after the large event, the range and the mean distance of movement were about ten times higher.