Quality versus Solidarity: Third Wave Coffee and Cooperative Values among 
Smallholding Maya Farmers in Guatemala

Fischer, Edward F.; Victor, Bart; Asturias de Barrios, Linda

doi:10.1080/03066150.2019.1694511

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

Quality versus Solidarity: Third Wave Coffee and Cooperative Values among Smallholding Maya Farmers in Guatemala

MPS-Authors

/persons/resource/persons203587

Fischer, Edward F.
Projekte von Gastwissenschaftlern und Postdoc-Stipendiaten, MPI for the Study of Societies, Max Planck Society;
Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA;

External Resource

https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2019.1694511
(Publisher version)

Fulltext (restricted access)

There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.

Fulltext (public)

There are no public fulltexts stored in PuRe

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Fischer, E. F., Victor, B., & Asturias de Barrios, L. (2021). Quality versus Solidarity: Third Wave Coffee and Cooperative Values among Smallholding Maya Farmers in Guatemala. Journal of Peasant Studies, 48(3), 640-657. doi:10.1080/03066150.2019.1694511.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0005-82B4-C

Abstract

This article examines how a market shift toward high-end (‘Third Wave') coffee creates tension between two producer models of economic engagement: cooperatives, with mechanisms that promote solidarity to minimize risks, and ‘open’ markets, with extraordinary rewards for those able to grow the highest quality coffees. Most Maya farmers value cooperative organization and yet a growing number are defecting, unable to forgo the premiums intermediaries offer for their best beans. This is a complicated moral and economic situation in which the Third Wave focus on single-origin coffees forces changes in relations of production that undermine the cooperative preferences of smallholding farmers.