Abstract
This study examines the daily practice offair trade. More specifically, I investigate the text-based and discursiveforms of ruling that guide somefair trade behavior. Openended in-depth interviews were conducted with fair trade business owners and customers in an effort to better understandfairt radep articipationf rom an insider'sp erspective. Institutional ethnography is the theoretical and methodologicalframework used throughout this investigation. Analysis reveals how 'free-trade " concepts such as national identity, paternalism and the construction of the Other based on global difference are embedded in some informants' moral economy perceptions and discussions offair trade. Through textual and discursive relations with fair trade literature and other participants, informants discuss the ways in which they appropriate 'free-trade " concepts and reproduce them within fair trade discourses. A discussion of why these findings are problematicforfair trade business owners, consumers and activists alike is addressed in this study.