27.-29.06.22: 3-day workshop at the University of Victoria
The long-awaited workshop (twice postponed due to Covid) took place in June 2022 at the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies. We welcomed 11 in-person and 13 online participants – 10 academics and 14 practitioners – to discuss the research agenda set out in our article and outline future collaboration opportunities. Over 3 days, we discussed the diversity of trading companies and entrepreneurs, the necessity of a common vision of sustainable trade, the importance of understanding motivations and (diverse forms of) power of trading companies to enact change, and the challenge to ensure data sharing, traceability and transparency at scale. We further discussed what role trading companies could take in the future to be even more impactful sustainability actors on the ground, how academia could help to reach those goals, and agreed on two outputs we will continue to work on together aimed at practitioners and academics.
A summary of our insights can be downloaded below.
08.04.2021: ISA Roundtable
We organized a roundtable discussion at the 2021 International Studies Association conference to initiate an academic conversation about our proposed research agenda. Participants include Peter Dauvergne (UBC), Stefano Ponte (CBS), Tim Bartley (WUSL), Claire Cutler (UVic), Philip Schleifer (UvA), Luc Fransen (UvA), Maja Tampe (ESADE), Merel Serdijn (UvA), Thomas Dietz (Uni Münster), and Benjamin Cashore (NUS).
2021-2022: SSHRC Connection workshops
Funded by a SSHRC Connection grant, we will organize a series of virtual and in-person engagement sessions with the goal of gathering and exchanging academic and practitioner knowledge on the advantages and challenges of traders as sustainability governance actors, and co-create a transdisciplinary research agenda.
Given COVID, we will kick off 2021 with some first virtual activities, and aim to organize an in-person workshop in Victoria, B.C. in July 2022.
Initial participants include representatives from companies involved in trading cocoa, palm oil, and coffee; academics; and experts from NGOs and consultancies. Contact us if you are interested in also participating!
Traders and Sustainability 