Dr Alastair Smith - Research Assistant

Career Experience and Qualifications

Alastair graduated from the University of York in 2004 with a first class honours degree in History and Politics. After some time working in the north of England in a mixture of market research and financial management, Alastair travelled to Latin America to apply his experience in the context to micro-business development projects. Among the projects with which he had contact, Alastair spent time with an indigenous jam making enterprise in Quetzatenango, Guatemala, and an agro-tourism project in the Sacred Valley, Peru. Specifically, he was involved in consulting local groups on market research and marketing strategies (as well as designing and building the occasional information board).
Returning to the UK in the autumn of 2005, Alastair studied at Queen Elizabeth House, Centre for Development Studies at the University of Oxford, under the ESRC 2+2 studentship program. The MPhil in International Development Studies provided an interdisciplinary perspective on a broad range of issues that face the developing world – and Alastair took foundation courses in Anthropology and Economics. As part of the course Alastair also completed ESRC accredited qualitative and quantitative research methods training. It was this broad approach that Alastair applied to his MPhil dissertation on relationship between fair trade governance and sustainable development; specifically working on the applicability of Fairtrade certification to the garment supply chain.

After a brief break as a foreign language teacher, Alastair completed a PhD, jointly at the School of City and Regional Planning and BRASS centre, Cardiff University: Fair trade governance, public procurement and sustainable development : a case study of Malawian rice in Scotland

Research Areas of Interest

This broad interest has remained grounded in a strong interdisciplinary approach and Alastair maintains interest:
• Micro economic approaches to decision making in the developing world
• Poverty, risk and development
• Trade and development
• Macroeconomic management
• Sustainable business management

Outputs

Book Chapters
• Morley, Sonnino and Smith (accepted for inclusion), “Leading by Procuring: The power of the public sector purchasing (working title)”, Environmental Leadership: A Reference Handbook, Sage. London.
• Smith, Alastair M., & F. VanderHoff B. (forthcoming), “Comercio Justo México: Potential lessons for Fairtrade?”. Edited by Darryl Reed.  Business Regulation, Non-State Actors and Development. Routledge. London.
• Smith, Alastair M., (2011), “Fair Trade”, in Green Business Encyclopaedia. Edited by Paul Robbins and Juliana Mansvelt. Sage. London.
• Smith, Alastair M., (2011), “Green Washing”, in Green Business Encyclopaedia. Edited by Paul Robbins and Juliana Mansvelt. Sage. London.

Peer Reviewed Articles
• Smith, Alastair M. (2010), "LACK OF RIGOUR IN DEFENDING Fairtrade: Some important clarifications of a distorting account - a reply to Peter Griffiths", Economic Affairs, Vol. 30/2.
• Smith, Alastair M. (2009), "Fair Trade Diversification and Structural Change: Towards a broader framework of analysis", Oxford Journal of Development Studies. Vol. 37 No. 4.
• Smith, Alastair M. (2009), "Evaluating the Criticisms of Fair Trade: How strong is the argument that consumers and businesses should abandon Fair Trade as a means to socialise their economic decisions?", Economic Affairs. Vol. 19/4.

Other Reports and Outputs
• Smith, Alastair M. (2011), “Just Trading Scotland: Impact of fairly traded Kilombero rice in Malawi. Just Trading Scotland. Paisley.
• Smith, Alastair M. (2011), “Questioning the Standard Macro-Economic Critique of Fair Trade”. Comment and Analysis Paper. BRASS.
• “Inconvenient Truths for the World’s First Fair Trade Nation?”. Institute of Welsh Affairs. 12/10/2010
• Smith, Alastair, M (2010), “Fair and Ethical Trade: An overview”. Women in the Informal Economy: Globalising and Organising (WEIGO). Manchester.
• Malawi Fieldwork: Deprivation, Fair Trade – and Divine Intervention? Cardiff University News vol. 16, n. 6 p. 9.
• Smith, Alastair M. (2010), “Responding to Commentary? Changes in the Regulations of the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (on defining small farmers and development practice)”. Comment and Analysis Paper. BRASS. Cardiff.
• Smith, Alastair M., Lies Craeynest and the Fairtrade Foundation (2009), Egalite, Fraternite, Sustainabilite: Why the climate revolution must be a fair revolution. Fairtrade Foundation. London.
• Talking Head Videos, “Uniting Research, Policy and Practice in Fair Trade: A Knowledge Exchange Workshop”. Online at YouTube.com. December 2009.
• Smith, Alastair M. (2009), “Creative Public Procurement of Green and Fair, Local and Global”. Comment and Analysis Paper. BRASS. Cardiff.
• Smith, Alastair M. Fair Trade in the ‘Periphery’: The development of Comercio Justo México and potential lessons for FLO Fairtrade. Comment and Analysis Paper. BRASS.
• Smith, Alastair M. (2008), ‘A Response to the Adam Smith Report and A New Way to Think About Measuring the Content of the Fair Trade Cup’. Comment and Analysis Paper. BRASS.

Invited Talks
• Plenary Speaker at the Wales for Africa International Development Summit, organised by SIMOD. Cardiff City Football Stadium. Cardiff. 6th June 2011.
• “Performance and Legitimacy of Fair Trade in Public Procurement Supply Chains”, British Academy Funded, Performance and Legitimacy in Social Enterprises. 3rd-4th March 2011. HEC Management School, University of Liege, Belgium.
• Chaired two sessions at the Big Food Debate: Fair Trade, Sustainable Food and Climate Change. “Value chain upgrading” and “Public Procurement”. Abergavenny. 16th September 2010.
• Plenary Speaker at the Fair Trade and Co-operatives: A Match Made in Heaven?” seminar, organised by the Co-operative College, Manchester. The Co-op Bank, London. 25th March 2010.
• Plenary Speaker at the Wales for Africa International Development Summit, organised by SIMOD. Holland House Hotel. Cardiff. 8th March 2010.

Conference Papers
• "State Power and Private Governance: Negotiating the nature of ‘Fair Trade’ in UK government procurement and beyond", Beyond Individual Consumer Choice: Institutionalising Fair Trade and Public Procurement. ESRC Seminar Series, Kings College, London. 19th April 2010.
• Smith, Alastair M. (2009), 'FLO Fair Trade Diversification And Structural Change: Building an alternative theoretical argument'. International Workshop: Fair Trade – A Moral Economy? Does Fair Trade Change the Rules of the Economic Game?, CRASSH Centre, Cambridge University, 22 May 2009.
• Smith, Alastair M. (2008), ‘Fair Trade: A governance framework to promote sustainable development?’ Fair Trade Conference, University of Swansea, Wales.
• Smith, Alastair M. (2008), ‘Fair Trade and Sustainable Development’, Development Studies Association, Welsh Network of Development Researchers Conference: Perspectives on Development V, Gregynog Hall, Powys, Wales.

Teaching
Lectures:
• Local Food and Sustainable Development (MSc.).
Local Food Systems Versus Fair Trade: competing Narratives of Sustainable Development.
• “Corporate Social Responsibility”, and “Social Responsible Reporting”, for Ecological Management module (City and Regional Planning, Msc.).
• “Cause Related Marketing”, for Strategic Marketing-Marketing & Society Module (Cardiff Business School, MSc.).
Seminars & Tutorials
• Economic Principles of City and Regional Planning, for 1st Year BSc Human Geography and Planning. Autumn Term 2011-2012.
• Academic Skills, for 1st Year BSc Human Geography and Planning (focusing on globalisation and international development. Autumn Term 2010-2011.
• Sustainability in Practice module (MSc.). Spring Term 2009-2010.

Supervision
• MSc. students during 'live research' project on Fair Trade in Cardiff. Autumn Term 2009-2010.

Refereeing
Journal of Agriculture and Human Values; Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics; Critical Perspectives on International Business; Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning; Journal of Law and Society; International Journal of Consumer Studies; International Planning Studies; Sociologia Ruralis; Sustainable Development (Canada).

Consultancy Work
• Adnams Case Study. S A Partners. October/November 2011.
• Overview of Fair and Ethical Trade for Women in the Informal Economy, Globalising and Organising (WIEGO). 5 days. June 2010.
• Overview of Fair Trade for Oxford Analytica. 2 days. 2010.
• Report on Cooperation for Fair Trade in Africa (COFTA) Conference 2010. Swaziland. Imani Development, Scotland. 5 days. May 2010.
• Lead author for the Fairtrade Foundation publication: Egalite, Fraternite, Sustainabilite: Why the climate revolution must be a fair revolution. 5 days. November 2009.
• 2009 - Developed and coordinates the Fairness UK network.