Negotiating social space through fair trade coffee consumption

This thesis attempts to engage fair trade discourse at the level of practice; a complexity of motivations and invisibilities, that revolve around the cultural and symbolic associations tied to fair trade coffee consumption in the social space of local coffee house. Space is also negotiated through labour practices. The theories discussed unpack labour spaces negotiated through coffee consumption. This thesis revealed the complexity of social interactions and labour relationships that connect fair trade coffee within a of topography social practices. Fair trade coffee practices attract a certain social class of consumer who understands and values coffee's symbolic position in their daily lives. A double-shot of espresso is extracted for a medium latte but its consumption, social capital, and geographical orientations are combined with ethical considerations and symbolic capital to give it cultural value. This analysis of fair trade coffee, and its symbolic position among customers, revealed a series of deliberately unrecognized social practices and positions required to support specialty coffee consumption in a Canadian city.