Labelling The Economy

This collected volume analyses labelling as a political and economic operation. It gathers contributions that focus on various domains, including the agri-food sector, the construction sector, eco-labelling, retail, health public policies and the energy sector, considering the use of labels for various objectives, such as providing legal and technical data on consumption products, certifying their quality, and indicating the approval of professional or political authorities. These practices are tied to both public and private interventions that make civic concerns visible and aim to govern them. The book considers ‘labelling the economy’ as an operation that introduces political questions into the economic realm, while also importing economic modes of reasoning into governance interventions. In doing so, the book considers the sociotechnical apparatus on which any label relies as a nexus where economic and political considerations are brought together.

Eco-labelling is an increasingly popular way of meeting consumer's demands for environmental information about the products they purchase. The first book on this important subject collects contributions from the academic, policy-making and commercial spheres to look at the conceptual and practical issues, and to discuss how eco-labelling can be made effective and equitable, and must avoid distorting international trade to the detriment of developing countries.

This volume provides an in depth look at labeling and its relation to the governance of global trade. The book aims at bridging the research gaps related to the link between consumers’ perception of a label with their willingness to pay, the impact and the limitations of labeling in the event of food safety hazards, and the trade and development dimensions of labeling. As such, this volume opens a new frontier on issues related to the economics of labeling.

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Eco-labelling programmes have been in existence for many years but their recent growth now extends to many products and services. The academic literature has grown in response and there have been several theoretical and empirical advances. This volume presents the best of previously published research on the design and effects of eco-labelling programmes. Whilst concentrating on the economic literature, the articles also approach the topic from a psychological, sociological and political point of view. Part One focuses on a range of theoretical developments, Part Two on empirical measurements of the effectiveness of eco-labelling, Part Three on the factors that influence the success and design of eco-labelling programmes and Part Four on the effects of eco-labelling on international trade and development.

As conscientious consumers, we become overwhelmed with alarms about food contamination, climate change, chemical pollution and other environmental and health-related risks. This book explores green and politically engaged consumersim, asking the question: does green labelling offer ways toward a greener and more democratic society?

Labelling in Development Policy reveals how labelling is perceived as natural and objective by sheltering behind an ideology of rationality. In reality labelling is an instrument of power through which the relationships between class interests and institutional processes are constructed and sustained. The book focuses on labels which arise in development policy areas as an aspect of the donative political discourse associated with the development agendas of poor countries. It refers to the process by which people, conceived of as objects of policy, are defined in convenient images.