It’s Not Easy Being Fair: Promoting Sustainable Consumption as a Fairtrade City – the Case of Malmö

Abstract: This case study sets out to gain an understanding of the complexities involved in promoting sustainable consumption by looking at Malmö Fairtrade City’s communication approach and the challenges it faces. Analyzing empirical data from in-depth interview and archival documentation, the results show that Malmö Fairtrade City uses a mix of multi-step and network approaches in its communication. Although its way of promoting Fairtrade consumption displays some features of social marketing, it is not yet an ideal premise for the approach unless it aims explicitly at changing behaviour. Despite having the municipality as a power and credible sender, it still has to overcome hurdles such as getting people interested in Fairtrade and operating with little resources. It is hoped that results from this study could provide insights for communities interested in becoming Fairtrade Cities and programmes that aim at promoting sustainable consumption.