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Wrestling
with Starbucks
Price: $24.95
Subtitle:
Conscience, Capital,
Cappuccino
Author:
Kim Fellner
Subject: Current Events / Public
Policy / Business
Cloth ISBN 978-0-8135-4320-8
Pages:
288 pages
Publication Date: July 2008
Read
and Search inside the Book:
Read the Table of
Contents
Description:
You can
find a Starbucks coffeehouse almost anywhere, from
Paris, France to Paducah, Kentucky, from the crowded streets of
Thailand to shopping malls in Qatar. With nearly 200 of them in New
York City alone, this coffee retail giant with humble beginnings has
become an actor and icon in the global economy. As we sip our
cappuccinos, frappuccinos, and our double half-caf venti low-fat
mochaccinos, many of us wonder if Starbucks is a haven of civilization
or a cultural predator, a good or bad employer, a fair trader or a
global menace. In this entertaining and provocative ramble through
Starbucks's ethos and actions, Kim Fellner asks how a coffeehouse chain
with a liberal reputation came to symbolize, for some, the ills of
globalization.
Armed with an open mind and a sense of humor, Fellner takes readers on
an expedition into the muscle and soul of the coffee company. She finds
a corporation filled with contradictions: between employee-friendly
processes and anti-union practices; between an internationalist vision
and a longing for global dominance; between community individuality and
cultural hegemony. On a daily basis Starbucks walks a fine line. It
must be profitable enough to please Wall Street and principled enough
to please social justice advocates. Although observers might argue that
the company has done well at achieving a balance, Starbucks's leaders
run the risk of satisfying neither constituency and must constantly
justify themselves to both.
Through the voices of Central American coffee farmers, officers at
corporate headquarters, independent café owners, unionists,
baristas,
traders, global justice activists, and consumers, Fellner explores the
forces that affect Starbucks's worth and worthiness. Along the way, she
subjects her own unabashedly progressive perspective to scrutiny and
emerges with a compelling and unexpected look at Starbucks, the global
economy, our economic convictions, and the values behind our morning
cup of joe.
About
the Author:
| Kim Fellner is a
longtime progressive organizer and
communicator. She earned an M.S. in Communications from the University
of Pittsburgh. She lives in Washington D.C.-a short walk from nine
coffee joints |
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Relevant
Links:
Dollars & Sense: The Magazine of Economic
Justice
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Price: $24.95
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