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The market niche created by Fair Trade (FT), based on principles of solidarity and cooperation, has been partially occupied by large multinational corporations. These companies deploy certification programmes and labels as means of insertion into the FT market. This paper provides an analysis and critique of six independent FT certification programmes identified in the Canadian marketplace. We also offer evidence from two corporate certification programmes in the same market that share the same sustainability concepts and deal in the same product: coffee. Through a neo-institutional perspective, we seek to shed light upon the confusion and ambiguity generated by the presence of multiple FT labels and certification programmes. Finally, we propose a taxonomy of the FT labels and certification programmes found in Canada as an indicator that may be useful for making purchasing decisions concerning FT products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical Education is a rich field in gender meanings and principles. Within school practices, it is thus positioned as one of the spaces for the strongest identity building as regards gender and sexuality. These meanings and principles, understood as a result of social and historical practices, classify and order the world and experiences of girls and boys in a segmented, fragmented way. Based on the relevance of a broad notion of curriculum as an articulating mechanism of some knowledge-power relations at school, this paper provides a comparative approach in Physical Education, from the standpoint of gender and the production of sexual difference. By curriculum we understand not only the prescriptive framework featured in the "written" curriculum, but also the "hidden" curriculum, i.e., those social mandates that regulate schooling practices. Our analysis is focused on the Physical Education curricula in Canada and Argentina. First, we look at the curricular issue as seen on the written text, focusing on Health and Physical Education curricula in the province of Ontario, Canada, and the area of Physical Education in Argentina's introductory courses at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Then we analyze some aspects of the hidden curriculm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the preliminary result of research undertaken in Canada during the period August-September 2003, and which is part of a comparative study of several other countries in order to examine the actors, processes and interactions which intervened in the formulation of public policy and the development of learning in public institutions and organizations. In this research the logic motivating the actors, as well as their perspectives and practices in the processes of public agenda formulation in Canada are demonstrated. Documentary techniques, seminar discussions, interviews and observation are employed. The results demonstrate differentiated processes in organizational and institutional practices of new and traditional actors in the formation of public agendas, and which define two large themes: differentiation between government and politics and the re-institutionalization of rules on a local level. All this expresses the tension between the two forms of governmental philosophy that are debated over between the neo-pragmatism of emerging demand sectors for new government and the colaborative market forms of government, implemented by traditional actors who propose good public government. In local public management the municipality is expressed as a point of intersection between policy management and government, and it incorporates learning experiences in community networks, which suggests a new hermaneutic language for the management of municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently and increasingly, many concepts and areas of investigation relegated to the field of basic ecology are being integrated and applied to the management and conservation of renewable resources. The purpose of this paper is to explore how syntheses of ecology and anthropology might help wildlife scientists evaluate changes in the way modern humans in hunter-gatherer societies interact with renewable resources that they harvest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]