Contesting the Swiss Commodity Trading Sector – A Longitudinal Analysis of Polarised Debates

Commodity trading companies are notorious for their dubious and predatory business models and the negative environmental and human rights record associated with them. Based on a longitudinal research project, we examine how the Swiss-based commodity trading sector, long out of the public eye, has become the subject of constant contestation and how commodity traders have responded to this problematization in different ways. Using "framing" as a theoretical foil, we specifically ask how certain (networks of) actors have challenged the Swiss commodity sector by translating individual grievances into broader matters of concern, and how commodity companies have responded The paper draws on a variety of data, including a) interviews with commodity traders, advocacy groups, journalists, national politicians and academics, b) media reports, c) reports from non-governmental organizations, and d) publicly available statistics and company reports. Based on an inductive analysis, we use Langley’s method of ‘temporal bracketing to identify temporarily stabilized accounts of common commodity trade grievances and how these can best be resolved. Our preliminary analysis suggests three distinct frames – ‘marginality’, ‘sensitization' and ‘critical attention’ respectively – that differ in terms of constructed grievances, responsibilities, desirable solutions and modes of engagement between opposing groups. By illuminating how one of the world’s most controversial (if secretive) industries has been framed as a ‘matter of public concern’, we explain how the unfolding and transformation of the three frames depends on dialectical exchanges between opposing groups.