Sustainable fashion: to define, or not to define, that is not the question

IF 3.6 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Celinda Palm
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Abstract

Fashion’s unsustainability needs transformative action, as policymakers, business, and wider society all agree. The lack of a clear definition of sustainable fashion is often given as a major reason behind fashion’s increasing unsustainability. Taking a social-ecological system perspective, augmented by a feminist critical realist understanding of being (ontology) and knowledge of being (epistemology), I examine the past two decades of academic literature mentioning the concept “sustainable fashion.” I find a definition is indeed lacking in various academic discourses and approaches related to sustainable fashion. This lack is problematic because it means the fashion industry can talk preposterously without making useful progress on decreasing its negative impacts on people and the living planet. However, the ever-changing patterns and contexts of fashion would soon outdate a single fixed definition. What is presented as a two-sided problem – whether or not to define sustainable fashion – is instead a problématique. Sustainable fashion is better understood as an unsolvable predicament in a complex dynamic intertwined social-ecological system. While no solution exists, there are appropriate reflexive responses. These start by using a critical systems approach that includes fashion’s social (non-material) and ecological (material) aspects. A social-ecological system approach prevents businesses from exploiting the slipperiness of inconsistent definitions, aids policymaking by providing context and structure for the many contributory concepts (e.g., slow, green, or circular fashion), and fosters vital transdisciplinary research on sustainable fashion.
可持续时尚:定义还是不定义,这不是问题
正如政策制定者、企业和更广泛的社会所一致认为的那样,时装业的不可持续性需要变革行动。缺乏可持续时尚的明确定义通常被认为是时尚日益不可持续性背后的主要原因。从社会生态系统的角度来看,通过女权主义批判现实主义对存在(本体论)和存在知识(认识论)的理解,我研究了过去二十年提到“可持续时尚”概念的学术文献。我发现与可持续时尚相关的各种学术论述和方法确实缺乏一个定义。这种缺乏是有问题的,因为这意味着时尚行业可以荒谬地谈论,而不会在减少对人类和地球的负面影响方面取得有用的进展。然而,不断变化的时尚模式和背景很快就会使单一的固定定义过时。所谓的“双面问题”——是否定义可持续时尚——其实是一个问题。可持续时尚最好被理解为一个复杂的、动态的、相互交织的社会生态系统中一个无法解决的困境。虽然不存在解决方案,但有适当的反射性反应。这些都是从使用一个关键的系统方法开始的,包括时尚的社会(非物质)和生态(物质)方面。社会生态系统方法可以防止企业利用不一致定义的不稳定性,通过为许多有贡献的概念(例如,慢速、绿色或循环时尚)提供背景和结构来辅助政策制定,并促进对可持续时尚的重要跨学科研究。
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来源期刊
Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy
Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy Social Sciences-Geography, Planning and Development
CiteScore
12.00
自引率
0.00%
发文量
54
审稿时长
27 weeks
期刊介绍: Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy is a refereed, open-access journal which recognizes that climate change and other socio-environmental challenges require significant transformation of existing systems of consumption and production. Complex and diverse arrays of societal factors and institutions will in coming decades need to reconfigure agro-food systems, implement renewable energy sources, and reinvent housing, modes of mobility, and lifestyles for the current century and beyond. These innovations will need to be formulated in ways that enhance global equity, reduce unequal access to resources, and enable all people on the planet to lead flourishing lives within biophysical constraints. The journal seeks to advance scientific and political perspectives and to cultivate transdisciplinary discussions involving researchers, policy makers, civic entrepreneurs, and others. The ultimate objective is to encourage the design and deployment of both local experiments and system innovations that contribute to a more sustainable future by empowering individuals and organizations and facilitating processes of social learning.
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