Fashionable Ethics
Introduction
Exploring the Ethics of Production, Marketing and Consumption in Fashion, Special issue of the Journal of Business Ethics; Deadline 31 Oct 2022
INTEREST CATEGORY: SECTORS, MARKETING AND SOCIETY
POSTING TYPE: Calls: Journals
Author: Patsy Perry
Call for Papers
Fashionable ethics?
Exploring the ethics of production, marketing, and consumption in fashion
Submission Deadline: 31st October 2022
Guest Editors
- Dr Patsy Perry, Manchester Metropolitan University, p.perry@mmu.ac.uk
- Dr Victoria-Sophie Osburg, Montpellier Business School, vs.osburg@montpellier-bs.com
- Dr Fahian Anisul Huq, The University of Manchester, fahian.huq@manchester.ac.uk
- Professor Mbaye Fall Diallo, University of Lille, mbaye-fall.diallo@univ-lille.fr
Introduction to the Special Issue
Fashion is simultaneously enthralling yet exploitative, replete with a multitude of ethical issues along the entire value chain from production and marketing to consumption, incorporating labour exploitation, animal cruelty, environmental degradation, consumerism, cultural appropriation, counterfeiting, objectification, under-representation and discrimination. Growth and globalisation have brought into question consequence-focused morality of ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ as the unequal distribution of gains, massive input resource demands (e.g. cotton usually requires much water and pesticides) and labour exploitation (child labour, low wages and health and safety hazards) have become critical global issues. If the fashion business is to meet societal expectations and operate as more than a ruthless struggle for profit maximisation, then utilitarian considerations for the greater good must be tempered by deontological principles of respect for persons and intrinsic human rights. However, despite calls for substantive change, current ethical initiatives are insufficiently radical or transformative to mitigate against the dominant growth paradigm of increasing production and consumption driven by marketing tactics and an obsessive focus on change and planned obsolescence of products (Niinimäki et al. 2020). Digital transformation and the COVID-19 pandemic have reshaped the industry and led to new challenges, requiring a reassessment of fashion ethics through different ethical lenses.
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