scholarly journals Exploring demand reduction through design, durability and ‘usership’ of fashion clothes

2017 ◽  
Vol 375 (2095) ◽  
pp. 20160366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Planetary Boundaries ◽  
Everyday Activity ◽  
Design For Sustainability ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Demand Reduction ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Intensive Use ◽  
Material Goods ◽  
Materials Used

Global planetary boundaries confer limits to production and consumption of material goods. They also confer an obligation to experiment, as individuals and collectively as society, with less-materially-intensive, but no less exuberant, ways of living. This paper takes up this mantle and explores materials demand reduction through a focus on design, fashion garments and the universal, everyday activity of wearing clothes. It takes as its starting point the design of longer-lasting products, a widely favoured strategy for increasing materials efficiency and reducing materials demand in many sectors, including fashion. Drawing on scholarship in the field of design for sustainability and ethnographic research conducted in 16 locations in nine countries about already-existing practices of intensive use and maintenance of clothing, this paper critiques the effectiveness of durability strategies to reduce the amount of materials used. It argues for an update in the familiar preference within sustainability debates for the ‘techno-fix’ to explore instead resourceful use of materials as emerging from human actions and relationships with material goods. It suggests that, while facilitated by design, technology and engineering, opportunities to reduce materials demand begin in individual and collective practices, which, in turn, have dynamic implications for use of materials. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’.

On Selective Consumerism: Egyptian Women and Ethnographic Representations

2001 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-123
Author(s):  
Nadia Wassef
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Islamic Feminism ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Egyptian Women ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact

In the light of postmodern debates in anthropology, ethnography offers anthropologists new ways of representing their objects of study. The politics involved in the production and consumption by feminist scholars and activists of women's representations in the Arab world, and Egypt specifically, provides the starting point of this article. Using an ethnographic text examining manifestations of ‘Islamic Feminism’ in Egypt, I explore problems in addressing the subject of veiling – a continuous favourite among researchers. Grappling with stereotypes, assumptions and pre-interpretations based on what we read before going to the field and the questions we formulate in our minds, I look towards strategies of engagement with research subjects where anthropologists can express their commitments to them. Research ethics and reflexivity offer no formulaic guarantees of better representations, but pave the way towards understanding one's motivations and urges ethnographers to examine the impact of their work, both on the immediate community, and with regard to larger power politics. Given the fluid nature of identities and the relative fixedness of representations, solutions do not appear in abundance. Working outside of unnecessary dichotomies and searching for incongruities presents interesting possibilities for future ethnographic research.

Pots on mats: mat-impressed salt-extraction pottery at Chalcolithic Provadia-Solnitsata, Bulgaria

Antiquity ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Mila Andonova ◽  
Vassil Nikolov
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Salt Production ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Late Chalcolithic ◽  
South Eastern Europe ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
The Relationship

Evidence for both basket weaving and salt production is often elusive in the prehistoric archaeological record. An assemblage of Middle–Late Chalcolithic pottery from Provadia-Solnitsata in Bulgaria provides insight into these two different technologies and the relationship between them. The authors analyse sherds from vessels used in large-scale salt production, the bases of which bear the impression of woven mats. This analysis reveals the possible raw materials used in mat weaving at Provadia-Solnitsata and allows interpretation of the role of these mats in salt production at the site. The results illustrate how it is possible to see the ‘invisible’ material culture of prehistoric south-eastern Europe and its importance for production and consumption.

A Modern Approach to Sustainable Resource Management

2015 ◽  
pp. 179-204
Author(s):  
Gökhan Tenikler ◽  
Murat Selim Selvi
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Ecological Footprint ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Modern Approach ◽  
Sustainable Resource Management ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Distribution Of Resources

The starting point of this chapter is the weakening ability of natural resources to meet the growing and diversifying needs of mankind. This chapter aims to draw attention to the “Ecological Footprint” as a measurable concept of impact of the production and consumption activities on the natural environment. However, every country demands more resources than it has, and developed countries, with their production and consumption patterns, are becoming the primary actors of injustice in the distribution of resources. As seen in the data used in this study, from individuals to countries, ecological footprint is growing steadily, whereas biocapacity to meet the needs is shrinking steadily. By using statistical data demonstrating the ecological footprint and biocapacity changes and differentiation among the countries by years, this chapter clearly reveals the need for a sustainable resource management.

scholarly journals THE RETURN OF WHAT NEVER LEFT: ANIMALS PRESENT IN FUTURE NATURES

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme José da Silva e Sá
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Ecological Restoration ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Western Region ◽  
Large Animal ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Western Region

Abstract This article presents data collected in ethnographic research begun in 2014 at the Faia Brava Reserve in Portugal. The Faia Brava Reserve has been dedicated to ecological restoration by the association that manages it. This has made the reserve the starting point of an ambitious project for re-naturalizing the western region of the Iberian Peninsula, which foresees the reintroduction of large animal species in Portugal through its integration to the Rewilding Europe network. The article describes some of the steps necessary to the creation of re-naturalization areas, and some of the hypotheses associated to the re-naturalization project in Europe and particularly in Portugal.

Turning Passion into Profession: A History of Craft Beer in Italy

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Fastigi ◽  
Jillian R. Cavanaugh
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Craft Beer ◽  
Beer Consumption ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
History Of ◽  
Beer Production

This article investigates the Italian craft brewing revolution, a florescence of small-scale, artisanal beer production that began in the late 1990s. This revolution presents a number of provocative paradoxes, such as the growing importance of beer consumption and production in a country long known for its wine, its economic success at a time of ongoing and severe economic crisis in Italy, and the ways in which a love of drinking beer is driving many to choose to make it. Drawing on extensive survey data among craft brewers, ethnographic research, and interviews with craft brewers and their supporters, we show that Italian craft beer is a valuable case study of productive leisure leading to passionate production, and sketch the regional contours of Italian craft brewing against the contemporary global rise in artisanal beer production and consumption.

scholarly journals Everyday people’s patriotism in Russia: Possibilities and limitations of sociological study and typologization

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 891-902
Author(s):  
I. V. Trotsuk
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
Depth Interviews

The article is a review of the book by K. Clment Patriotism from Below. How Is It Possible That People Are So Poor in the Rich Country? (Moscow: NLO, 2021. 232 p.). The book is based on the results of the research project aimed at the detailed description of different types of everyday Russian patriotism with the help of the qualitative approach (in fact, case studies and semi-formalized interviews were conducted, although the book presents them as ethnographic research and in-depth interviews). The book identifies and describes the following types of the grassroot Russian patriotism which does not always coincide with the state patriotic discourse (patriotism from above): non-state and state everyday patriotism, non-patriotism, detached patriotism, and local patriotism. The review identifies both the undoubted merits of the book and its conceptual, methodological and analytical limitations which can become a starting point for further sociological studies of discursive practices and behavioral patterns of Russians, especially of those living in the Russian hinterland (depressed peripheral regions of the country).

scholarly journals Bioeconomy as an innovative approach to rural development in the context of Common Agricultural Policy in EU

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 ◽  
pp. 01008
Author(s):  
Teodorina Turlakova
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Private Investment ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Innovative Approach ◽  
Material Resource ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Economic Development And Growth ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Material Goods

Bioeconomy is an innovative approach in the economy of the region, aimed at integrating the available natural and labour resources, production facilities, the achievements of science in the field of innovation technologies. These are related to the production of material goods, the conversion of production and energy in the direction of fuller utilization of organic and mineral sources as a raw material resource for achieving sustainable development in the field of production and consumption, stable economic development and growth living standards of the population while protecting the environment and resources. The aim of the report is to analyze the possibilities for applying the bioeconomy in rural areas through research and innovation, stimulating private investment, developing new value chains and engaging stakeholders. The role of the CAP in supporting and financing activities of the bio and circular economy models is argued.

scholarly journals The interpretation and utilization of cultural heritage and Its values by young people in Slovenia

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (42) ◽  
pp. 173-193
Author(s):  
Jasna Fakin Bajec
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Development Strategies ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
European Development ◽  
Contemporary Development

This paper analyses approaches to involving young people in the processes of valuation, interpretation and utilization of local heritage to meet contemporary development challenges. The starting point is the finding that European development strategies highlight the various potentials of cultural heritage, but young people from western Slovenia hardly see any of these potentials. Moreover, the presented ethnographic research results show that young people are not very interested in heritage practices undertaken in their cities or villages. This paper’s results demonstrate how heritage may be introduced to young generations, how youth understand local heritage and its values, and what they think about voluntary activities in cultural fields.

Digital Transformation and the Evolution of the Platform Economy

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Maxim Shatkin
Keyword(s):  
Business Models ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
User Interactions ◽  
Product Models ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
New Business ◽  
Online Reputation ◽  
Platform Economy ◽  
New Business Models

This chapter provides an overview of the evolution of the platform economy through the lens of digital transformation and transit from Industry 3.0 (I3.0) to Industry 4.0 (I4.0). The platform economy belongs to both I3.0 and I4.0 and goes through two cycles of digital transformation within them. In I3.0, the starting point of the platform economy is the digitization of social and commercial interactions over user-generated content. The resulting issues of trust and regulation of user interactions find solutions in new business models based on online reputation systems and algorithmic regulation. The specificity of I4.0 is the tendency to platform products, homes, factories, and cities through broad digitization of interactions between humans and things, and things and things. For the platform economy, the new cycle of digital transformation in the context of I4.0 means creating business models based on the ultimate customization of both the production and consumption of product-as-platforms and the rental of digital product models.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document