Read: Fashion’s Transnational Inequalities
FACE associate Dr Flavia Loscialpo, London College of Fashion (UAL) has contributed to a new publication.
Fashion’s Transnational Inequalities Socio-Political, Economic, and Environmental, edited by Anna-Mari Almila, Serkan Delice. Routledge 2023.
This book explores the evolving relationship between fashion and transnational capitalism. It examines the inequalities and injustices that this relationship embodies and engenders within the interconnected domains of production, consumption, labour and environmental ethics. It also considers national and transnational ways of evading, resisting and dismantling those inequalities and injustices. An accessible and compelling read, Fashion’s Transnational Inequalities will appeal to students and scholars of fashion, sociology, politics, cultural studies, and all those interested in deconstructing the inequalities that exist in the fashion industry globally.
Chapter - 'Ethno-racial capitalism in contemporary fashion: forced labour and the Uyghur crisis'.
This contribution by FACE member Dr Flavia Loscialpo explores ethno-racial capitalism within contemporary fashion, by dissecting the complex case of the Uyghur minority and China’s north-western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). With references to institutional reports, human rights platforms, and testimonies, the study problematises the Uyghur crisis in relation to the global scenario, interpreting the case of XUAR as fashion’s latest ‘sacrifice zone’. The role of XUAR for fashion’s global supply chains and the treatment of the Uyghur minority are analysed within the broader theoretical context of ‘racial capitalism’, with the study addressing the impact of racism, sexism, and nationalism on the organisation of labour under capitalism.
The contribution argues that, alongside unveiling complex power dynamics within the capitalist-nationalist world order, and highlighting the need for new mandatory standards, this complex case allows us to draw crucial considerations on the convergence of social, racial, and environmental justice for a revolutionary politics of sustainability.