Hanna Hofverberg*, Johnny Franzén** & Ninitha Maivorsdotter**
* Malmö University
Malmö, Sweden
** University of Skövde
Sweden
Clothes are something that we – as humans – all need and wear. The way in which humans use and consume clothes have become a major environmental and sustainability problem. For example, the garment industry is one of the largest carbon polluters. Today 100 billion garments are produced each year, from which 60% become waste within the first year (Clean Clothes, 2018). The amount of clothing production is alarming, especially as more than half of the clothing production becomes waste within a year. Many people agree that these unsustainable patterns and the (mis)use of clothes need to change and one arena for changing behaviors is education. There are in fact many actors that provide different educational materials that are directed towards teachers and aims for changing behaviors. These educational materials often provide creative ways of teaching and have become popular to use.
In this paper we will show how changing behaviours towards more sustainable clothing consumerism is made in an educational material. In the first part of the paper, we will show in what way sustainable clothing consumption is promoted in the educational material named “Sustainable Fashion”. The material is produced by the Swedish NGO “Swedish Consumers” and consists of 17 design projects with and about clothes consumption. In the analysis, we will show the meaning that is made in the educational material using a practical epistemological analysis (PEA) and the use of aesthetic judgements (Hofverberg & Maivorsdotter, 2018). Secondly, we deepen the analysis with the aid of social marketing to show how the meaning of sustainable clothing consumption is communicated to change pupils’ behaviours. Finally, we will discuss our findings as a matter of critical design literacy, and particular teaching critical design literacy
From the first analysis we have identified two categories of actions when pupils are sought to become a sustainable consumer trough the design projects: to have fun and to feel clever. In the paper we show what actions that leads towards fulfillment of becoming a sustainable consumer (guided by a positive aesthetic judgement) and what actions that leads away from becoming a sustainable consumer (guided by a negative aesthetic judgement). For example, buying clothes on impulse is presented as something negative (not a cleaver choice) whereas buying clothes that looks good and feels comfortable are presented as something positive (a clever choice). In second analysis, we show how social marketing is used to change students’ behaviors. We have identified all three concepts of social marketing (exchange, target group segmentation, competition) and how they are used in the educational material to change behaviours. For example, exchange shows how pupils must change a behaviour (for example, stop buying on impulse) but in exchange, the pupils will need to get something else (for example, the feeling of making the right choice). Target group segmentation is used to identify the target group for the marketing (for example pupils that shop a lot, or pupils that can identify with making a “dream sweater”). Competing describes both the old and new behaviours and how these two behaviours compete, and that the new behaviour – that is leading towards the aim of becoming a sustainable consumerism – must concours the old behaviour (for example, an old behaviour such as “buy on impulse” competes with “feeling better” when one is making a more cleaver choice). In the discussion, we will consider the results in the light of critical design literacy and discuss how educators teach about the the use of designs (Stegall, 2006; Fletcher, 2015; Lutnæs, 2019). If 60 billion garments become trash each year, there is clearly habits that need to change. But how behavior change is made, and in particular how behavior change is promoted in education, needs some serious consideration. Here, we will argue for a critical design literacy among educators that (1) enable educators to identify social marketing in educational materials, (2) understand the consequences for pupils that are faced with these design projects, for example to be able to identify what actions that are included/excluded in the sustainability narratives of clothing consumerism and (3) can provide alternatives of teaching the use of sustainable clothing.
References
Clean Clothes, (2018). Waste and pollution. Retrieved form https://cleanclothes.org/fashions-problems/waste-and-pollution
Fletcher, K. (2016). Craft of use: Post-growth fashion. Routledge.
Hofverberg, H., & Maivorsdotter, N. (2018). Recycling, crafting and learning – an empirical analysis of how students learn with garments and textile refuse in a school remake project. Environmental Education Research, 24(6), 775–790.
Lutnæs, E. (2019). Framing the concept design literacy for a general public. Conference Proceedings of the Academy for Design Innovation Management, 2(1), 1295–1305.
Stegall, N. (2006). Designing for Sustainability: A Philosophy for Ecologically Intentional Design. Design Issues, 22(2), 56–63.
Hanna Hofverberg is the Associate Senior Lecturer at Malmö University, Sweden, at the Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society. Hofverberg has a PhD in Educational Science. Her research interests are centred around issues related to technology, design and craft in the context of teaching and learning environmental and sustainability issues.
back to the Symposium Programme
