Term

Definition

Application to Sustainable Fashion

Affordance (James J. Gibson; sociological uptake via STS)

The possibilities for action that an object or environment offers to an agent.

A garment made for easy repair has greater sustainability affordances, encouraging users to act more ecologically over its lifecycle.

Alienation

A condition in which individuals become disconnected from the products of their labour, from others, and from their own human potential.

Garment workers in fast fashion supply chains often experience alienation, having no control over or connection to the final product or its meaning.

Anthropotechnics (Peter Sloterdijk)

The conscious self-modification of humans through practices, routines, and technologies.

Sustainable fashion rituals—like capsule wardrobes or DIY repairs—are anthropotechnical practices reshaping the human-fashion relationship toward slower, more ethical modes of being.

Capitalocentrism (J.K. Gibson-Graham)

The assumption that capitalism is the only possible or real economic system, rendering alternatives invisible.

Sustainable fashion is often trapped in capitalocentric thinking, presuming eco-efficiency must emerge from profit-driven innovation, ignoring barter, gifting, or commons-based models.

Collective Memory

The shared pool of knowledge and cultural narratives about the past within a community.

Revivals of traditional dyeing, weaving, or mending techniques reconnect sustainable fashion with collective memory and cultural identity.

Commodification

The transformation of goods, services, ideas, and people into commodities to be bought and sold.

Traditional artisanal crafts are often commodified for Western eco-fashion markets, stripping them of cultural context and reducing them to trends.

Consumerism

A social and economic order and ideology that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts.

The dominant consumerist culture fuels the fast fashion industry and its unsustainable practices. Sociology can analyze the social and psychological drivers of consumerism in the fashion sector, including the role of advertising, planned obsolescence, and the pursuit of novelty. Understanding these drivers is crucial for developing strategies to promote more mindful and sustainable consumption patterns.

Culture and Cultural Capital

Culture encompasses the shared values, beliefs, practices, and material objects of a group or society. Cultural capital refers to the non-economic resources that individuals possess, such as knowledge, skills, and tastes, which can be used to gain social advantages.

Fashion is deeply embedded in culture, reflecting and shaping cultural values. Understanding the cultural meanings attached to clothing (e.g., status, identity, belonging) is vital for promoting sustainable choices. Sustainable fashion can be positioned as a form of cultural capital, signifying awareness, ethical values, and a certain lifestyle. Sociological perspectives can analyze how cultural trends influence fashion consumption and how sustainable practices can become culturally valued.

Disenchantment

The process by which magical or sacred meanings are replaced by rational or commercial logic.

Sustainable fashion attempts to re-enchant consumption with stories of artisanship, locality, or ecology in an otherwise disenchanted system.

Dispositif (Foucault; rare outside French theory)

A network of relations between discourses, institutions, laws, and practices that form a strategic response to a societal issue.

The rise of 'sustainable fashion' can be seen as a dispositif—a set of interlinked discourses, standards, and institutions managing the ecological crisis without abolishing fashion’s excesses.

Environmental Sociology

A subfield of sociology that examines the interactions between social life and the natural environment.

Environmental sociology provides the theoretical framework for understanding the environmental consequences of the fashion industry, such as pollution, resource depletion, and climate change. It also explores how social structures, cultural values, and power dynamics contribute to these problems and how sustainable practices can be implemented to mitigate them.

Epistemic Injustice (Miranda Fricker)

A wrong done to someone specifically in their capacity as a knower, such as through silencing or discrediting their knowledge.

Indigenous or artisan fashion producers may suffer epistemic injustice when their sustainable techniques are dismissed as non-scientific or irrelevant.

Ethnography

A qualitative research method that studies cultures and communities from the inside, often through long-term observation.

Ethnographies of clothing swaps or repair cafes reveal how sustainability is practiced through grassroots social interaction, not just institutional policy.

Field

A structured social space with its own rules, hierarchies, and forms of capital.

The fashion field values aesthetic innovation and prestige; integrating sustainability means challenging these rules with new forms of eco-capital.

Globalization

The increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of countries through the exchange of goods, services, information, and culture.

The fashion industry is a globalized system with complex supply chains spanning multiple countries. Sociological analysis can examine the social and environmental impacts of this globalization, including labor exploitation, environmental degradation in production regions, and the carbon footprint of transportation. It can also explore the potential for global collaborations and fair trade practices to promote sustainability.

Habitus

A system of dispositions shaped by past experiences that guide perceptions, thoughts, and actions.

Habitus influences sustainable clothing choices; individuals from sustainability-aware backgrounds may instinctively value second-hand shopping or upcycled materials.

Hegemony

The dominance of one social class’s worldview, which becomes accepted as common sense or natural.

The dominance of Western 'green' aesthetics (neutral tones, minimalism) often overshadows other traditions of ecological dress, establishing a hegemonic standard for sustainable fashion.

Heterotopia (Foucault)

Real places that exist outside of normal societal structures and reflect, contest, or invert them.

Clothing swaps, repair cafés, and makerspaces can act as heterotopias—spaces where alternative fashion economies are tested and imagined.

Hyperobjects (Timothy Morton)

Massive entities that are distributed across time and space in ways that make them difficult to perceive.

The entire global system of fashion waste could be analysed as a hyperobject—so vast, diffuse, and entangled it defies comprehension or control.

Identity and Self-Presentation

Identity refers to our sense of self and how we define ourselves. Self-presentation involves the conscious and unconscious efforts we make to shape others' perceptions of us.

Clothing is a powerful tool for expressing identity and engaging in self-presentation. Sustainable fashion can become part of an individual's identity, signaling their values and commitment to environmental and social responsibility. Sociological research can explore how individuals use sustainable clothing to construct and communicate their identities and how sustainable fashion can be integrated into various lifestyle identities.

Institutional Isomorphism

The tendency of organisations to resemble each other over time due to shared pressures.

As more brands adopt sustainability policies, there is a risk of superficial conformity rather than genuine innovation or transformation.

Intersectionality

A framework for understanding how different aspects of identity (race, gender, class, etc.) intersect to shape individual experiences.

Sustainable fashion must address how racialised and gendered labour in garment factories creates uneven ecological and social burdens.

Legitimation

The process by which practices or ideas come to be seen as appropriate or authoritative.

Brands often seek legitimacy for their sustainability claims through third-party certifications, even when the underlying practices remain unchanged.

Material Semiotics (Annmarie Mol, John Law)

The study of how material entities (objects, tools, bodies) are involved in the making of meanings.

The sustainability message of a garment is not just a label but a material semiotic object—constructed through fabric, stitching, texture, and wearability.

Moral Economy

A concept describing the ways moral or ethical values influence economic behaviour and expectations.

Consumers may boycott fast fashion brands based on perceived violations of ethical norms—even if such choices go against their economic interests.

Neoliberalism

An ideology promoting free markets, deregulation, and reduced state intervention.

Neoliberal sustainability puts the onus on consumers to make ethical choices rather than addressing systemic overproduction and labour exploitation.

Performative Allyship

A form of superficial support for marginalised groups or causes without meaningful action.

Brands may engage in performative sustainability by showcasing recycled materials or activist messages without restructuring harmful supply chains.

Posthuman Agency (Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway)

Agency that includes non-human actors—animals, machines, ecosystems—challenging the human-centred view of action.

Sustainable fashion may involve posthuman agency when algae, mycelium, or AI-assisted design are integral to how garments are conceived and produced.

Power/Knowledge

The idea that knowledge is shaped by power and that power is exercised through the production of knowledge.

Dominant sustainability metrics (like carbon footprints) may obscure social injustices by privileging calculable forms of knowledge.

Precarity

A condition of existence without predictability or security, especially in employment.

Garment workers in 'ethical' fashion supply chains may still face precarity through short-term contracts, unstable wages, or seasonal employment.

Racial Capitalism (Cedric J. Robinson)

A system in which racial exploitation and economic accumulation are mutually constitutive.

The fashion industry depends on racial capitalism when it profits from the undervalued labour of racialised populations in the Global South while marketing 'ethical' aesthetics in the Global North.

Reflexivity

The ability of individuals or institutions to reflect upon and adapt their practices based on an awareness of social contexts.

Reflexive designers may critically assess their own sourcing and production practices, challenging industry norms to adopt circular or regenerative models.

Reification

The process by which social relations are perceived as inherent attributes of things, leading to the treatment of abstract concepts as concrete realities.

When environmental values are reified through green labels or certifications, they can become commodities themselves—obscuring exploitative practices under a façade of 'eco-consciousness.'

Social Capital

The networks, relationships, and social trust that enable cooperation and access to resources.

Small sustainable fashion brands often rely on social capital within local or activist communities rather than corporate funding.

Social Construction

The idea that meanings and categories are created through social processes rather than being inherently natural.

Sustainable fashion' itself is socially constructed, often defined by industry insiders, media, and consumer groups with differing priorities.

Social Movements

Organized collective efforts by a group of people to bring about or resist social change.

The growing awareness of the negative impacts of the fashion industry has led to the emergence of various social movements advocating for sustainability, ethical production, and transparency. Sociological perspectives can analyze the strategies, goals, and impact of these movements, as well as the factors that contribute to their success or failure in influencing industry practices and consumer behavior.

Social Norms

Shared rules of conduct that prescribe how people should act in particular situations. They are often informal and learned through socialization.

Understanding current social norms around clothing consumption (e.g., fast fashion, keeping up with trends) is crucial. Shifting towards sustainable practices requires the development and internalization of new social norms that value durability, ethical production, and reduced consumption. Sociological research can explore how these norms are formed, maintained, and changed through social influence, media, and peer groups.

Social Reproduction

The processes through which societies maintain and reproduce existing social structures and roles, often through unpaid labour.

Women’s unpaid or underpaid work in textile industries is essential to sustaining fashion systems but is often invisible in sustainability narratives.

Social Stratification

The hierarchical arrangement of individuals and groups in a society based on factors like wealth, status, and power. This creates inequalities in access to resources and opportunities.

Sustainable fashion often comes with a higher price tag, making it less accessible to lower socioeconomic groups. This raises questions of environmental justice and equity. Sociological analysis can examine how social class influences consumption patterns, access to sustainable alternatives, and the potential for sustainable fashion to exacerbate or alleviate existing inequalities. It also highlights the power dynamics within the fashion industry and the exploitation of garment workers, often in developing countries.

Stigma

A mark of disgrace associated with a particular condition, quality, or person.

Wearing visibly reused or second-hand clothing may still carry stigma in some social settings, despite growing environmental awareness.

Symbolic Violence

The imposition of the norms and values of a dominant social group onto others, which becomes accepted as legitimate.

Mainstream fashion’s celebration of minimalist sustainability aesthetics can marginalize culturally diverse or maximalist expressions of sustainable dress.

Technocracy

Governance or decision-making by technical experts rather than public or democratic processes.

Technical eco-certifications in fashion may marginalise local knowledge or worker concerns in favour of abstract, top-down sustainability metrics.

Temporal Inequality

Uneven access to time as a resource for action, leisure, or care.

Fast fashion depends on temporal inequality—rushing garment workers to meet deadlines while affluent consumers have time to 'curate' sustainable wardrobes.