Browsing by Author "Haapalainen, Janita"

Lately the discussion of fast fashion’s impacts on the climate and environment has got more coverage on the Finnish media. Media usually emphasize the responsibilities of the consumer: what can the individual do to make better choices? The purpose of this study was to research the discourses of sustainable fashion consumption in Finnish blog texts that concentrate on sustainable fashion. The study was built on the theorical aspects of the sustainability in consumer culture, such as sustainable development and the phenomena around it such as sustainable consumption and fashion. The aim was to contribute to the discussion of the construction of sustainable consumption in media texts, especially from the viewpoint of sustainable fashion consumption in the blog texts. The inductive qualitative study was carried out by applying the methods of discourse analysis. The data consisted of eleven blog texts that deal with sustainable fashion. The blog texts were collected from the internet sites of the three Finnish blogs. The data was analysed by searching expressions that could embody sustainability or sustainable fashion consumption. These expressions were then categorized as possible discourses of sustainable fashion consumption. Four discourses of sustainable fashion consumption were found. The discourse of consumer ideal was constructed on the ideas of responsibility, reasonability and well-thought decisions. Green consumerism was especially a part of careful clothing maintenance. The discourse of unaware consumer constructed the consumer who is unconscious of the sustainability knowledge and doesn’t know how to act right, and the information the texts offer, are solution to that gap. The discourse of passive consumption was constructed on the emotional and informational manipulation and domination of the marketing, businesses and advertising over the consumers. The bad quality of the clothes was seen particularly to be the fault of clothing companies. The discourse of alternative consumption constructed on the thoughts of circular economy activities such as product-service systems, active change agents, system change and reduction of consumption. The blog texts construct a multidimensional phenomenon of the sustainable fashion consumption. The discourses are in part conflicted, emphasizing the tensions that have been present in earlier consumer studies, such as passive/active and individual/mass. Special to this data was the tension between the facts and “not-knowing” of the consumer.