Circular Economy: Just Sectoral Transition in the Production and Consumption of Textiles

Abstract

The global textile industry is dominated by the fast fashion paradigm, which causes diverse negative environmental and social impacts. A more circular textile economy is advocated as an answer to unsustainable practices. A transition to a circular economy, based on slowing and closing textile loops, will have social consequences all over the world. This chapter explores the implications for social justice in transitioning to a circular textile economy. It finds that the transition is likely to produce negative and positive outcomes for different regions and people. Circularity in itself might not affect some of the root causes of social harm in global supply chains, but might enable some better practices, for example, through relieving time and prize pressures. Circularity will not likely address power relations that cause oppression, nor improve ill-functioning institutions. Livelihoods in vulnerable regions might be lost, but also gained all over the world. The circular economy transition is necessary but will fail to answer to multiple social justice challenges, unless a strong focus on social justice is explicitly integrated in design, conceptualization, and application.