Changing Geographies of Fashion in the European Semi-Periphery - Transition Towards Sustainability?

Sustainability in fashion production and consumption is considered a major contemporary challenge and at the same time a visible trend in the fashion market. Despite a growing body of academic literature on the topic, detailed analyses have so far mainly pertained to only a selected dimension of the fashion market (design, production, retail or consumption). They have more often explored major fashion centres, brands and firms rather than independent designers, SMEs or independent fashion events and other alternative consumption means and spaces or less obvious intermediaries in the fashion market. Although the issue of sustainable fashion has been noticed in the academic discourse in Poland, it is yet to be examined  bringing together the production and consumption side of the issue. Nor has the spatial dimension of fashion market transformation in Poland been analysed in detail.
Taking a geographic perspective, this book fills this research gap by presenting a holistic approach to the fashion market including design, production and consumption of fashion considering the social, cultural and spatial dimensions of the matter and diverse stakeholders who participate in it. Providing a comprehensive analysis of long-term changes in the Polish fashion market, the book addresses several interesting issues. These include the extent to which the sustainable reorientation of the fashion market accompanies the broader processes of adaptation, restructuring and upgrading of the textile and clothing sector; how it fits into the broader logic of culturalisation of clothing production and commercialisation of design as an applied artistic genre and a part of the creative sector; and to what extent it is connected with new, alternative consumption patterns with respect to channels, places and spaces of clothing purchases and (re)use. 
The main premise of the book is that although it is still a relatively small part of the fashion market in Poland, sustainable fashion design, production and consumption is an increasingly important phenomenon, with significant social, economic and spatial implications. The book therefore argues that sustainable design and production constitute a promising opportunity for adaptation, restructuring and upgrading of the textile and clothing sector in the European semi-periphery. Using the metaphor of the fashion ecosystem, it also illustrates how sustainable fashion practices contribute to the creation of new links and networks within the fashion industry, alongside a more fragmented domestic production structure.

List of contents

Chapter 1. Geographies of fashion: research topics, issues and discourses.- Chapter 2. The changing nature and geography of contemporary textile and clothing production in Poland: beyond shrinking.- Chapter 3. Geography of fashion design education and the involvement of Polish educational institutions in the sustainability discourse.- Chapter 4. Large and medium size Polish clothing and apparel firms and their strategies in the context of global (sustainability) trends in the fashion market.- Chapter 5. Entrepreneurial strategies of independent fashion designers and small fashion producers in Poland: their links with the sustainability discourse and spatial ramifications.- Chapter 6. Independent fashion fairs in Poland and their spatial contexts.- Chapter 7. Polish museums as important emergent non-commercial stakeholders in the fashion ecosystem.- Chapter 8. Fashion consumers and their consumption patters as an opportunity or a major challenge to fashion sustainability in the Polish context?.- Chapter 9. Places, spaces and stakeholders in the fashion market in two major Polish cities. Taking a closer look at the fashion ecosystem on the local level.- Chapter 10. Conclusions. The importance of different spatial scales and participants in the fashion ecosystem for sustainable changes in the production and consumption of fashion in Poland.

About the author

Monika Murzyn-Kupisz holds a doctorate and a post-doctoral habilitation in economic sciences from Krakow University of Economics and an MA in European Leisure Studies (a joint diploma of Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Tilburg University, Universidad de Deusto in Bilbao and Loughborough University). She worked for the Krakow University of Economics (1999-2018) and International Cultural Centre in Kraków (1999-2009). Since 2018 she is a professor at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. Member of Association for Cultural Economics International, Regional Studies Association, ICOMOS and Polish Geographic Society. She specialises in multidisciplinary research within the broad field of cultural economics, socio-economic geography and urban studies, with a special focus on heritage, museums, cultural and creative activities, artists as well as urban regeneration processes, in particular their analysis in the context of sustainable development challenges and the region of Central and Eastern Europe. Author, co-author and editor of numerous publications in English and Polish, including monographs The impact of artists on contemporary urban development in Europe (2017), Artists in the urban space of Krakow and Katowice (in Polish, 2017), Museum institutions from the perspective of cultural economics (in Polish, 2016), Cultural heritage and local development (in Polish, 2012) and Kazimierz. The Central European experience of urban regeneration (in English and Polish, 2006). As an expert she has been cooperating with numerous international and national bodies such as OECD, UNESCO, National Science Centre, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, National Institute for Museums, International Cultural Centre. In 2019-2024 principal investigator and coordinator of the National Science Centre funded research project on Fashion market in the context of sustainable development, grant no. UMO-2018/31/B/HS4/02961.

Summary

Sustainability in fashion production and consumption is considered a major contemporary challenge and at the same time a visible trend in the fashion market. Despite a growing body of academic literature on the topic, detailed analyses have so far mainly pertained to only a selected dimension of the fashion market (design, production, retail or consumption). They have more often explored major fashion centres, brands and firms rather than independent designers, SMEs or independent fashion events and other alternative consumption means and spaces or less obvious intermediaries in the fashion market. Although the issue of sustainable fashion has been noticed in the academic discourse in Poland, it is yet to be examined  bringing together the production and consumption side of the issue. Nor has the spatial dimension of fashion market transformation in Poland been analysed in detail.
Taking a geographic perspective, this book fills this research gap by presenting a holistic approach to the fashion market – including design, production and consumption of fashion – considering the social, cultural and spatial dimensions of the matter and diverse stakeholders who participate in it. Providing a comprehensive analysis of long-term changes in the Polish fashion market, the book addresses several interesting issues. These include the extent to which the sustainable reorientation of the fashion market accompanies the broader processes of adaptation, restructuring and upgrading of the textile and clothing sector; how it fits into the broader logic of culturalisation of clothing production and commercialisation of design as an applied artistic genre and a part of the creative sector; and to what extent it is connected with new, alternative consumption patterns with respect to channels, places and spaces of clothing purchases and (re)use. 
The main premise of the book is that although it is still a relatively small part of the fashion market in Poland, sustainable fashion design, production and consumption is an increasingly important phenomenon, with significant social, economic and spatial implications. The book therefore argues that sustainable design and production constitute a promising opportunity for adaptation, restructuring and upgrading of the textile and clothing sector in the European semi-periphery. Using the metaphor of the fashion ecosystem, it also illustrates how sustainable fashion practices contribute to the creation of new links and networks within the fashion industry, alongside a more fragmented domestic production structure.

Product details

• Assisted by: Monika Murzyn-Kupisz (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English, German
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 11.09.2025
• EAN: 9783031892530
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3189253-0
• No. of pages: 384
• Illustrations: XVI, 384 p.
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geography; Branding, Industrien und Branchenstudien, Arbeits-, Wirtschafts- und Organisationspsychologie, Globalization, Geography, Glocalization, Consumer behavior, Sector and Industry Studies, Urban transformations, Global production networks, Sustainable fashion, Fashion ecosystems, Geography of fashion, Fashion cities