Translating ‘Sustainability’: Exploring the Impact of Language in the Fashion Context

Caroline Oates, Shahd Sahab, Aurelie Le Normand, Sarah I. Alosaimi and Claudia Henninger ()
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Caroline Oates: University of Sheffield
Shahd Sahab: University of Manchester
Aurelie Le Normand: University of Manchester
Sarah I. Alosaimi: Princess Nourah Bint Abdul Rahman University
Claudia Henninger: University of Manchester

A chapter in New Horizons in Fashion and Marketing, 2025, pp 117-142 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In this chapter we investigate the meaning of ‘sustainability’ when translated from English into three different languages: Arabic, French, and German. The context for this investigation is the fashion business, a global and ‘dirty’ industry which has been critiqued for its negative effects on the environment and society (Manchiraju & Sadachar, 2021). Sustainability per se has been identified as a top priority by the United Nations (UN, 2018), and although the word itself may be intuitively understood, it lacks a clear-cut, common definition. Two of the most cited definitions, yet both also heavily criticised, are the Brundtland Commission’s “meeting the needs of the current generation, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” (WCED, 1987), and Elkington’s (2004) Triple Bottom Line (TBL), which views sustainability in terms of social, economic, and environmental aspects. It is not our intention to determine which, if any, existing definition is ‘correct’, but rather to explore how sustainability is communicated in the fashion context across the four languages. Implications for any differences across languages will be discussed in terms of theory and practice.

Keywords: Sustainability; Consumption; Fashion; Circular economy; Consumers; Language; Culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-94196-2_6

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-94196-2_6

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