No. SI1 (2025): Special Issue
Essays

Prosperity in Italian fashion: Networks of care. How micro and small enterprises redefine the relation between the economic and the social

Pdf
  • Ludovica Carini,
  • Silvia Mazzucotelli Salice,
  • Cecilia Cornaggia
Ludovica Carini
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Silvia Mazzucotelli Salice
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Cecilia Cornaggia
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-3166

Published 14-07-2025

Keywords

  • Italian fashion,
  • ethic of care,
  • networking,
  • territorial proximity,
  • prosperity

How to Cite

Carini, L., Mazzucotelli Salice, S., & Cornaggia, C. (2025). Prosperity in Italian fashion: Networks of care. How micro and small enterprises redefine the relation between the economic and the social. Fashion Highlight, (SI1), 562–572. https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-3166

Copyright (c) 2025 Ludovica Carini, Silvia Mazzucotelli Salice, Cecilia Cornaggia

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The fashion system is notorious for perpetuating inequalities and exploitation, driven by entrenched power dynamics that dictate which ideas and interests prevail. While sustainability often dominates discussions on alternative paradigms (Henninger et al., 2016), care has emerged as a critical perspective, emphasizing processes over outcomes (Franzo, 2023). This approach highlights practices that responsibly manage time, resources, and expertise, fostering positive relationships between people, the environment, and territories.

This paper draws on data from CreAbility, an ongoing action-research project involving Italian micro and small fashion enterprises, as well as associations and designers known for their social and cultural impact. The project aims to foster networks of practices that promote collaboration and enrich the theoretical debate on fashion’s potential to generate social and economic value (Moore et al., 2023).

Through periodic focus groups with diverse stakeholders, the study examines the concept of prosperity beyond mere economic gain, exploring how these actors challenge existing hierarchies and contribute to ecological, social, cultural, and economic well-being.  The initial findings highlight key aspects for the fashion system to address in order to act as a positive agent of change in the Italian context.

Pdf

References

  1. Aiken, G. T. (2017). The politics of community: Togetherness, transition and post-politics. Environment and planning A, 49(10), 2383-2401.
  2. Arnstein, S. R. (1969). A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Institute of planners, 35(4), 216-224.
  3. Belfiore, E., & Bennett, O. (2007). Rethinking the Social Impacts of the Arts. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 13(2), 135-151.
  4. Bergold, J. (2007). Participatory strategies in community psychology research—a short survey. In A. Bokszczanin (Ed.), Poland welcomes community psychology: Proceedings from the 6th European Conference on Community Psychology (pp.57-66). Opole: Opole University Press.
  5. Bergold, J., & Thomas, S. (2012). Participatory research methods: A methodological approach in motion. Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung, 191-222.
  6. Boström, M., Micheletti, M., & Oosterveer, P. (2019). (eds.). The Oxford handbook of political consumerism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  7. Brooks, A., Fletcher, K., Francis, R. A., Rigby, E. D., & Roberts, T. (2017). Fashion, Sustainability, and the Anthropocene. Utopian Studies, 28(3), 482-504.
  8. Chatzidakis, A., Hakim, J., Litter, J., & Rottenberg, C. (2020). The care manifesto: The politics of interdependence. Verso Books.
  9. Cooke P. and Lazzeretti L. (eds), (2008), Creative cities, Cultural Clusters and Local Economic Development. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK.
  10. Elkington, J. (2004). Enter the triple bottom line. In A. Henriques & J. Richardson (Eds.), The triple bottom line: Does it all add up? Assessing the sustainability of business and CSR (pp. 1-16). Earthscan.
  11. Fisk, G. (1973). Criteria for a theory of responsible consumption. Journal of marketing, 37(2), 24-31.
  12. Flew, T., & Cunningham, S. (2010). Creative industries after the first decade of debate. The Information Society, 26(2), 113-123.
  13. Gureshidze, N. (2016). Cultural policies of creative clusters: A short review. Journal of Social Sciences, 5(1), 13-17.
  14. Harrison, R., Shaw, D., & Newholm, T. (2005). Introduction. In The Ethical Consumer. (pp. 1-8). London-Thousand Oaks-New Delhi: SAGE.
  15. Lim, W. M. (2017). Inside the sustainable consumption theoretical toolbox: Critical concepts for sustainability, consumption, and marketing. Journal of Business Research, 78, 69-80.
  16. Lyson, H.C. (2014). Social Structural Location and Vocabularies of Participation. Rural Sociology, 79: 310-335.
  17. Manzini, E. (2022). Fashion as diversity and care. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 18(1), 463-465.
  18. Micheletti, M. (2003). Political Virtue and Shopping: Individuals, Consumerism, and Collective Action. New York: Palgrave.
  19. Moore, H. L., Davies, M., Mintchev, N., & Woodcraft, S. (2023). Prosperity in the Twenty-First Century: Concepts, models and metrics. UCL Press.
  20. Prendergast, G. P., & Tsang, A. S. (2019). Explaining socially responsible consumption. Journal of Consumer Marketing.
  21. Potts, J., Cunningham, S., Hartley, J., & Ormerod, P. (2008). Social network markets: A new definition of the creative industries. Journal of Cultural Economics, 32(3), 167-185.
  22. Pratt, A. C. (2012). The cultural and creative industries: Organisational and spatial challenges to their governance. City, Culture and Society, 3(4), 245-250.
  23. Reason, P., & Bradbury, H. (2001). Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice. SAGE Publications.
  24. Rodriguez, K. L., Schwartz, J. L., Lahman, M. K. E., & Geist, M. R. (2011). Culturally responsive focus groups: Reframing the research experience to focus on participants. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 10(4), 400–417.
  25. Seyfang, G. (2009). The New Economics of Sustainable Consumption: seeds of change. Palgrave Macmillan.
  26. Soini, K., & Dessein, J. (2016). Culture-sustainability relation: Towards a conceptual framework. Sustainability, 8(2), 167.
  27. Stolle, D. & Micheletti, M. (2013). (eds.) Political consumerism: Global responsibility in action. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  28. Throsby, D. (2001). Economics and Culture. Cambridge University Press.
  29. Tronto, J. C. (2013). Caring democracy: Markets, equality, and justice. New York: New York University Press.
  30. UNCED (1992) Agenda 21: The United Nations Program of Action from Rio. New York: U.N. Publications.
  31. Vaccari, A. (2022). ‘Fashion Matters’ by Anneke Smelik. A Lecture Series on Sustainability, Posthumanism and New Materialism, Università Iuav di Venezia, 2nd-30th March 2022. ZoneModa Journal, 12(2), 83-85.
  32. Webb, D. J., Mohr, L. A., & Harris, K. E. (2008). A re-examination of socially responsible consumption and its measurement. Journal of business research, 61(2), 91-98.
  33. Yates, L. S. (2011). Critical consumption: Boycotting and buycotting in Europe. European Societies, 13(2), 191-217.

Most read articles by the same author(s)