Eco Fashion World

It´s Sunday afternoon and I´m sitting on my bed with my laptop on my lap. Next week around this time I´ll be in Chicago surrounded by 8.000 management scholars and I have really no idea what I can contribute to what they already bring to the world. Is it my eyes of an inexperienced PhD student that bring fresh perspectives? Is it my naivety that doesn´t value hierarchy yet simply because I don´t know who has what Honourable Chair? Is it my crazy ideas that people will laugh about saying: you funny fashion girl, what do you know about management research? Is it my attitude of let´s co-create on the spot and have fun while doing it?

What I do know is that I love what I´m doing. I love to scan an academic journal and see how some of Chris´ ideas have been picked up and taken further by several scholars. I love how these articles challenge me to relate my own research to their findings. Because although the Academy only brings together management scholars once a year, I feel I´m communicating with them while writing from home. And this is what makes me most nervous: next week I´ll be meeting people whose ideas I have criticized in my own work. On the basis of what the world of eco fashion and its actors have taught me, I will enter the discourse on for example social entrepreneurship. My goal is to bring the academic insights back to the community of eco fashion entrepreneurs. So that we can keep on building a more sustainable textile sector that does business as unusual.

Note: Chris Steyaert is Professor for Organization Psychology at the University of St. Gallen and my supervisor.

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