How does the production of fast fashion affect the health and economic status of the citizens of Bangladesh?

What is the purpose of this research project?

A common theme for conversations revolving around the idea of fast fashion is that it comes from an environmentalist perspective and not as many come from a humanitarian one. By shifting the perspective, a wider audience is able to be reached. Also, including details about the health and economic status of workers, as opposed to just environmental degradation, shows that not only is the environment being affected by overconsumption, but real lives of people all over the globe.

Fast Fashion Rundown

The term fast fashion was officially introduced in the 1980s - before then clothing production was slow and local due to a low demand for products (Endeman, 1970)
Definition: trendy clothing items that are cheap to buy and produce (Cooke, Nunes, & Oliva et al, 2022)
Made with cheap, unsustainable, and harmful materials (Cooke et al, 2022)
Workers are often outsourced from underdeveloped countries due to the fact that they get paid lower wages and work longer hours (Khurana & Muthu, 2021)

Why Bangladesh?

Bangladesh is the second largest producer In the garment Industry (behind China) (Thelwell, 2021)
Their citizens have a lack of job security and legal rights forcing them to accept any job In order to make money to support themselves and their families (Khurana & Muthu, 2021)
Corporations can get away with paying their workers next to nothing in countries Iike this which increases their profits tremendously (Simončič, 2021)

Environmental Effects

High amounts of carbon get released into the air making the clothing industry account for roughly ten percent of global carbon emissions (Thelwell, 2021)
Release of cheap, harmful dyes/chemicals into water systems polluting them and the surrounding land (Thelwell, 2021)

Health Effects

Dangerous machinery

Inhalation of harsh chemicals
No health benefits
No sick days
Lack of fire safety, dust control, and temperature regulation standards in factories (Simončič, 2021)
Workers often live in slums riddled with drugs, disease, high crime rates, etc. (Khurana & Muthu, 2021)

Economic Effects

The clothes that Bangladesh sells to developed countries make up roughly 80 percent of their foreign exchange earnings - this shows that, “industrial expansions is prioritized over social upgrading” (Antipode, 2021)
As of 2017, the minimum wage in Bangladesh was 39 cents per hour (Endeman, 1970)
. “It takes a lifetime for a Bangladeshi garment worker to earn the amount of money the CEOs of the five most successful fashion brands reap in four working days” (Simončič, 2021)

Disasters Create Solutions

In 2013, the Rana Plaza In Dhaki, Bangladesh collapsed - over 1,000 workers died making it one of the deadliest accidents In fashion history (Endeman, 1970)
Dhaka Apparel Summit in 2017: garment industry and government officials set out a plan to improve the quality and sustainability of Bangladesh’s export garment industry (Ashraf & Prentice, 2019)
- Some of the solutions that were proposed were an increase in minimum wage and improved factory safety standards and regulations (Ashraf & Prentice, 2019)
Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the Alliance for Bangladesh Workers’ Safety: work together to ensure that companies that outsource their work to underdeveloped countries reflect on their previous actions and improve their labor standards for the future (Kabeer, Huq, & Sulaiman, 2020)

Theoretical Framework - Sustainable Livelihoods

A mechanism used to understand different livelihoods, focusing on the livelihoods of the poor (Dfid, 1999)
Livelihood strategies: consist of all the actions and choices people make to achieve their livelihood goals
Vulnerability context: what creates people’s susceptibility to poverty which includes trends, shocks, and seasonality
Trends: events that have a significant influence on rates of return to chosen livelihood strategies

Shocks: can destroy assets directly through events such as floods, storms, civil conflict and force people to abandon their homes and dispose of assets prematurely as part of coping strategies
Seasonality: any shift in prices of goods, employment opportunities, or food availability
Livelihood assets: the sustainable livelihood building blocks - human, natural, financial, physical, and social capital
Human capital: the skills, knowledge, and quality of health that enable people to pursue different livelihood strategies and attain their livelihood objectives
Natural capital: can range anywhere from intangible goods such as the atmosphere and biodiversity to tangible goods used directly for production like trees, land, and water
Financial capital: represents the financial resources that people use to achieve their livelihood objectives
Social capital: consists of things like networks and connectedness, membership in formalized groups, and relationships of trust and mutuality
Physical capital: comprises the basic infrastructure and producer goods needed to support livelihoods
Structures: the organizations responsible for setting and enforcing policy and legislation, delivering services, trading, etc. depend on processes to function and interact
Livelihood outcomes: the end goal or the accomplishments of livelihood strategies

References

Ashraf, H., & Prentice, R. (2019). Beyond factory safety: labor unions, militant protest, and the accelerated ambitions of Bangladesh's export garment industry. Dialectical Anthropology. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10624-018-9539

Cooke, P., Nunes, S., Oliva, S., & Lazzeretti, L. (2022). Open innovation, soft branding and green influencers: critiquing “fast fashion” and “overtourism.” Journal of Open Innovation, 8(1), 52–N.PAG. https://doi.org/10.3390/joitmc8010052

Dfid. (1999). DFID sustainable livelihoods guidance sheets. ENN. https://www.ennonline.net/dfidsustainableliving

Endeman, T. (1970). Assessing NGO influence on unethical labour conditions : The effect and changes of NGO strategies, lobbying and collaboration, to improve labour conditions in the fast fashion industry in Bangladesh and Myanmar. https://essay.utwente.nl/80217/

International Labour Organization. (2015). https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/--- dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_245201.pdf

Simončič, K. (2021). Fast fashion: A case of social harm and state‐corporate crime. Howard Journal of Crime & Justice, 60(3), 343– 369.https://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12435

Kabeer, N., Huq, L., & Sulaiman, M. (2020). Paradigm shift or business as usual? Workers’ views on multi‐stakeholder initiatives in Bangladesh. Development & Change, 51(5), 1360–1398. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12574

Khurana, K., & Muthu, S. S. (2021). Are low- and middle-income countries profiting from fast fashion? Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 26(2), 289–306. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmm-12-2020-0260

Labour rights from labour wrongs? Transnational compensation and the spatial politics of labour rights after Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza garment factory collapse. (2021). Antipode, 53(6), 1767–1786. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12751

Thelwell, K. (2021). The impact of fast fashion in Bangladesh. The Borgen Project. https://borgenproject.org/fast-fashion-in-bangladesh/