Defining 'Nomad-Friendly' Cashmere; Cultural Sustainability in the Cashmere Commodity Chain, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Whereas the marketing of cashmere apparel has traditionally highlighted luxury and indulgence, global fashion labels have increasingly adopted sustainability as an element of their branding. In partnership with international charities and development organizations, or through their own corporate social responsibility initiatives, fashion designers and retailers have attempted to certify and market their apparel as 'sustainable cashmere'. Cashmere-producing herders are themselves also branded through this process, marked by their willingness to participate in self-regulation and self-improvement regimes. Through ethnographic research investigating the ways that Mongolian herders perceive and navigate sustainable branding and certification initiatives, we find that the concept of 'sustainable cashmere' brings a narrow, technical scope to the political economy of pastoralism. Herders' own political concerns, often articulated with reference to the safeguarding of nomadic pastoral cultural heritage and identity, may better be captured in international branding through the concept of 'cultural sustainability'. |
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