Cashmere as cultural commodity: Exploring potential cultural indicators for "sustainable cashmere"
| abstractNote | The phrase "sustainable cashmere" appears frequently in marketing messages from global brands and designers, in addition to serving as a frame of reference for several market-based development initiatives in Mongolia and China. But it is not generally obvious to consumers, or even to most producers, what should be understood as making a cashmere garment "sustainable". Beyond disagreement over the long-term ecological impacts of goats on Mongolia's rangelands, there are differing perspectives on which sustainability indicators to prioritize, from a range of factors such as wildlife conservation, rangeland biodiversity, governance, common-pool resource management, social inclusion, or economic livelihoods. Moreover, discussion of sustainability measures in the cashmere sector has given relatively little consideration to cultural factors. Our current research acknowledges claims, within Indigenous rights and national intangible cultural heritage safeguarding discourses, that cultural practices and expressions often support social well-being and privilege good relations with land and non-human species. From this perspective, we consider the strategic potential for cultural indicators within sustainability standards for cashmere, with a focus on "nomadic culture" as a political and economic resource. |
|---|---|
| key | F7WD3L7W |
| title | Cashmere as cultural commodity: Exploring potential cultural indicators for "sustainable cashmere" |
| version | 204 |
| dateModified | 2024-08-07T06:03:38Z |
| dateAdded | 2024-08-07T03:18:04Z |
| place | Online |
| meetingName | Invited speaker series, American Center for Mongolian Studies |
| date | 2022-09-23 |
| collections | |
| creators |
|
| itemType | presentation |
| presentationType | Invited talk |