”Det är ingen godkänd ursäkt att säga att man inte visste, då har man levt under en sten” En kvalitativ studie om unga individers attityder kring ansvarstagande för klimatförändringar inom klädindustrin

Abstract

The clothing industry is a massive industry with millions of agents, which many times makes it hard to hold someone responsible for the industry’s negative impact on the climate. By conducting 17 semi structured interviews, my aim with this study has been to examine young individuals’ attitudes towards the responsibility for the clothing industry’s climate change and how they believe it should be distributed. By examine the matter of responsibility I also discuss if there is a correlation between the individuals’ attitudes and the increasing global consumption. I analyze my empirical data through a thematic analysis where three key themes were discovered through my theoretical framework: Individual responsibility, collective responsibility, and political responsibility. My qualitative study shows that the interviewed individuals believed that the state should have the primary responsibility, since they are the one who behold the most power to drive change and affect a bigger collective. Meanwhile, individuals and clothing companies also have a responsibility in the matter. Although, the responsibility of individuals is mostly a moral responsibility concerning reducing one’s clothing consumption and take part of the knowledge available regarding the clothing industry’s contribution to climate change. It is easier looking at responsibility as some sort of network rather than a hierarchy. A network where all agents have some sort of responsibility and connection to each other, but where some agents have a greater responsibility than others.