Critical Perspectives on Sustainability education at LCF

Critical Sustainability is a new 2nd year option devised in 2019. Part of ‘Critical Issues in Fashion Research’, a revised Fashion Cultures and Histories syllabus, it encourages students to critique current sustainability approaches while probing the power relations, intersectionality, racism and exploitation underpinning the fashion industry. Centred on five concerns: Criticality, Care, Politics, Agency and Plurality, it challenges the materials focus dominating much sustainable provision; questions notions of ‘success’ in relation to climate emergency, and engages students in practices of ‘world-making’ to combat feelings of disempowerment and sustainability fatigue. Anna Fitzpatrick and Katherine Pogson reflect on the experience through conversation.