| dc.description.abstract | In recent years, there has been an increased amount of attention to issues related to the garment sector along with the rise of fast fashion. With an increased demand for clothes, it begs the question: how is this impacting those making the garments? The practice of externalization of labour in the garment industry leads to sub-contracts made by suppliers, making the corporation potentially unaware of where their supply is made, and who is involved in their production. As an aftermath of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013, there has been an increased attention to ensuring that there is responsibility on the employers regarding workers’ rights such as safety issues, working hours and wages, ensuring that modern slavery does not take place. Efforts have been made to ensure that there are principles in place in handling workers’ rights in the global economy, leading to the rise of corporate social responsibility – a initiative-based system used by businesses with the purpose of ensuring a transparent and efficient system to detect and remedy potential human rights abuses. In the time of fast fashion, brands such as SHEIN have been subject to allegations of misconduct in their supply chains. This study uses a document analysis and a critical theoretical framework focused on the concept of performativity to analyze SHEIN’s statements on sustainability and supply chain transparency. The central question in this research is how corporate social responsibility is used to create an identity that is socially acceptable, with the intention of seeing if corporate social responsibility can be used as a performative tool for corporations such as SHEIN to build an image to consumers of being responsible.
Keywords: corporate social responsibility, garment industry, labour rights, performativity, sustainability, SHEIN, workers’ rights | |
