Hiding in the Spotlight

Commodifying Nature and Geographies of Dissociation in the Fur-Fashion Complex

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4893996
AutoresFelix C Müller (Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space 15537 Erkner Germany), Frank Müller (0000-0001-8955-5317, autor de correspondencia), Jana M Kleibert (0000-0002-1889-1978, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space 15537 Erkner Germany), Oliver Ibert (0000-0003-2148-6989, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space 15537 Erkner Germany)
Año2021
Volumen97
Número1
Páginas89-112
Fecha de publicación2021-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEconomic Geography (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0013-0095 • E-ISSN: 1944-8287
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00130095.2020.1858713
OpenAlexW3132410680
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas14
Referencias citadas45

Multiple challenges plague actors that commodify nature and create markets around products made from natural organisms. Primary among these is the reputational risk that results from negative impressions and moral contestations such as animal abuse, bad labor conditions, or pollution. In this contribution, we draw on cultural economic geography, and in particular the concept of dissociation, to demonstrate how supply side actors deal with such threats to their reputation. Geographies of dissociation provide a spatial perspective on the social construction of economic value, with a particular focus on the purposeful obfuscation of practices and the disconnection of discourses. We use the fur-fashion complex as a single case study, representing an extreme but instructive example, to study the agencies and effects of dissociative practices empirically. During our in-depth qualitative research on both the production and consumption of fur fashion, we focus on proactive and reactive dissociative strategies of the most powerful commercial actors in the field: fur-breeder associations and retail brands/brand owners

Business · Commodification · Disconnection · Economics · Economy · Environmental ethics · Political science · Reputation · Social science · Sociology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Law · Wine Industry and Tourism