Event Details

LUCC research seminar with Dr. Qin Fan of Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power

This paper adopts Bourdieu’s (1984) conceptualisation of taste and distinction to examine the role of language in Shanghai’s post-reform landscape, focusing on how informal learning serves as a tool for organisational styling in the sustainable fashion sector. Informal learning through lectures, exhibitions, and workshops serves not only as a means of education but also as an entryway into the “knowledge-led” and “discourse-led” economy (Fairclough, 2002), where semiotic resources become essential to branding and value creation. The analysis is based on data collected from Shanghai-based sustainable fashion brands and a consulting firm, both of which target upwardly mobile, globally engaged urban elites. Employing a mixed-methods approach combining multi-sited ethnography and corpus-assisted discourse study (CADS), this study identifies a discourse of trust and four rhetorical strategies that mobilise sustainability as symbolic capital: (i.) showcasing traceability and transparency, (ii.) leveraging the power of knowledge, (iii.) advocating eco-altruism, and (iv.) managing a fan base and fostering close customer ties. These strategies reveal how knowledge and sustainability are discursively constructed as a means of distinction, creating value for elite consumers through discourses that are globally informed yet locally situated. The findings demonstrate how Shanghai’s sustainable fashion industry exemplifies Fairclough’s (1996) concept of the “technologisation of discourse”, whereby language is used to commodify knowledge, shaping aspirational lifestyles and maintaining class distinction in a globally connected economy.