Clothes swapping in the United Kingdom: exploring collaborative fashion consumption through the lens of theory of social practice

  • Lucie Pocinkova

Student thesis: Phd

Abstract

This thesis aim is to explore public swap events in the UK, using theory of social practice lens. The objectives investigate both consumer and organiser perspectives of swapping events and were formulated based on gaps in existing literature. This research adopts a qualitative approach in a case-study design, utilising in-depth interviews and observations. Interview and observation data are analysed though a grounded approach to data analysis. The format of this thesis an alternative one where findings are presented as three journal format papers. This means the findings are readily written to be in a format that can be published and disseminated among academic and other audiences. Each paper features its own introduction, literature review, methodology, discussion and analysis as well as conclusion and limitations. The findings of this thesis include a novel theory on swapping formats, classifying these in terms of location and time as either permanent, semi-permanent, semi pop-up and pop-up, contributing to retail and event management literature. Findings further advance the current understanding of collaborative fashion consumption by outlining novel elements which part of the practice, such as the implicit social contract, peer pressure susceptibility as well as the consumer journey during a swap event. This research is limited by a singular approach however it is complemented by a rigorous, in-depth and rich exploration. This thesis has significant theoretical, practical and contextual contributions.
Date of Award1 Aug 2022
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • The University of Manchester
SupervisorAurelie Le Normand (Supervisor), Claudia Henninger (Supervisor) & Marta Blazquez Cano (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Fashion
  • Theory of social practice
  • Swapping
  • Collaborative fashion consumption

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