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The fashion industry contributes to shaping the state of the planet: impacts of production and consumption of textile fast-fashion are rising, and the growing number of sustainability-oriented actions have not slowed current trends. The industry’s (un)sustainability is mainly researched within two epistemic communities: fashion studies concerned with social sustainability, and circular economy focused on material biophysical and technological aspects of material cycles along the value chain. I argue that this split of social and ecological aspects is the problématique of sustainable fashion, and that the epistemic community of sustainability sciences should turn its attention to fashion. My aim has been to develop a theoretically informed way of thinking critically about the intertwinedness of social-ecological systems, using fashion as a case study. I combine a social-ecological systems approach with critical realism as a metatheory of transdisciplinarity. My four mixed-methods research papers draw from data and information synthesis, ‘Keystone actor’ and business ecosystem analysis, literature review, analysis and critique of texts that shape theory and praxis in social-ecological systems approaches, and metatheoretic integration. Paper I investigates the business ecosystem of the fashion industry´s keystone actors, revealing roles and alliances in sustainability efforts operationalized through wide-ranging industry collaborations. It finds the current focus on internal operations of fashion businesses fails to recognize the potential of other types of actors to influence the pace and direction of the industry’s sustainability efforts. This indicates the importance for policymakers within global sustainability to think beyond value chain boundaries and understand fashion as an intertwined system. Paper II explores why sustainability interventions by the industry and policymakers have not been successful. It demonstrates that deepening the systemic treatment of the widely used driver-state-response framework reveals social-ecological dynamics and supports proactive, rather than reactive sustainability efforts. It argues that reducing the fashion industry's planetary pressures requires explicit recognition of the system’s social drivers and shows the need for real-world adaptive actions that include social activities beyond the value chain. Paper III examines and critically reflects on disciplinary perspectives on fashion, showing ways to deepen the treatment of culture and diversity in social-ecological systems research at global levels. It provides systemic approaches for transdisciplinary actors to find more common ground on a ‘fashion system’ approach towards sustainability. It outlines challenges facing scientific research to contribute with knowledge useful for actions. Paper IV explores diverse perceptions and interests in the ‘sustainable fashion’ discourse, and points to ways that a systemic approach can harmonise existing efforts. It shows that academic papers rarely define sustainable fashion, and provided definitions are partial and not always consistent. Ultimately, it argues that a definition would rather impede than be helpful for work towards sustainable fashion. Its critical reflections contribute to interpretive approaches in social-ecological systems research, recognizing that meanings and intentions shape the effectiveness and significance of actions. Together, this provides a better understanding that the depth of fashion’s social-ecological intertwinedness is more than what is observed, studied and experienced. It contributes to a theoretical framework showing why sustainability of fashion needs to be thought of in terms of systems that reflect real connectivity and diversity, supporting fashion industry engagement with intrinsically intertwined material and social dimensions. Bringing attention to this intertwinedness opens up for possibilities and creative thinking for sustainable fashions. Modeindustrin bidrar till att forma planetens tillstånd: negativa effekter från produktion och konsumtion av fast-fashion ökar, och det ökande antalet hållbarhetsinriktade åtgärder har inte bromsat aktuella trender. Vetenskaplig forskning om modeindustrins (o)hållbarhet ökar inom två epistemiska gemenskaper, studier av mode och dess sociala hållbarhet och cirkulär ekonomi, dessa fokuserar på sociala aspekter eller betonar materiella biofysiska och tekniska aspekter utmed industrins värdekedja. Uppdelning av sociala och ekologiska aspekter bidrar till hållbart modets problématique, varför jag hävdar att det är dags för den epistemiska gemenskapen, hållbarhetsvetenskap att uppmärksamma mode. Mitt mål har varit att, med mode som fallstudie, utveckla ett teoretiskt informerat sätt att tänka kritiskt kring sammanflätningen av social-ekologiska system. Jag förenar en social-ekologisk systemansats med kritisk realism som transdisciplinär metateori. Mina fyra forskningsartiklar använder flera, ofta blandade metoder hämtade från data- och informationssyntes, 'Keystone-aktör' och affärsekosystemanalys, litteraturgranskning, analys och kritik av texter som formar teori och praktik i social-ekologiska systemtillvägagångssätt och metateoretisk integration. Artikel I undersöker affärsekosystemet för modeindustrins ’keystone’-aktörer, och avslöjar roller och allianser i hållbarhetsarbetet som operationaliseras genom branschsamarbeten. Den visar att nuvarande fokus på modeföretagens interna verksamhet fallerar att inse potentialen andra typer av aktörer har gällande påverkan av takt och riktning för hållbarhetsinsatserna. Detta visar vikten av att beslutsfattare inom global hållbarhet, tänker bortom värdekedjans gränser och förstår mode som ett sammanflätat system. Artikel II analyserar varför hållbarhetsinsatser från industrin och beslutsfattare inte har varit framgångsrika. Genom en fördjupad systemisk användning av ramverket Driver-State-Response visar den på en social-ekologisk dynamik som stödjer proaktiva, snarare än reaktiva hållbarhetsansträngningar. Den hävdar att en minskning av modeindustrins planetära påverkan kräver explicit erkännande av systemets sociala drivkrafter och visar på behovet för adaptiva åtgärder att inkludera sociala aktiviteter utanför värdekedjan. Artikel III undersöker och reflekterar kritiskt kring disciplinära perspektiv på mode, och visar sätt att fördjupa analysen av kultur och mångfald i social-ekologisk systemforskning på global nivå. Den presenterar systemiska tillvägagångssätt transdisciplinära aktörer kan använda för att hitta en gemensam grund för en ’hållbart modesystem’-strategi. Den beskriver utmaningar som vetenskaplig forskning står inför beträffande hur kunskap ska göras användbar för konkreta åtgärder. Artikel IV utforskar uppfattningar och intressen i diskursen om ’hållbart mode’, och visar hur ett systemiskt tillvägagångssätt kan harmonisera nuvarande arbeten. Den visar att akademiska studier sällan definierar hållbart mode, och att tillhandahållna definitioner i regel är partiella och inte alltid konsekventa. Den gör gällande att en definition snarare skulle hindra än hjälpa arbete för hållbart mode. Dess kritiska reflektioner bidrar med ett tolkande tillvägagångssätt inom social-ekologisk systemforskning, samt med insikten att betydelser och avsikter formar effektiviteten samt betydelsen av olika åtgärder. Denna avhandling bidrar till en bättre förståelse för att modets social-ekologiska sammanflätning går djupare än det som observeras, studeras och upplevs, samt varför sociala och miljömässiga aspekter inte kan behandlas separat i något hållbarhetsarbete. Avhandlingen bidrar till teoretiskt ramverk som visar varför hållbart mode behöver förstås i termer av system som speglar verklig mångfald. Att understryka modesystemets sammanflätning och diversitet öppnar upp för möjligheter och kreativt tänkande för flera hållbara modesystem.

Academic studies of sustainable fashion, and the discourses of actors in business and policy, under-define fashion as a system by treating the social and ecological aspects of fashion separately. This reduces the potential for academic findings to provide knowledge useful for transformation of the fashion system and obstructs desired outcomes from policy and business responses to fashion’s negative social and environmental impacts. Understanding how fashion works as a system presents a challenge to transdisciplinary efforts for transformation towards sustainability. In this Licentiate, I explore ways to look at fashion using a feminist critical realist social-ecological system approach. I develop a theoretical framework to understand the fashion system, and particularly to understand what is keeping it unsustainable. I view fashion as a ‘nested’ social-ecological system with inseparable social and biophysical parts. I use a feminist lens characterized by diversity; this draws attention to gaps, what is known, missing and absent. To show that social aspects and material aspects are intertwined and cannot be studied independently of each other, I use critical realism as a metatheory. I bring its idea of a stratified reality and the model of the four-planar social being to the social-ecological system approach that forms the core of my work. I combine Ostrom’s frequently used general framework for analysing social-ecological systems with a policy-oriented framework for sustainable development. Drawing from these two frameworks I develop a five principles for a strategy framework for sustainable fashion. In summary, applying the strategy framework within the theoretical framework enables thinking more deeply about the structure and implications of knowledge contributions when taking a social-ecological perspective on actions for sustainability. The two papers in this licentiate thesis examine the effects of ontological standpoints that allow environmental impacts of textile fibres to be analysed in isolation from the cultural and social aspects of fashion. Paper 1, ‘Making Resilient Decisions for Sustainable Circularity of Fashion’, is recently published in the journal Circular Economy and Sustainability (Palm et al. 2021). It aimed to show how current circularity responses to global sustainability challenges have so far fallen short. The current path of the expanding fashion industry is fraught with accelerated material throughputs and increased disposal and waste, contributing to human-driven environmental changes at planetary scale. In addition the fashion industry has issues of poor working conditions, modern-day slavery, and justice. By representing a Driver – State – Response framework as an adaptive cycle of a social-ecological system, it makes it clear that reducing planetary pressure from the global fashion and textiles industry requires greater recognition of the system’s social drivers. This paper was a step towards the iterative development of my sustainable fashion framework. Paper 2, ‘Reviewing and defining the concept of Sustainable Fashion: a critical social-ecological approach’, is included as an early-stage draft manuscript. It aims to provide a starting point for discussions towards a coherent science-business-policy definition of the concept of sustainable fashion itself. Using the five theoretically grounded principles of my strategy framework, I examine the manifold definitions related to sustainable fashion such as eco fashion, green fashion, ethical fashion, slow fashion, organic fashion and cradle-to-cradle-fashion. Critical realism’s idea of absence structures this paper. This thesis contributes to knowledge of what a nested inseparable social-ecological system fashion is, enriching ontological descriptions for resilience research more generally. Also, it provides concrete guidance for transdisciplinary efforts with business and policy working to decrease fashion’s negative impacts on humans and the planet, by showing that fruitful responses pay attention to social activities beyond the industry value chain, not just material flows within. Finally, I hope my research serves as a contribution to propaedeutics of the field of sustainable fashion, i.e. giving an introductory understanding of the reality and the possibilities of fashion for people and planet. The work presented here was part of a consortium research project between Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, initiated and funded by H&M Group, the Swedish public limited company. Celinda Palm, Sarah Cornell and Tiina Häyhä’s employment was part-funded through this project.