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FashionCulturefinal.docxPROJECT 12
A Project to eradicate an ism
Student’s Name
Date
Week Three: Fashion Products that are used for social good
(a) The Giving Keys
The Giving Key s is a jewelry company found in Los Angeles. It was founded by Caitlin Crosby, an actress and a songwriter in 2008. The company started by working to modify old keys to become jewelry by putting engravings on the keys according to the owners' preferences. The company now creates necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings, and other jewelry. I was attracted to this project since the whole process of picking an old key, modifying it to be a jewelry and engraving words on it as a reminder or to spread a message is not only creative but a cheap way of spreading love, optimism or a belief and at the same time making money out of it as a business.
Caitlin Crosby started wearing an old hotel key as jewelry. She took it to a locksmith and asked him to engrave the word LOVE on it. Since then she wore it to every music concert and it became a source of interest for most friends and fans (Sung, 2018). She decided to come up with her key necklaces to sell during her music concerts. One day, she attended a movie screening by Invisible Children in Hollywood. She was so moved by the experience such that after the concert she talked to a homeless couple, Rob and Cera. Caitlin offered to take them out for a meal. Cera had a pretty necklace and Caitlin complimented her for it. Cera mentioned that she had designed and made it herself. Caitlin was awed and she immediately asked the couple to be her business partners in her key necklaces business to produce jewelry that are on high demand.
The company has now partnered with many charity organizations such as Invisible Children, So Worth Loving and Saving Innocence to raise money to help and support the homeless. As of 2014, the company had nineteen employees who were all previously homeless.
(b) Outland Denim
The brand, Outland Denim was founded by James Bartle in 2011 in Australia. He witnessed how human traffickers sold and bought young girls to serve in their sex industry. As a way to end sexual exploitation, James founded a Denim company to save girls who had an interest in sewing. He then took an interest in girls who were at risk of poverty since poverty was the main drive to human trafficking. I was attracted to this project since Saudi Arabia, my home country has been classified as a Tier 3 country since human trafficking has become rampant and the government is making little efforts to help the victims, to put the accused in custody or to end it (Goullard & Michon, 2018). Outland Denim, awed me by how it transformed and saved the lives of many teenage girls from such exploitations by giving them a life and a definite career path.
The brand became famous in 2018 after Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex wore a pair of denim jeans from the brand on her royal tour in Australia with Prince Harry. Outland denim uses sound raw materials, organic cotton to make premium quality jeans. The founder says that he chose to settle on producing jeans to save the young teenagers from human trafficking since jeans are a staple part of human life, they are long-lasting and environmentally friendly. The band focuses on producing high-quality jeans, responsibly and ethically and has successfully highlighted the authentic cornerstones of the social businesses for future enterprises.
The brand has also, successfully, set a standard for how female employees in any business should be treated. It has also shown the remuneration of young female workers in the cloth manufacturing industry and has been a rescue center for victims and prospective victims of human trafficking. By purchasing a pair of denim jeans from Outland Denim, a young woman in Australia, who would have been a victim of labor and sexual harassment, courtesy of human trafficking would be saved and her career path sustained.
(c) Love over H8
In January 2017, Cheryl Najafi, an Arizona resident, launched her online apparel brand. She explained that after President Trump attempted to enact his travel ban, she noticed the impending hate and divisiveness that had started affecting the county. She, therefore, decided to bring the change that she wanted to see in her world by making clothing that supported the hashtag #EqualRightsforEveryone. I was attracted to this project because of the impact it has had on the U.S residents, they have adopted the culture of wearing what they believe on their sleeves and supporting partnerships that bring social justice to the world.
The brand makes t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, sweat pants and tank tops which have the prints LOVE OVER H8. The slogan has helped the Americans embrace the perspective of maintaining peace by spreading love instead of hate. The founder, Najafi also urges the buyers to donate $5 for each purchase. She then uses the money collected from the donations to support organizations such as the Kind Campaign, Life After Hate, Take the Lead and National Organization for Women. These organizations work to bring justice back to the world by fighting for the rights of the oppress and to create public awareness on the need to maintain peace.
Najafi and her brand also work with peaceful protest leaders to spread the message of love in America. The leaders wear her summer collection to their peace campaigns and this has come a long way to maintain peace by creating the mindset in Americans that hate will bring harm and its only love that can keep people united t fight the evils and the injustices that are in the government systems. Najafi's sales double every week since the inception of her brand. It is definite that despite the urge to fight the government, the Americans want changes in a peaceful way, thanks to the Love Over8 brand.
Week four: A review of the articles from the scholarly journals
In the journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Aikaterini Sotiropoulou and Dimitra wrote an article on the Personal Values and Typologies of Social Entrepreneurs with a case study of Greece on the 7th October 2019’s issue. The issue discusses how social entrepreneurs have become the primary actors in the social entrepreneurial process and how so little is known about them. The writers studied the personal values that around 226 social entrepreneurs hold and what drives their involvement in dealing with social goods.
The writers used the Schwarz theory of basic values which identifies the 10 basic values that are recognized in all cultures and gives an extensive description of where they came from according to the different cultures. Some of the values include openness to change, self-enhancement, openness to change, conservation of security, conformity and tradition, self-transcendence and others such as spirituality. The writers discovered the most important values that are held by social entrepreneurs (Schwartz, 2012).
One is self-transcendence which means overcoming the limits that individuals have st for themselves and the desires contemplation in a spiritual way for divine realization. The logic of transcendence is based on humility and respect for the mysteries in the world, most importantly, the existence of humanity and the purpose of life. That is why most social entrepreneurs look beyond the money they obtained from their social business and focus on the greate goods such as maintaining peace and savin people from human trafficking, for example. The other outstanding value according to the article is openness to change. The writers discuss that the entrepreneurs are open and flexible to changes in their social enterprises. An entrepreneur such as James Bartle of Australia who founded Outland Denim started the brand to care for victims of human trafficking. He, however, changed the scope of his employees to include individuals from poor backgrounds whoa re most vulnerable to human trafficking. Ater on he incorporated the issue of taking care of female employee rights in the cloth industry and influenced several other companies.
In the article, the writers also reveal that there are four distinct types of social entrepreneurs based on personal values. They include the conservatives, pretentious, prudent and conventional.
Another article was written by Hannah Ritchie, "Beyond Good Intentions: Tweaking the Buy One, Give One Model" on 16th February 2016 in the journal Product, Service, and Design Innovation addresses the trends and the challenges that affect businesses that deal with One For One campaign. The writer says that however much the business models are created and implemented with the best of intentions, they lack a holistic approach to the problems they are aiming to address. She also highlights that they undermine a key selling point for mission-driven business models which is mutual reputation and profits.
Hannah gives an example of a company such as TOMS whose business models hit three birds with one stone; the customer, after buying the product is made to feel like they have made a positive impact, the company's reputation is boosted and the beneficiaries, who are most needy people, receive help for free. TOMS provides free shoes to people that live in abject poverty and people whose areas are infested with fleas.
The writer points out that companies such as TOMS just highlight the problems with social systems such as poverty and cannot solve the whole issue fully. She criticizes the donating of goods simply because such actions do nothing to address the root cause of such problems, say poverty. She explains that such donations end up leaving people with larger problems; dependence on help from donors which dramatically lowers their invention and innovation capabilities to solve the root cause of their problems.
Instead, Hannah proposes that the One for One campaign should focus on providing resources to the involved communities which they will use to change their economy. The resources include infrastructure, schools, tapped water, and health care. She commends companies such as Warby Parker which charges a subsidized amount of money for glasses thus making the consumer responsible instead of being dependent. She also commends the Soapbox Soaps company which gives donations of soap and water but works with the local members of the community to make the soap by teaching them first. Hannah urges the companies that advocate for One campaign to incorporate business ideas that will have long-term effects on their beneficiaries.
Another article written by Farhana Ferdousi on “Understanding Consumer Behaviours toward Social Enterprise Products” which was published in November 2017 on Techopen discusses social enterprise as an emerging trend to solve the major problems in society through business. Farhana’s article focuses on investigating the impact that the knowledge and understanding that the consumer has on social enterprises have on their buying behavior. She also discusses the ethical and rational concerns that a consumer considers before buying a social good.
From the article, Farhana indicates that 80% of respondents believe that social enterprises would contribute to the achievement of Social Development Goals and 26% show a clear understanding of what social enterprises are and what they aim at. From her literature review and regression analysis, Farhana discovered that consumer’s buying behavior is not dependent on their prior knowledge of social enterprise or the ethical perception and attitude. Their decision to purchase the product is solely influenced by the information provided about the product, their rational thinking about the pricing and the availability of the product in the future.
In conclusion, Farhana urges social entrepreneurs to focus on providing adequate information on their goods and their social mission to increase consumer response. They should also maintain the highest quality and ethical standards for the same so that the consumers can trust the brand in case of ethical and rational customers.
Week Five: The ism problem we would like to help eradicate
The problem that we would help to eradicate is loss and lack of maintenance of our cultural roots by the current generation among the Abaya of Saudi Arabia. Cultural heritage and the history of a cultural group are very important since they give a basis and a reflection of why people behave in a certain way and why their perspective of looking at things is the way it is (Holtorf, 2015). It also keeps the integrity of a people and promotes cohesion and unity among the members of a culture which leads to cohesion in the country and the world.
Among the Abaya, for example, women are losing our cultural heritage by launching a protest against wearing the abaya, a long robe worn by women in parts of the Muslim world. They protested against wearing it by wearing the abaya inside out and walking along the streets that way. The statement made by Prince Mohammed bin Salman that women should not feel obliged to wear the abaya if they don’t feel like they want to as long as they are decent and respectable will lea to the loss of cultural heritage. The generations to come will find a culturally diversified Abaya with no traceable cultural roots on the cultural women dressing codes. Giving such a decree would also mean losing other cultural riches for the sake of the current modernization.
Week 6: A global, historical perspective of the societal challenge
How the culture loss problem is viewed globally
Today's world has fully embraced globalization, its complex systems and the interdependence it brings among the cultural societies. Unlike in the previous centuries, communities are faced with the reality of the constant interaction that the global perspective of culture loss brings. Culture loss globally has been engineered by the development and advancement of technology which brings pervasive anthropological consequences. With globalization taking lead, insular communities and single entities can't operate as they used to before the current age (Wang, 2015). The ways of life, the culture, the cultural-political systems, and social interactions have become more fragile and distinctly unpredictable.
Culture loss has been characterized by the perspective that the strongest culture, whether by demographic numbers, political orientation, military dominance, and technological-know-how, tends to impose itself upon the weaker communities. The strong community, therefore, sets the trends of the way of life for the weaker communities, especially among the youth in pop culture. Currently, the Western communities' cultures have become domineering among the Asian and African continents. Africans, for example, who used to pray under trees or beside significant physical features such as mountains currently go to church to pray, as the western communities do. The Abaya women have also been influenced by the Western modes of dressing such that they even have the guts to go protesting along the streets so that they are allowed not to wear the abaya, anymore, even though it has been their culture for centuries. The Wester communities are more powerful in terms of finances and their influence is huge thus making the weaker communities loss their culture to embrace theirs.
Also, according to the global perspective, the technical processes which are organizational, logistical and which involve efficiency in productivity have also contributed to culture loss by shaping the perceptions of the native communities. As a result, the world is governed by the maxim measures of efficiency and not the morality that is embraced by the cultures. Functionalization of the technological processes of living including the education systems, music, recreation activities has become the main determinant of the order of the world thus leaving the cultural heritage with no space to thrive and with no people to keep it functional. It becomes worse once the old members of the community become too weak to keep the cultural heritage in place and when the young people want nothing to do with the old ways. The culture will be lost at the end of it all. As a result, there is an emergence of hybrid cultures and cultural identities and the dominance of a common language, for example, English in all communities due to lingua franca (Barthel-Bouchier, 2016).
Consequently, the dynamics brought by technology and globalization bring an end to cultural identity and dialects which is an irreversible situation that creates multidimensionality, constant self-assertion and the volatility of cultural roots due to the overbearing influence of the stronger communities.
How the problem is viewed historically
Whereas we are from the U.S, Africa, Asia or whichever part of the world, we are a conglomeration of many distinctively diverse communities and cultural customs. In the historical periods, people believed that the identities of persons were pre-determined by the homogenous characteristics which they shared with people of the same group. This view served as a crucial role in the management of the social systems and the complete knowledge and understanding of one’s kinsmanship. The people honored and made great attempts to understand and work on their genealogical identifications and the elder members of the society took turns to ensure that their young members of the community understood their history chronologically.
Knowledge of the larger societal systems of which a person was part of was essential in determining a person's customary obligation towards the society and the persons they directly deal with. The elders had the obligation of teaching the young members of the community the cultural heritage of the respective communities and making sure that they understood the essence of maintaining it and protecting it as such. The young, when they became of age were taught the religious systems and according to their abilities, intellectual capacities, and their family backgrounds, they were taught skills that they would then pass on to the next generations. It was, therefore, difficult for a community to lose its culture.
In the historical periods, the people sired many children for the continuity and the preservation of the culture. They ensured that the number of children would be large enough to withstand natural calamities and chronic diseases so that there would be people to keep a family, a clan or the community at large from being distinct. They were taught how to know their relatives and how to keep the permanence of neighborliness. The people also kept law and order to discourage disunity that would lead to separation, betrayal, and chaos in the community which would consequently lead to culture loss DeSilvey & Harrison (2019).
The people lived in a fixed culture and the elders saw to it that the community was safe, fed and protected from enemies. It was, therefore, difficult for the individuals to encounter issues that would predominantly lead to complete loss of their cultural orientations, however, chronic diseases that wiped the whole community leading to deaths of every member, or inter-community wars that led to the capture and the slavery of weaker communities would have led to the cultural loss. However, it was considered a taboo for a person to willingly abandon his or her cultural heritage into another one. Such a person was thereof considered an outcast.
Week 7: Organizations that have tackled the culture loss
They have been trending news on the destruction of cultural heritage and it has for some time seemed like it is an insurmountable task to preserve the cultural heritage especially in this age of technological advancements and globalization. Organizations have risen and been launched to work to protect the cultural heritage of different communities which appear like they are most vulnerable. Examples of such organizations include:
(a) U.S Committee of the Blue Shield (USCBS)
The U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield was formed in 2006 due to the heritage catastrophes in the world. The committee and its affiliated committees of the nation members work together in a way similar to the Red Cross Association. They work to take care of emergency issues such as fire and floods that occur in the cultural property such as museums that at the risk of political and natural calamities.
The committee is a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect cultural property globally from any armed attack. Their mantra is “Preserving the past…protecting the future.” The name Blue Shield came from the convention that took place in Hague in 1954 which advocated for the protection of any cultural property in case of armed conflict. The blue shield specifies the symbol for which is put as a mark for protected cultural property.
To prevent cultural property disasters, USCBS trains the military and other cultural property organizations on how to respond in case of an attack or a natural disaster to protect the historical documents thus preventing loss of a culture. They also create awareness about the essence of taking care of cultural property to the member communities. Finally, they respond and assist in case of emergencies, preservation of the damaged ones and providing emergency planning.
(b) UNESCO World Heritage Centre
UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The organization encourages individual communities to identify, protect and preserve their cultural heritage by making sure that they understand that preserving the culture is an outstanding value to humanity. The goal and the mission of the organization are embodied and reinforced by an international treaty- the convention- which is concerned with the protection of the world's cultural heritage which was adopted in 1972.
In its recent activities of 14th October 2019, UNESCO was closely monitoring the ongoing threats to Venice World Heritage Site. Venice was included in the list of World Heritage sites in 1987. However, in the recent past, it has been threatened by over-tourism, damages caused by the steady and constant stream of cruise ships which weigh up to 40,000 tons and from the negative effects of new developments, industrialization, and modernization. There has been also ineffective site management due to the disintegration of the responsible authorities thus putting Venice in peril. The UNESCO executive members met to discuss how they would work to protest the World Heritage Site and to reduce or fully terminate the effects of the problems to prevent the loss of the culture that the site holds (Arizpe, 2015).
(c) Archeological Institute of America (AIA)
The organization promotes inquiry and public awareness of the document records of the human past to prompt the appreciation of the different cultural heritages that are in the world. AIA supports archaeologists, their research activities and the ethical practices that are involved during archaeology. It also educates the general public on the essence of discoveries made during archaeological missions and advocates and supports the preservation of the already discovered archeological heritages.
There are 100 affiliate ad registered local societies in the U.S, Canada, and Europe which conduct AIA missions and host the annually outlined programs in the communities. In their social media platforms, the AIA constantly posts the discoveries made during archaeological missions and informs the identified communities of the same after conducting intensive and extensive research on the archeological objects. For example, one day ago, the organization posted on their Facebook page that the melting ice patched in Jotunheimen Mountains, Norway has recently exposed preserved artifacts, a horse's snowshoe and a tinderbox made of wood. They dated the objects and found that they are from thousands of years crossing.
AIA, after identifying to which community the objects supposedly belong to preserve them in the most appropriate museums (Arizpe, 2015). The organization works to ensure that each community's culture is well preserved, maintained and not forgotten for the sake of the current and future generations.
Week 8: Viable solutions for the “ism”
First is through the maintenance of the native language. Maintaining the native language is essential for the cultural communities to preserving cultures and traditions. As languages and the local dialect disappear, so does the oral traditions and the culture. As a result, the world suffers an immense loss and the native population loses its cultural heritage. Maintenance of native language can be done by teaching young people their local dialect, writing cultural books in the local dialect and encouraging the translations of Holy Books such as the Bible in the native languages (DeSilvey & Harrison, 2019).
The second solution is conserving the rituals, customs and religious beliefs of the people. Each community's elders and the involved government can set up cultural heritage sites where the cultural artifacts are kept. Some elder people who are well conversant with the cultures can be employed to watch over the place and to act as guides for the local and international tourists on the site.
The third is by spreading awareness on the importance of cultural heritage and why it is important not to lose it. The solution is possible if the government takes part in ensuring that the school curriculums incorporate the cultural heritages of as many communities as possible in their history class's syllabus. The local televisions stations and radio stations should also incorporate programs that teach and showcase cultural heritages periodically.
Week 9: SWOT Analysis for each of the programs
(a) Maintenance of the native language
Strengths
There still are people who are conversant with the native language and can teach and write materials of the same for those who are willing to learn the language.
Weaknesses
-Most people have adopted the English language since it is the official language and might not see the need for learning a local language (Holtorf, 2015).
-Most parents think that learning the local language is a thing of the past and they would never want their children to learn it.
Opportunities
- There already are schooling institutions in which languages can be taught.
-There are TV and local radio stations which speak the native languages. The languages would, therefore, be maintained.
Threats
-The perspective that the native languages are no longer important and the conviction that the official languages such as English are the most important.
-The discrepancies in teaching the local dialect in lower and upper-grade classes especially by private institutions,
(b) Conserving the rituals, customs and the religious beliefs of the people.
Strengths
-Some communities, such as the Maa of Kenya and the Khoikhoi of South Africa still maintain their cultural beliefs and customs including their dressing.
-Most of the customs that involve human relations such as treating visitors kindly still prevail in the modern world.
Weaknesses
- Some cultural beliefs have become obsolete and people can no longer embrace them.
-The religious beliefs of the old have been overtaken by the emergence of other beliefs such as Christianity.
Opportunities
-There are museums in which cultural artifacts, paintings, and drawings can be conserved.
-There are organizations such as UNESCO work to help communities in the world to preserve their culture.
Threats
-Natural calamities such as floods and fire may destroy the museums leading to loss of the cultural heritage (Wang, 2015).
(c) Spreading awareness on the importance of cultural heritage and why it is important not to lose it
Strengths
- There are local TV and radio stations that air their programs via the local dialect which can be understood by the old members of a community. By getting the news that they should create public awareness of the cultural heritages, they may be prompted to pass important information to the younger members of society. They can still be recorded and books are written according to their sayings.
-There are organizations such as UNESCO that work to create awareness of cultural heritage.
Weaknesses
-People may not take the message with the seriousness it deserves since they may reason that they do not need the cultures in the modern world.
Opportunities
-There are TV and radio stations in which public awareness can be done.
-Local gatherings can also be used to create public awareness of the same.
Threats
-Movies, pop music and celebrity shows may limit the audience that listens or watches the local TV stations and listens to the radio programs that create public awareness on the importance of the cultural heritage.
Week 10: The product that will be developed
Together with my accountability partner, we decided to develop a bracelet that has the message “It is your freedom but do not lose your culture and tradition. The bracelet is made of stainless steel, has a gold IP plating and is 0.6 cm in width and has a 16g weight. The bracelets are in colors gold and silver. They will act as a constant reminder to the wearer that it is important to take care of their culture regardless of the modernization and westernization that prevails. The culture is the only social home that will make the individual feel that he or she belongs.
References
Arizpe, L. (2015). The intellectual history of culture and development institutions. In Culture, diversity and heritage: Major studies (pp. 58-81). Springer, Cham.
Barthel-Bouchier, D. (2016). Cultural heritage and the challenge of sustainability. Routledge.
DeSilvey, C., & Harrison, R. (2019). Anticipating loss: rethinking endangerment in heritage futures.
Ferdousi. F. (2017). Understanding Consumer Behaviours toward Social Enterprise Products. Techopen. Newyork.
Goullard, B., & Michon, L. (2018). Marcas de moda ética: sostener sus compromisos ambientales, sociales y económicos English Version included.
Holtorf, C. (2015). Averting loss aversion in cultural heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 21(4), 405-421.Sung, J. (2018). The Viability of Social Enterprises’ Solutions to Homelessness. THE PPEREVIEW, 5.
Ritchie. H. (2016). Beyond Good Intentions: Tweaking the Buy One, Give One Model. Product, Service and Design Innovation. Te
Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An overview of the Schwartz theory of basic values. Online readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1), 11.
Wang, J. J. (2015). Flood risk maps to cultural heritage: Measures and process. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 16(2), 210-220.
Sotiropoulou & Dimitra. (2019). Personal Values and Typologies of Social Entrepreneurs with a case study of Greece. Social Entrepreneurship. NewYork.
