Textiles Forward: Labour, Circularity & Production in Asia and Europe is an online conversation series with scholars from various fields (sustainable textiles, history, cultural geography, and international law…) sharing their latest research on the pressing ethical, environmental, and human challenges in the contemporary global textile and garment sector.
Developed under TEX-KR’s project, the series includes discussions on Cambodia’s textile and garment manufacturing, which employs up to 800,000 people according to the latest 2020 estimates, among which a large majority of women.
Meanwhile, Europe holds the world’s second position in textile export and import (including footwear and accessories), with a turnover of about 40% of global levels. Cambodia itself is the sixth-largest source of imports for the European Union for textile products, and the value was up to €4 trillion in 2019.
Under a simple format, conversations will foster scholarly dialogue and general audience engagement, highlighting ways forward for the textile industry. These multiple perspectives will consider the policies, systemic changes and collaborations needed to enact long-lasting improvements mitigating climate change, pollution and waste generation, and strengthening equity and social protection for workers across the production chain.
Episode 5 "ReFashion Study: Documenting the lives of 200 women garment workers in Cambodia through COVID-19" welcomes Dr Sabina Lawreniuk, human geographer and research fellow at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK, co-investigator of 'Refashion Study' and principal investigator of the 'Invisible Women, Invisible Workers' project. This conversation explores the impact of the pandemic on labour conditions for women garment workers in Cambodia.
To read more about Dr Lawreniuk’s research, click here.