Jul – pynt, gaver, klær og mat

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 6. desember 2019

Annechen Bahr Bugge, Ingun Grimstad Klepp, Anita Borch, Alexander Schjøll, Kirsi Laitala og Vilde Anine Rydal Haugrønning

Sammendrag

I denne rapporten er det sett nærmere på hvilken betydning og rolle pynt, gaver, klær og mat har i juleritualet. Resultatene av spørreundersøkelsen viser at hvordan vi feirer jul er preget av stabilitet og relativt små endringer. De aller fleste deltar i julefeiringen. Syv av ti ga uttrykk for at julen hadde stor betydning for dem. Det respondentene satt mest pris på ved ritualet var det sosiale samværet, maten og måltidene og tradisjonene. Langt færre beskrev det kristne julebudskapet eller gavene som betydningsfulle. Samlet viser rapporten at den stemningen og det sosiale samværet som mange sier de setter pris på ved julen, nettopp skapes gjennom forbrukspraksiser som å kjøpe og lage gaver, vaske, rulle og stryke, bake, koke og steke, pynte og dekke bord, kle seg til høytiden, sette god mat på bordet og dele den med kjente og kjære. Rapporten viser dessuten at vi ikke bare er sammen, men også er sammen på en annen måte, en bestemt måte nokså annerledes enn i hverdagen.

Klikk her for å lese hele rapporten (oda.oslomet.no).

Summary

This report looks at the meaning and role of decorations, gifts, clothing and food in the Christmas ritual. The results show that the way we celebrate Christmas in Norway is characterized by stability and small changes. The vast majority of people attend the Christmas celebration. Seven out of ten stated that Christmas was important to them. Social gatherings, food and meals, as well as traditions, were the most appreciated by the respondents. Far fewer described the Christian Christmas message or gifts as important. Overall, the report shows that the atmosphere and sociality that many say they appreciate at Christmas is precisely created through consumer practices, such as buying and making gifts, washing, rolling and ironing, baking, cooking and roasting, decorating, dressing up for the holidays and sharing meals with known and loved ones. The report also shows that we are not only together, but also together in a different way at Christmas, a certain way quite different from everyday life.

The full report is only available in Norwegian.

Wardrobe sizes and clothing lifespans

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 19. september 2019

Ingun Grimstad Klepp, Kirsi Laitala and Vilde Haugrønning

Abstract

It is easy to assume that a large wardrobe is characterized by excessive clothing and high acquisition, with little use of each garment and thus a big environmental impact. However, it is also possible to think the opposite; that the large wardrobe is a result of clothes remaining in use for a long time, that disposal happens rarely, while acquisition can be normal or even low. Whatever the reason, in a large wardrobe it is more likely that clothes become old before the technical life expires. This is because many of the garments are seldom used. Small wardrobes are often presented as favourable for both people and the environment, and as part of an ecological-friendly lifestyle, but we know little about the interaction between wardrobe sizes, longevity and the environmental impact.

In this paper, we investigate this relationship based on survey material from five countries; China, Germany, Japan, UK and the USA. We find that consumers with large wardrobes use their clothes longer, but consumers with small wardrobes use their clothes more often before they are disposed. We conclude that a good utilization of resources is possible with both large and small wardrobes, but in different ways. As we work towards more sustainable clothing consumption, we need to approach consumers differently, in order to give constructive advice to all.

This is a conference article from the 3rdPLATE 2019 Conference. Click here to find the full conference proceedings including this article (depositonce.tu-berlin.de).

Leve av å reparere? En studie av økonomien i reparasjonsbransjen for klær og hvitevarer

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 5. september 2019

Vilde Haugrønning, Ingun Grimstad Klepp, Pål Strandbakken, Kirsi Laitala og Harald Throne-Holst

Sammendrag

Rapporten undersøker reparasjonsbransjen for klær og hvitevarer og aktørenes synspunkter på barrierer og muligheter for utvikling av tjenestene. Det er viktig å få en bredere forståelse for hvilke muligheter og barrierer de opplever i sitt arbeid med reparasjon, fordi dette kan være en viktig del av sirkulær økonomi og bærekraftig forbruk. De aller fleste reparasjoner foregår privat, og forbrukernes holdninger er også viktige for bransjen. Derfor har vi trukket forbrukernes oppfatninger inn i analysen basert på en spørreundersøkelse. Rapporten diskuterer dermed ikke bare hva som kan styrke en bransje, men også hva som kan bidra til at flere produkter blir reparert og dermed brukes lenger.

Den første delen av rapporten er en litteraturgjennomgang. Vi presenterer tidligere studier av bransjen i Norge, samt svenske erfaringer med redusert merverdiavgift. Videre følger en analyse av 15 kvalitative intervjuer med aktører i reparasjonsbransjen, 10 innen klær og 5 innen hvitevarer. I analysen har vi også inkludert datamateriale fra spørreundersøkelsen med forbrukere. Reparasjonsbransjen er svært sammensatt og består delvis av store bedrifter hvor reparasjon er en forsvinnende liten del av deres virksomhet, og av små enmanns bedrifter hvor reparasjon kan være, men ikke alltid er en viktig del av virksomheten. Likevel er det flere likhetstrekk for hva som er barrierer og muligheter for bransjen. Blant barrierer finner vi at den gjennomgående lave prisen på produkter og lav kvalitet bidrar til liten lønnsomhet for reparasjoner, og det er svært liten betalingsvilje blant forbrukere for reparasjonstjenester. Videre er tilgangen på kompetent personale en stor utfordring, som forventes å bli større i årene fremover.

Mulighetene ligger i potensielle samarbeid mellom tilretteleggere og tilbydere for reparasjoner, og spre kunnskapom reklamasjon og rettigheter ved kjøp av varer. Både bransjen og forbrukerne er enige om at bedre kvalitet på produkter er et utgangspunkt for økt produktlevetid, og dette vil også øke antall lønnsomme reparasjoner. I tillegg ser vi også et behov for at mindre bedrifter som tilbyr tilpassede produkter og ulike tjenester som forlenger produktlevetiden, får økonomiske tilskudd slik at de blir mer rustet til å bidra i overgangen til et mer miljøvennlig forbruk.

Klikk her for å lese hele rapporten (oda.oslomet.no).

Summary

This report explores repairs services for clothing and white goods by looking at financial aspects and drivers and barriers for service development. It is important to gain a broader understanding of the drivers and barriers experienced by actors in repair work, as this can be an important part of the circular economy and more sustainable consumption. The vast majority of repairs are private, and consumer attitudes are important to this industry. Therefore, we included consumer perceptions in the analysis based on a national representative survey in Norway. The report discusses not only what can strengthen the repair industry, but also how more products can be repaired and used longer.

The first part of the report is a literature review. We present previous studies of the industry in Norway, as well as Swedish experiences with reduced value added tax. Furthermore, an analysis of 15 qualitative interviews with actors in the repair industry follows, 10 in clothing and 5 in white goods. In the analysis, we also included data from the consumer survey. The repair industry is very complex and partly consists of large companies where repair is a small part of their business, and of small one-man businesses where repair can be, but is not always, an important part of the business. Nevertheless, the barriers and facilitators for the industry are often similar. Among barriers, we find that the consistently low price of products, and low quality, contribute to low profitability in repair work, and there is very little willingness to pay among consumers for repair services. Furthermore, access to competent staff is a major challenge, which is expected to increase in the years ahead.

The drivers lie in potential collaboration between repairers and providers of repair, and dissemination about complaint and warranty rights when purchasing goods. Both the industry and consumers agree that better quality of products is a starting point for increased product lifespans, and this will also increase the number of profitable repairs. In addition, we also see a need for smaller companies that offer customized products and various services that extend their product life to receive financial grants so that they are more equipped to contribute to the transition towards more sustainable consumption.

A Louse in Court: Norwegian Knitted Sweaters with ‘Lus’ on Big-Time Criminals

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 25. juli 2019

Ingun Grimstad Klepp

Introduction

Early one morning in 2008 I was sitting in make-up for a Norwegian television show and felt the trained hands of the make-up smooth out my face with paint. It wasn’t the first time I’d been there. With a population of 5 million there are not many clothing researchers to choose between in Norway, and with plenty of weather and outdoor activities, clothes are important. Questions such as how to dress children for physical activities outdoors are equally relevant every autumn and before every winter vacation and every Easter, when Norwegians go to their cabins, and the ideal is to spend as much time as possible outdoors. I have talked about the choice between wool and synthetic fibres and also about traditional Norwegian knitwear, but this time the subject was somewhat different.


The Norwegian Islamist Arfan Bhattis stood, as the first person in Norway to be accused of violating a new terror clause in the Penal Code. The striking thing for the Norwegian press was that he appeared in court in a Norwegian knitted sweater, a so-called lusekofte [lit: lice jacket], and he wasn’t the first. Before him, the accused in the biggest robbery in Norwegian history and the accused in the most discussed triple homicide had dressed in the lusekofte in court.

You can find this essay in the book Fashion Crimes: Dressing for Deviance, edited by Joanne Turney, here (bloomsburyfashioncentral.com).

Uniformity Without Uniforms: Dressing School Children in Norway

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 12. mai 2019

Ingun Grimstad Klepp, Kirsi Laitala and Silje Elisabeth Skuland

Abstract

This chapter discusses the relationship between Norwegian schools’ ideals of equality and the way in which school clothes are regulated. Interviews with a teacher in a transitional language learning group for newly arrived immigrant children, as well as with children and parents in immigrant families, are used to discuss whether school clothes inhibit or promote integration. The material shows great willingness of children to dress like the others, as well as understanding that clothing consumption is essential for integration in school, and thus society. At the same time, this is not easily achievable either economically, culturally or practically. Little is done to make Norwegian schools inclusive in this field of consumption.

This article is from the book Inclusive Consumption: Immigrants’ Access to and Use of Public and Private Goods and Services, edited by Anita Borch, Ivan Harsløf, Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kirsi Laitala.

Click here to read the full article (idunn.no).

Dressing a Demanding Body to Fit In: Clean and Decent with Ostomy or Chronic Skin Disease

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 31. januar 2019

Kirsi Laitala and Ingun Grimstad Klepp

Abstract

This article discusses what kind of strategies people with a stoma or various chronic skin conditions, such as psoriasis oratopic dermatitis, use to find clothes that fit and enable them to fit in. Based on qualitative interviews in Norway, we study how they manage to dress with a demanding body, a poor market and limited economic resources. This includes describing how purchases take place, which clothes fit, how much clothing is needed, and which laundry practices are used. Their main strategy was to reduce the requirements for their own appearance rather than to cleanliness and body odours. If they were unable to appear appropriately dressed, as a minimum odourless and stain-free, they reduced their participation in social life.

Click here to read the full article (cogitatiopress.com).

Care and production of clothing in Norwegian homes: Environmental implications of mending and making practices

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 15. august 2018

Kirsi Laitala and Ingun Grimstad Klepp

Abstract

Mending, re-design, and altering are alternatives for prolonging the use period of clothing. It is a common assumption that nobody mends clothing anymore in Western societies. This paper studies Norwegian consumers’ clothing mending and making practices. We ask how common the different mending and making activities are, has this changed during the past several years, who are the clothing menders and makers, and further, are these practices related to consumers environmental opinions?

We build on three quantitative surveys in Norway from 2010, 2011, and 2017. Many consumers do mend their clothing at least occasionally, especially the simpler tasks, such as sewing on a button and fixing an unravelled seam. Women and the elderly are more active in making and mending, whereas the young are a bit more likely to make something new out of old clothing. The mending activities were correlated with respondents’ environmental opinions. Mending clothes is more common than is usually assumed. Knowledge of current practices and barriers for clothing mending enables us to recommend measures that can potentially increase the use time of clothing. These results can be beneficial in clothing design, home economics, and crafts education as well as understanding consumer behavior and making policies that aim at environmental improvements within clothing consumption.

Click here to read the full article (mdpi.com).

A Note from the Editors of Fashion Practice

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 22. juni 2018

Kate Fletcher & Ingun Grimstad Klepp

A Note from the Editors of Fashion Practice

The general editors of Fashion Practice, Sandy Black and Marilyn Delong, would like to thank our guest editors Kate Fletcher and Ingun Grimstad Klepp for their work in developing this Special Issue on Localism and Fashion. With its focus on localism as a movement concerned with generating knowledge for change, we see an emerging concept for fashion. This reaches beyond a more familiar territory, where the notion of localism may be concentrated on marketing a place, country or region through the fiber and garments made there—for example, see the previous special issue “Fashion Made in Italy” (2014, Volume 6 Issue 2). We view this current edition as the beginning of a stimulating debate on the topic of localism.

Click here to read the full editorial (tandfonline.com).

Kartlegging av ekstrautgifter

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 18. juni 2018

Gun Roos, Kirsi Laitala, Ingun Grimstad Klepp, Marthe Hårvik Austgulen og Elling Borgeraas

Sammendrag

På oppdrag fra Arbeids-og sosialdepartementet har SIFO gjennomført en kartlegging av ekstrautgifter knyttet til grunnstønadsordningen. Prosjektet består av to delprosjekter. Formålet med det første delprosjektet er å undersøke hvorvidt matutgiftene ved et kosthold for personer med cøliaki eller andre diagnosegrupper som fordrer at de lever på en glutenfri diett er høyere enn utgiftene til mat-og drikkevarer i SIFOs referansebudsjett, og eventuelt hvor mye høyere.

Formålet med det andre delprosjektet er å undersøke hvorvidt utgiftene knyttet til klær, sko og sengetøy for personer med spesifikke varige sykdommer eller lidelser er høyere enn utgiftene til klær, sko og sengetøy i SIFOs referansebudsjett, og eventuelt hvor mye høyere. Beregningene for delprosjekt 1 viser at ekstrautgifter ved diett som følge av cøliaki og andre diagnosegrupperutgjør ca. 655 kr i snitt for kvinner og menn i aldersgruppen 18-30 år per måned.

I delprosjekt 2 om ekstrautgifter som følge av ekstraordinær slitasje på klær eller sengetøy har vi gjort beregninger for tre ulike diagnosegrupper. Resultatene viser at ekstrautgiftene forbundet med psoriasis eller atopisk eksem (voksne) utgjør i snitt ca. 1,015kr, at ekstrautgiftene forbundet med ADHD (barn 10-13 år) i snitt utgjør ca. 710kr, og at ekstrautgiftene forbundet med stomi (voksne) i snitt utgjør ca. 800kr permåned. Det må presiseres at det hefter usikkerhet om alle beregningene, og det kan være nødvendig å ha et litt distansert holdning til beregningenes presisjonsnivå.

Klikk here for å lese hele rapporten (oda.oslomet.no).

Summary

On behalf of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, SIFO has carried out a mapping of additional expenses related to the basic benefits scheme. The project consists of two subprojects. The purpose of the first subproject is to investigate whether the dietary expenses of people with celiac disease or other diagnosis groups requiring them to live on a gluten-free diet are higher than the cost of food and beverages in SIFO’s reference budget, and possibly, how much higher.

The purpose of the second subproject is to investigate whether the expenses associated with clothes, shoes and bedding for persons with specific permanent illnesses or disorders are higher than the cost of clothes, shoes and bedding in SIFO’s reference budget, and possibly, how much higher. The calculations for subproject 1 show that additional dietary expenses due to celiac disease and other diagnosis groups amount to approximately 655 NOK in average for women and men in the age group 18-30 years per month. In subproject 2 on extra costs due to extraordinary wear on clothes or bedding, we have made calculations for three different diagnostic groups.

The results show that the extra expenses associated with psoriasis or atopic eczema (adults) amount to approximately 1,015NOK, that the extra expenses associated with ADHD (children 10-13 years) on average amount to approximately 710NOK, and that the extra expenses associated with stoma (adult) on average amount to approximately 800NOK per month. It must be emphasized that uncertainty is connected with all of the calculations, and it may be necessary to have a slightly distanced attitude towards the calculation’s precision level.

This report is only available in Norwegian.

Motivations for and against second-hand clothing acquisition

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 1. juni 2018

Kirsi Laitala and Ingun Grimstad Klepp

Abstract

One of the possibilities consumers have for more sustainable clothing acquisition is to select pre-owned products. This article explores consumers’ motivations for clothing reuse: why they choose or do not choose to acquire second-hand clothing. First, a taxonomy of motivation categories based on previous studies is presented. This demonstrates that similar properties can be used as arguments both for and against acquisition of second-hand clothing. An analysis of a representative sample of Norwegian consumers shows that both environmental and economic reasons are important for those who take part in informal clothing circulation. Uniqueness and style are more important for those who buy second-hand clothing.

Those who do not take part in any of the forms of acquisition of used clothing, use vague and open justifications, as well as contextual aspects; hygiene, health and intimacy. Previous studies have mostly been based on how clothing is reused as part of a market exchange, and therefore the motives have been embedded with a rational choice understanding of consumption. Studies of the private exchange of clothing should also address additional reasons such as routinized practices and established rituals, family ties, feelings, friendship and love. The article concludes with an invitation for further research to explore several possible motivations that are more relevant for private circulation of clothes.

Click here to read the full article (ingentaconnect.com).