While there is growing research about the roles of organisations in the transition to a post-growth society, activities in the market economy and the roles of businesses have received little attention so far. In this study, we address this gap by exploring the extent to which post-growth aspects have been considered by sustainability-oriented SMEs in the German speaking fashion industry. By drawing on the concepts of alterity and socio-technical niches, we analyse the framing strategies the companies use to position their alternative approaches in the context of the growth debate. We identify two narratives that show different degrees of oppositionality towards the established “mainstream” practices of the fashion industry: the “grow when it's good” narrative and the “less (growth) is more” narrative. Despite their antagonistic perspectives towards the relationship between sustainability and growth, these narratives can play complementary roles in a post-growth transition. At the same time, they represent the opposite ends of a continuum rather than distinct categories, which underlines the multidimensional nature of businesses’ perceptions of growth.

中文翻译：

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构建增长的极限：可持续时尚行业的叙事


虽然关于组织在向后增长社会过渡中的作用的研究越来越多，但到目前为止，市场经济中的活动和企业的作用很少受到关注。在这项研究中，我们通过探索德语时尚行业中以可持续发展为导向的中小企业在多大程度上考虑了后增长方面，从而解决了这一差距。通过借鉴他者性和社会技术利基的概念，我们分析了公司在增长辩论的背景下用于定位其替代方法的框架策略。我们确定了两种叙事，它们与时尚行业既定的 “主流 ”做法表现出不同程度的对立：“好时增长”的叙事和 “少（增长）即是多 ”的叙事。尽管它们对可持续性和增长之间的关系持敌对观点，但这些叙事可以在后增长转型中发挥互补作用。同时，它们代表了连续体的两端，而不是不同的类别，这强调了企业对增长的看法的多维性质。