Call for abstracts RSA26

This is a call for abstracts for the Special Session “SS46. Fashion economies in transition: Urban and place-based dynamics” at the 2026 Annual Conference of the Regional Studies Association (RSA26) in Gothenburg on June 15-18, 2026. The session is co-organised by Mariangela Lavagna and Younghyun Kim (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC), Emma Samsioe (Lund University), Annelise De Jong (IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute), Marianne Ping Huang (Aarhus University), and Monika Murzyn-Kupisz (Jagiellonian University) in the context of three Horizon Europe-funded projects which share a focus on the fashion transition, Fabrix, CARE Circular Households, and CRAFT-IT4SD.

This session invites contributions that examine fashion and textiles industries through an explicitly urban and place-based lens. We welcome theoretical, conceptual, and empirical papers that explore how urban settlements of different size and character host, support, and are transformed by ongoing transitions in the fashion and textile sectors, across different geographical contexts and scales. We especially encourage insights from secondary or peripheral fashion cities beyond the major global fashion capitals.

Relevant themes for contributions include (but are not limited to):
·       Urban production systems and the changing geographies of garment and textile manufacturing
·       Fashion entrepreneurship, creative industries, and their supportive ecosystems
·       Digitalisation and platformisation in urban fashion economies
·       Influencer economies and cultural intermediation in fashion
·       Place-based sustainability transitions and circular economy in fashion
·       Urban governance and policies in fashion and textiles
·       Collaborative consumption practices and their infrastructures
·       Changing fashion consumption practices in cities
·       Labour, migration, and inequality in urban textile and fashion sectors
·       Branding, place-making, and the symbolic economies of fashion cities
·       Comparative perspectives on fashion and textile industries across regions

See the official description of sessions - choose SS46 to see this one.

How to apply

Deadline for the submission of abstracts: February 12, 2026 via the RSA portal.

Choose the open session from the menu list "SS46. Fashion economies in transition: Urban and place-based dynamics"