Civic Engagement in the Workplace: Working for a Better World

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Can we make healthy working environment the norm? Is it unrealistic to aim for ethical production standards in fashion industry? Is it possible to create equal models of governance in large-scale companies and involve all employees, equally, in the production chain? From co-ops to social entrepreneurship, from small scale to large scale companies, we explore civic initiatives taken by individuals, companies and public policies to create a more equal and inclusive workplace.

Jura: The Whole Taste

In this award-nominated film, travel to Jura to meet the people who are involved in almost every aspect of cheese production (farmers, cheese makers, cheese agers, fruitières, etc.) and to attain a more in-depth understanding of the French notion of terroir, as well as a more nuanced sense of a larger, regional fabric.

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Through Professor Christy Shields's classes, you will explore the significance of food and eating in everyday life, and as you travel around France with your classmates, you will become increasingly aware of how food beliefs and habits are culturally situated and politically and economically shaped.

"The Whole Taste" is the work of three undergraduate students and was a finalist at the AgriCulture Film Festival in 2017 and the Food Film Fest 2018.

Read more about the Jura Practicum

Photo credit/ JEM Jewellery, Paris

Sustainable Fashion Shopping in Paris

Providing the community with insightful information for conscious shopping in Paris. 

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AUP students who study fashion at AUP understand that Paris is the centre of the world fashion universe. The city is rich in fashion culture that began with King Louis XIV four hundred years ago, followed by the establishment of haute couture in the 19th century, and continued into the 20th and 21st  centuries with a long succession of spectacularly successful fashion designers such as Gabriel Chanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Jean Paul Gaultier. There is a vital shopping culture provided by first class boutiques and department stores which display beautifully designed, colorful clothes and accessories, the products of today’s vital Parisian fashion climate.

But there is another side to shopping in Paris. The rise of fast fashion stores such as C&A, H&M, Zara, Century 21 and the like. These stores sell clothes mostly produced in countries with lax or non-existent labor laws, from raw materials with no respect for nature, and are finally sent thousands of miles across the globe to Parisian shops leaving behind a trail of high volume carbon footprint. Because their price is low, the clothes are easily discarded in landfills. This has become a major disposal problem: fashion is the number two polluter in the world.

When studying the above facts, students in the Communicating Fashion Class  at AUP decided to scout for alternative stores in Paris where they could find products which sold conscious fashion: fashion that respects the supply chain with ethical practices. At this point in time, finding these stores is the exception rather than the rule. The realization has led the students to decide to start a blog on sustainable fashion shopping in Paris.

The blog is the students’ stand for more conscious shopping in Paris.  This is their way to encourage the  sustainable fashion movement which is gaining momentum around the world. Their stand speaks volumes in the world’s fashion capital.

Read the Sustainable Fashion Shopping Blog