The secondhand clothing supply chain – tracing translations of objects of clothing from the global North to Ghana

This thesis deals with the secondhand clothing supply chain and the moments of translation objects of clothing can undergo. Object of clothing are ‘followed’ from the global North, more specifically the Netherlands, to Kantamanto market, Ghana. This is done in light of a document analysis of public online resources guided by the concept of moments of translation. Collecting, sorting and recycling companies in the Netherlands constitute a corporate identity that foregrounds environmental and social contributions through certificates, statistics and textile categories. By doing this they enact their ‘sustainable’ and ‘circular’ identities. However, their articulations do now allow for considering the realities that are lived in Ghana where communities interact with the clothing in different ways which cannot be simplified to a discourse on sustainability or circulation. Articulations in the global North of the secondhand clothing supply chain should be sensitive to these lived realities.