Designing for the Other: Using Knowledge to Upgrade Manufacturing in the Garment Industry

The first purpose of this paper is to theorize on the kind of knowledge that firms need in order to upgrade. The second purpose is to discuss some specific ways to upgrade, especially given the problem of contextual knowledge that manufactures face. To understand upgrading among garment manufacturers in developing countries, we must analyze the meaning of fashion garments. The paper introduces the theoretical notion of contextual knowledge, which furthers the two main findings of the paper. The first finding is empirical: it is a different situation to have a garment-producing firm in a developing country design for final consumer markets in developed countries than it is to have garments designed by someone close to these markets. This is due to a knowledgegap in the global market. As a result of this first finding, the second and more theoretical one deals with the knowledge context by examining its two dimensions – the lifeworld and the province of meaning.