Envisioning the Clothing and Textile-Related Discipline for the 21st Century Its Scientific Nature and Domain From the Global Supply Chain Perspective

Abstract

The Clothing and Textiles (C&T) discipline was established over a century ago within the Home Economics discipline. During the early 1960s, a major shift occurred within C&T, from domestic science to one focused on industry. This conceptual paper takes an updated approach to discuss the relevance and uniqueness of C&T at a time when universities face reorganization or adaptation. After reviewing the scientific nature of C&T, the authors defined C&T as the science of investigating the satisfaction processes of humans' clothing needs and wants. These satisfaction processes are described and classified by hypotheses, theories, generalizations, and/or laws, through scientific methods built from both logics of discovery and justification. Therefore, the authors argue that C&T are closely linked with human science units because of its ultimate goal --human satisfaction of clothing needs and wants. More importantly, the authors argue the clothing satisfaction processes occur through supply chain management, from history and forecasting to retailing and distribution, in the global marketplace. The global supply chain management framework of C&T offers homes to all types of research, creative, and educational activities that C&T scholars conduct every day, and demonstrates how each component is inter-linked with other components. Finally, visions for the future of C&T are offered if the model is adopted, and the authors suggest further conversations about the nature and domain of C&T.