Second hand som livsstil : En multimodal analys av hur hållbarhet och legitimitet konstrueras i Sellpys externa kommunikation

Sammanfattning

In recent years sustainability has become increasingly central within the fashion and second-hand industry where companies often seek to position themselves as environmentally responsible actors. At the same time, such communication has been a subject to growing criticism, particularly in relation to greenwashing and issues of legitimacy. This study seeks to address aspects of this through its aim to examine how sustainability and legitimacy are communicated multimodally in the external communication of Sellpy, which is a second-hand digital platform that is majority-owned by the H&M Group. The study applies a qualitative multimodal analysis based on theories of legitimacy to analyze selected Instagram posts published by Sellpy during 2024 and also selected content from their website. The analysis focuses on the interaction between visual and linguistic resources such as imagery, color, composition and textual elements, and how these contribute to the construction of sustainability-related meanings and legitimation strategies. The findings in this study indicate that Sellpy constructs sustainability as a normalized and desirable part of everyday consumption, where second-hand is framed as a lifestyle choice rather than an alternative. Through multimodal strategies sustainability is used to justify continued consumption which can be seen as a subtle form of greenwashing where overconsumption in the fashion industry is not questioned.