Dr. Luuc Brans
Political-Cultural Sociologist
I'm Luuc. I research the politics of the climate crisis through fashion. More generally, I'm interested in sociology at the intersection of culture, politics, and sustainability. I'm currently a FWO Junior Postdoctoral Researcher at KU Leuven and upcoming Fulbright Schuman Scholar at Columbia University (Teachers College). I am affiliated to Harvard's Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs. Roam around this website to learn more about me and my work.
research
I strongly believe our politics is downstream from our culture. So to understand our political discontent, I look for its seeds in a very unlikely place... fashion! My. My PhD project at KU Leuven entitled Fashioning Ideology, Ideologizing Fashion investigated how fashion became more political as a consequence of the climate crisis. I focused on key players across Europe including fashion journalists, activists, apps, and policymakers to see how political ideologies came forwardi in the fashion world - a process I coined 'ideologization'.My research always takes an international angle. During my PhD, I was twice a visiting scholar at Harvard's Sociology Department and affiliate to the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs. I did fieldwork in the UK, USA, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. I defended my PhD in December '24 to jury members affiiliated to KU Leuven, University of Amsterdam and Harvard University.I currently continue this research line in my FWO Postdoctoral Research Project, focusing specifically on the way climate issues in culture feed into political polarization. Focusing on green influencers in fashion as 'sustainable-cultural entrepreneurs', I am curious how the inequality inherent to cultural production (who is the oatmilk elite that gets to speak on green issues?) leads to moralization and polarization around climate issues.Do you work in the fashion industry and want to talk? Or are you a journalist and do you want to learn more? Shoot me a message!
Publications
Email me for open access versions
- Forces for Change? How the legitimation of fashion in fashion magazines gains a political-ideological edge. With G. Kuipers in Cultural Sociology (2023) Link to article
- 'Who made my clothes? How transparency apps bring politics to cultural consumption and production' in Journal of Consumer Culture (2023) Link to article- Kuipers, G., L. Brans & L. Carbone (2023) ‘The Myth of Trickledown: How fashions do (not) spread in European fashion magazines and what this tells us about power and status in the European fashion system’ in:
Almila, A.M. & D. Serkan (eds.) Fashion’s Transnational Inequalities: New Social and Economic Approaches Routledge: London. Link to chapter
- 'Nations, Nationalism and the Nation State' (with T. Kuhn & T. van der Meer) In: Political Science and Changing Politics (2017). Amsterdam University Press- Fans, not critics? Attitudes and role conceptions towards sustainability among European fashion journalists
(under review)
- Making fast fashion past fashion? How the EU and the UN are resetting the rules of the fashion game (drafting)
Projects
💼 Before my current FWO Junior Postdoctoral project, I was a postdoctoral researcher in the EU-funded ERC-project Beauty and Inequality (BINQ). This project brings together researchers from five different global cities to understand how the way we look, and how we judge other people's looks, relates to all kinds of inequalities.Apart from researching, I love sharing academic knowledge with the larger public and with students of all ages and backgrounds. I primarily do so through my teaching and podcast producing.🎓I have years-long teaching experience at various levels, from high school to master's programmes, covering subjects from history to sociology and politics. I've taught in the bachelor and Master of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam (2016-2019, 2024-2025), Media and Communications programmes at Erasmus University Rotterdam (2023 - 2025), and BA and MA courses in Sociology at the KU Leuven (2020 -), history and civic education in secondary education in Amsterdam (2015-2018). Outside formal education, I developed media literacy programmes to counter disinformation for schools throughout Europe.🎙Podcasting . I've been producing academic podcasts since 2016. I'm currently co-producing the Culture & Inequality Podcast of the European Centre for the study of Culture and Inequality (EUCCI). Listen below!
About me
A few brief facts about me:🇪🇺 Amsterdam born & raised, but currently Brussels based. I've also lived in Edinburgh, Berlin and Cambridge, Massachusetts. 🇪🇺🎓I defended my PhD in Social Sciences at KU Leuven in 2024. Before this, I acquired my BSc in Political Science (minor cultural sociology) at the University of Amsterdam, and my MSc in Nationalism Studies at the University of Edinburgh - both with distinction (cum laude) 🎓📸My current academic interest in fashion sparks from my experience as a fashion model in London, Milan, Paris, Amsterdam & Tokyo in the early 2010s. 📸👨🏼🍳In my spare time, I enjoy films, hiking, and cooking. I'm an aspiring dog owner 🐶
Contact
Want to exchange thoughts? Just want to know more? Or do you work in fashion and do you want to share your experiences?My channels are always open. Shoot me a message using the contact details below.