In Pursuit of Luxury (IPOL) Conference 2026: Time to Change
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This is not another academic and industry gathering celebrating heritage and craftsmanship; it is an interrogation.
Time to Change is a collaboration between Ravensbourne University London and Goldsmiths, University of London, and will be hosted across both institutions. Day One will take place at Ravensbourne, and Day Two will be held at Goldsmiths.
IPOL Conference 2026
Time to Change confronts luxury at a moment of reckoning. This is not another academic and industry gathering celebrating heritage and craftsmanship; it is an interrogation. Building on IPOL 2025’s Honest Luxury, which exposed the exploitation, extraction, and ethical compromises behind luxury branded objects and services, 2026 asks what comes next.
Can luxury transform, or is it structurally incapable of meaningful change? We convene scholars, makers, critics, activists, and industry specialists to challenge Eurocentric paradigms, dismantle inherited hierarchies, and question whether luxury deserves a future at all. This is a space for uncomfortable truths, radical alternatives, and genuine debate. If luxury will not change now, in the face of climate crisis and extreme inequality, then when and if not through this generation of thinkers and makers, then who?
Luxury is at a crossroads. Geopolitical shifts, environmental urgencies, and evolving cultural values are dismantling old certainties. Heritage, exclusivity, and European dominance once unquestioned pillars of luxury are now sites of critical scrutiny. What was once aspirational is increasingly seen as morally fraught.
At IPOL 2025, Honest Luxury laid bare contradictions at the heart of the industry: exploitation masked by elegance, greenwashing cloaked in brand narratives, and colonial residues woven into the fabric of legacy brands. But exposure is not enough. Time to Change moves from critique to confrontation and asks how luxury must be reimagined, or abandoned if it is to have any ethical legitimacy in the future.
This year, we ask:
Should luxury change?
Can it change?
And, more urgently does it even want to?
Call For Papers 2026
Time to Change confronts luxury at a moment of reckoning. This is not another academic and industry gathering celebrating heritage and craftsmanship; it is an interrogation. Building on IPOL 2025’s Honest Luxury, which exposed the exploitation, extraction, and ethical compromises behind luxury branded objects and services, 2026 asks what comes next.
Can luxury transform, or is it structurally incapable of meaningful change? We convene scholars, makers, critics, activists, and industry specialists to challenge Eurocentric paradigms, dismantle inherited hierarchies, and question whether luxury deserves a future at all. This is a space for uncomfortable truths, radical alternatives, and genuine debate. If luxury will not change now, in the face of climate crisis and extreme inequality, then when—and if not through this generation of thinkers and makers, then who?
Luxury is at a crossroads. Geopolitical shifts, environmental urgencies, and evolving cultural values are dismantling old certainties. Heritage, exclusivity, and European dominance—once unquestioned pillars of luxury—are now sites of critical scrutiny. What was once aspirational is increasingly seen as morally fraught.
At IPOL 2025, Honest Luxury laid bare contradictions at the heart of the industry: exploitation masked by elegance, greenwashing cloaked in brand narratives, and colonial residues woven into the fabric of legacy brands. But exposure is not enough. Time to Change moves from critique to confrontation and asks how luxury must be reimagined—or abandoned—if it is to have any ethical legitimacy in the future.
This year, we ask:
Should luxury change?
Can it change?
And, more urgently does it even want to?
Time to Change: our theme
Time is not just a metaphor; it is the critical lens for IPOL 2026. We want to explore how time shapes the making, meaning, and moral status of luxury today.
Historical time weighs heavily through tradition, heritage, and intergenerational knowledge.
Present time demands urgency, as social movements and climate tipping points outpace slow institutional reform.
Future time questions whether luxury will have a role—or even legitimacy—in the decades to come.
We invite reflections on how time intersects with ethics, aesthetics, production, and cultural storytelling in luxury. Can brands genuinely balance preservation and innovation? Can craft traditions be honoured without reproducing the exploitative or colonial structures they sometimes carry? Can luxury ever be fast without becoming disposable?
We are especially interested in the temporal tensions shaping luxury today:
Fast fashion vs slow craft
Quarterly profits vs generational thinking
Trend cycles vs timelessness
Nostalgia vs innovation
These tensions have real-world implications—for workers, communities, ecosystems, and the cultural meanings attached to material things.
Thematic tracks
We encourage provocations that do more than intellectualise: submissions should engage materially, politically, and imaginatively with the stakes of luxury today.
Power, geography and who decides
Who defines luxury, for whom, and from where? How do colonial histories, global inequalities, and shifting geopolitical centres reshape authority and aspiration?
Time, speed and the paradox of transformation
How do speed, urgency, delay, and duration structure luxury’s production, consumption, and possibility for change?
Value, desire and the economics of aspiration
How are value and desire produced, priced, and policed in luxury economies, and who is excluded or exploited in the process?
Authenticity, transparency and the problem of truth
What counts as “authentic” or “honest” in luxury, and how do brands, media, and consumers construct—or resist—these truths?
Craft, culture and the question of survival
How can craft traditions, local knowledges, and cultural practices survive within (or against) global luxury systems?
Technology, innovation and the future of exclusivity
How do AI, digital platforms, virtual goods, and new materials reconfigure scarcity, access, and the performance of status?
Submissions may address these tracks from critical, practical, speculative, or activist perspectives.
Formats and contributions
We welcome submissions involving:
Academic papers (conceptual, empirical, comparative, or methodological)
Industry presentations and provocations (especially those open to self-critique)
Artist-, designer-, and maker-led talks
Short films, visual essays, or creative artefacts
Cross-disciplinary panels and experimental workshops
Performances, installations, or interventions that disrupt conventional formats
We actively encourage proposals from across the luxury value chain—from artisans and entrepreneurs to scholars, strategists, and campaigners—and from all global regions, particularly those historically excluded from dominant narratives.
Submission guidelines
Abstract: max 300 words
Please include you name, affiliation, job title, contact number and email address
Include: title, 3–5 keywords, and short bio (max 150 words)
Deadline: 31st May 2026
Submission platform: by email to abstracts@inpursuitofluxury.com
Notification of acceptance: 7 July 2026
IPOL 2026 will be a space for dialogue, rigorous critique, and bold experimentation. We seek work that challenges the status quo, exposes contradictions, or proposes uncomfortable solutions. If your contribution questions received wisdom, troubles established narratives, or makes audiences productively uncomfortable, it is likely on the right track. Contributors who present at the IPOL 2026 conference may also be invited to further develop their work for inclusion in Luxury Studies: The In Pursuit of Luxury Journal and related IPOL publications.
