Cultural Reflexivity and the Nostalgia for Glocal Consumer Culture - Insights From a Multicultural...

CULTURAL REFLEXIVITY AND

THE NOSTALGIA FOR GLOCAL

CONSUMER CULTURE: INSIGHTS

FROM A MULTICULTURAL

MULTIPLE MIGRATION CONTEXT

Julie Emontspool and Dannie Kjeldgaard

ABSTRACT

Purpose � The purpose of this article is to investigate consumption dis-courses in contexts characterized by multiple cultures and interculturalcontacts, as multicultural contacts and multiple migrations challengeexisting consumer acculturation models based on a dualistic process ofacculturation. This chapter explores empirically the character of culturalreflexivity and its expression in consumers’ discourses. Given that nostal-gia is one prominent dimension of the migration conceptualization, weseek to understand how the role of nostalgia changes in contexts whereconsumers are decreasingly territorially embedded agents.

Methodology � The study rests on in-depth analysis of migrant narra-tives from two research phases. While the first phase encompasses

Research in Consumer Behavior, Volume 14, 213�232

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in-depth interviews, the second one combines interviews and observationsto provide a depiction of intercultural contact within the micro cosmosof a multicultural apartment.

Findings � The findings of this chapter illustrate how migrants developdifferent nostalgic discourses, to either (re-)appropriate the Expatriateas defined by James (1999), or to appropriate global consumptionscapesthrough nostalgia for the routine.

Research implications � On the basis of these findings, the article dis-cusses cultural reflexivity in terms of naturalization and cultivation nar-ratives (Wilk, 1999), proposing shifts between reflexive and routinizedconsumption practices as basis for consumers’ cultural reflexivity.

Originality/value of chapter � The contribution of this chapter is firstlya contextualized and empirically grounded definition of cultural reflexiv-ity. Secondly, it demonstrates that migrants’ consumption discoursesrevolve more around disruptions of routines than around acculturationprocesses. Thirdly, the chapter illustrates the use of nostalgia for emo-tional valorization of cultures beyond classical home cultural authenticitydiscourses.

Keywords: Reflexivity; culture; nostalgia; acculturation; globalconsumer culture; glocalization

INTRODUCTION

The representation of ethnic or cultural identity through consumptionbehavior has been studied extensively in recent years, establishing theimportance of individuals’ use and display of ethnic consumption asenactment of adherence to particular social groups (Cova, 1997; Mehta &Belk, 1991). This is amplified by the multiplication of interculturalencounters (Visconti, 2008) in modern societies, which leads consumers tobecome increasingly preoccupied with cultural identity and representation(Appadurai, 2002). In consequence, individuals not only integrate in a par-ticular ethnic community through consumption, but increasingly, also needto promote intercultural understanding by familiarizing their acquain-

214 JULIE EMONTSPOOL AND DANNIE KJELDGAARD

tances from other cultures with their own culture (Bochner, 1982). Particu-larly telling examples of these contexts are groups of exchange students orexpatriates, in which it is common to depict one’s culture through foodsharing and themed events centering on one or the other culture (King &Ruiz-Gelices, 2003).

Consequently, narratives and practices dealing with cultural identitybecome increasingly prolific among consumers. This links to the notion ofcultural reflexivity such as defined by Askegaard, Arnould, and Kjeld-gaard; “a simulation, where cultural tradition increasingly exists mainly asa reflexive and conscious practical realization of some idea of culture”(2009, p. 15). Consumer culture theory research in migration and globalconsumer culture has been exploring the notion of reflexivity in terms ofpointing to its existence (Arnould & Thompson, 2005) and its variousforms of representation in the form of cultural discourses (Askegaardet al., 2009). However, there is scant empirical investigation of how thiscultural reflexivity instantiates in consumption discourses, a shortcomingwe address in this article.

This article studies the narratives of migrants in multicultural Brusselsdescribing cultural interactions and performance of cultural identity. Thestudy finds that informants discuss different food cultures in terms of theirrichness and their global recognition (a cultural “pecking order”), whichform the basis for a reflexive articulation of food culture in a post-dyadicmigrant consumer culture context. Nostalgia being a major theme inmigrant consumer discourses (Stamboli-Rodriguez, 2011), this articles ana-lyzes how migrants of a variety of cultural backgrounds and with variabledegrees of previous migration experiences develop nostalgic consumptionnarratives. Our study finds that informants in this context mobilize well-known nostalgic discourses, but that the nostalgia is as much for mundaneor exotic products from previous sites of residence as it is for marketedaspects of foods “typical” of home culture. Nostalgia is then not only aconsumption discourse adopted by migrants to reflexively represent theirculture of origin, but can also be the articulation of a longing for particu-lar local instantiations of a more mundane glocal consumptionscape.Nostalgia hence becomes a particular emotional relation to discourses ofglocalization rather than only a longing for products of a particular origin.Furthermore, we discuss how products can move from one culturaldiscourse to another through the processes of “naturalization” and “culti-vation” (Wilk, 2009).

215Cultural Reflexivity and the Nostalgia for Glocal Consumer Culture

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Ethnic products and consumption habits play an important role in identityconstruction, not only on the individual level but also in displaying adher-ence to a social group (Bouchet, 1995; Ozcaglar-Toulouse, Beji-Becheur,Fosse-Gomez, Herbert, & Zouaghi, 2009). Migration exacerbates this needfor ethnic affirmation (Sussman, 2000). Mehta and Belk (1991) for instanceshow that after migration, Indians in the United States accentuate theirethnic identity through display of possessions. The process underlying thisactive display of culture can be addressed in the light of cultural reflexivity(Askegaard et al., 2009), that is, individuals learn to consciously reflect ontheir culture and its expression, for example, in consumption behavior.

This process is particularly telling for food consumption, which is amajor element of social identity (Moisio, Arnould, & Price, 2004). AsOswald (1999) illustrates, Haitian migrants in the United States forinstance “culture swap”; they resort to different discourses about food con-sumption as indicator of social identity in one context or the other, a find-ing similarly illustrated by Luna, Ringberg, and Peracchio (2008) in thecase of bicultural consumers. Similarly, Usunier (1999) highlights how thesocially constructed character of food consumption leads migrants toreconsider their culture through their eating and cooking habits.

Although previous approaches to cultural and ethnic identity providevaluable insights about reflexive appropriations of culture, many of themfocus on shifts between ethnically homogeneous contexts. Social networksof migrant groups like expatriate communities or international studentgroups can however be very heterogeneous, which means that previousresearch addresses the discursive and reflexive use of ethnic consumptionin multicultural encounters only in a limited way (Cohen, 1977; Langley &Breese, 2005). When the social space of migration is constituted notonly of fellow nationals and members of the host society but also offellow expatriates, of different cultural origins (Bochner, 1982; Caligiuri &Lazarova, 2002), self-representation becomes more complex. In result, indi-viduals need to reconsider their culture in relation to multiple other ones(Kashima & Loh, 2006; King & Ruiz-Gelices, 2003), a context fosteringcultural reflexivity. For instance, previous research has demonstrated howmigrants display their origins’ cultural wealth by serving products fromtheir country of origin at themed parties or when inviting people for din-ner, as reported introspectively in Beji-Becheur, Ozcaglar-Toulouse, andZouaghi (2012). So this integration in multicultural social groups promotes


cultural reflexivity, individuals consciously engaging with their culture inconsumption both practically and discursively.

Moreover, intercultural contact occurs not only in between twocontexts, whether homogeneous or heterogeneous. Cases of multiplemigrations increase steadily; migration is less and less limited to singularmovements from a home country to a different host country, but caninvolve several intermediary places, a characteristic not particular toexpatriates anymore (Castles, 2002). These multiple migrations, whethersuccessive or circular (Onwumechili, Nwosu, Jackson, & James-Hughes,2003; Yeoh & Huang, 2011), exacerbate the reflexive process; individualsare led to reconsider their cultural identity after each new move.

In this light, the study of individuals’ consumption discourses duringintercultural contacts requires a focus on environments where individualsrepeatedly review their identity based on the new input. Cultural reflexivityconstitutes then the basis on which this continuous reconsideration ofcultural identity can be understood, as it allows for individuals’ consciousand active preoccupation with their culture, and its consumption implica-tions. Nostalgia is a recurrent theme in migrant’s discourses, one way inwhich they can reflexively address differences in consumption behaviorbetween home and host culture. We therefore study individuals’ recourseto nostalgic consumption discourses during multicultural encounters.

Nostalgia is defined as a bitter-sweet feeling of longing for an (oftenidealized) past, which translates in consumption behavior by preferencefor products or consumption practices associated with this particularpast moment in individuals’ life (Holak & Havlena, 1992; Holbrook &Schindler, 2003). From its origins, researchers have strongly linked this con-cept to migration issues. Indeed, the concept of nostalgia dates back to Hofer(1688; 1934), who defines the depressions observed among Helvetian merce-naries after prolonged stays abroad as “La Maladie du Pays” � homesick-ness. Although since then, the definition has been extended to nonmigratorysituations, consumer research still acknowledges that nostalgia for homelandis recurrent in consumption discourses (Holbrook & Schindler, 2003). Con-sumption items are most often considered to take up importance due to theirstrong and distinctive linkage with memories of a the past context, a findingdetailed in the migration context by Stamboli-Rodriguez (2009, 2011). In asocial context, consumption of nostalgic products will thus express belongingto a particular ethnic group (Loveland, Smeesters, & Mandel, 2010).

Food in particular seems especially conducive to nostalgic feelings,through its multisensory character (Baker, Karrer, & Veeck, 2005), and in


the case of migration, its culture-specific character. James (1999) opposesnostalgic food discourses to expatriate, global, and creolized food dis-courses. In her conception, while nostalgic food relates to food of one’sethnic or national origin or home country, expatriate food pertains toother, defined foreign food cultures, which are recognized and adopted ona global level by consumers of different origin, such as for instance theItalian culinary tradition. As opposed to these discourses which presup-pose homogeneity and authenticity of cultural origin, James (1999) definesglobal and creolized food products as respectively disconnected from onespecific culture or composed of mixed cultures, both product types’ globalavailability and cross-cultural character priming over clear geo-culturalorigins and authenticity. In this light, nostalgic discourses relate thus toindividuals’ culture of origin in particular, which raises the question ofhow this clear-cut cultural origin translates in cultural identity duringintercultural contact.

METHOD

The investigation of this subject takes place in the context of Brussels,which boasts a large diversity of migrants, who when in contact, introduceeach other to their respective cultures. Indeed, Brussels gathers people ofmultiple (European) backgrounds working in the European institutions orother public and private organizations with headquarters in Brussels (VanDaal, 2006), in addition to welcoming migrants originating from formercolonial relations or different immigration waves (Stengers, 2004). Multiplecultures gather thus in relatively small space, and continuously makenew acquaintances from different environments due to the high turnoverof migrants.

Two sources of data feed into the analysis. Firstly, this article rests on17 in-depth interviews with migrants from varied cultural backgrounds andwith different socioeconomic and ethnic status as well as with a variety ofmigration biographies (a detailed table of all respondents and their charac-teristics is available upon request). Part of a larger research project, theseinterviews evolved very generally around individuals’ migration and accul-turation experience and consumption. Secondly, in order to take intoaccount intercultural contexts in which migrants of different origins inter-act, this study draws on interviews undertaken in parallel with fourmigrants sharing an apartment in Brussels, aged late twenties-early thirties,


either finishing their studies or working in Brussels, which corresponds toa largely represented migrant profile in Brussels (Gatti, 2009).

The interviews were performed in a conversational fashion, leaving theparticipants relatively free to follow their own stories with occasional prob-ing and redirection by the interviewer (McCracken, 1988). Thereby, thismethod translated not only the contents of individuals’ discourses, but pro-vided insights about the development of these acculturation stories.

Data analysis concentrated not only on the content of the interview, butalso paid attention at the discursive tools and turns the interviewees usedduring the interview (Riessman, 2008). The researchers’ conscious involve-ment with the narrative structures and practices individuals rely on to pres-ent their story led to a thicker and more contextualized understanding ofindividuals’ consumption discourses as compared with a purely content-reliant analysis (Riessman, 2008).

FINDINGS

The results of this study indicate that previous research about culturalreflexivity extends to cultural products that are not part of the migrants’original culture. Indeed, previous research stressed the more prominentand distinctive elements of culture, which according to Firat (1995) arebound to disappear if not integrated by the marketplace. Our study high-lights, however, mundane glocal products and practices that are not neces-sarily part of the usual ethnic consumption landscape, and are thereforenot tied to a specific locality in the representation of cultural identity.

Our findings highlight two dimensions of cultural reflexivity: first, infor-mants use stereotyping as a strategy to articulate discourses of culturalselfhood and otherness (Friedman, 1990). Secondly, the findings demon-strate that the discourse of nostalgia in cultural reflexivity can encompassa multiplicity of elements from the glocal consumptionscape and not onlyelements considered to be from the home cultural context.

Stereotyping as Cultural Strategy

In addition to current narratives revolving around strongly marketed cul-tures (Firat, 1995), the outcomes of this article point to the existence ofemic consumer cultural narratives based on stereotypical pecking orders


playing some cultures out against others. These themes are rooted instereotypes about food cultures and their value. The findings illustrate thisin the micro cosmos of a multinational apartment. For many young pro-fessionals living and working in Brussels, shared apartments are a popularway of on the one hand saving money on often expensive rent in Brussels,and on the other hand of integrating in a community of fellow foreignmigrants, facilitating social contact (Furnham & Bochner, 1986). Six peo-ple share the apartment investigated for this study; the FrenchwomanClaire, the Italian Federico, the Spaniard Maria, the British Susan, and thetwo Swiss Jeanne and Francoise. Their day-to-day interactions include dis-cussions about food cultures, taking place during the moments when theycook together or other encounters in the joint kitchen.

The descriptions of joint cooking practices point to a differentiationamong the apartment’s residents based on cultural origins. As the follow-ing excerpt shows, the respondent does not refer to her friends throughtheir first names, although both the respondent and the interviewer knowthem. Rather, she distinguishes the splitting of the tasks on the basis ofcultural differences and stereotypes:

What really unites us? Cooking and eating together. In the preparation, everybody is

solicitated, cutting the vegetables and so [. . .] but the cooking or the end of the prepa-

ration, that is done by either the Italian or the French, sometimes by the Spaniard.

(Claire, French)

The differentiation between food cultures among co-residents resultsfrom the progressive confirmation of different stereotypes about the valueof one food culture in comparison with another. All inhabitants of theapartment refer to a common, almost mythical, story deemed to illustratethe differences, and their fit with larger societal stereotypes about one orthe other food culture. The next excerpts illustrate this recurrent story,evolving around the time consecrated to cooking, which is described asindispensable for correct cooking, and which corresponds in the respon-dents’ opinion to common perceptions of Italian and British food cultures.

There are some “cliches” [stereotypes] that somehow get confirmed. Our British flat

mate is not going to spend much time to cook,[. . .] while our Italian flat mate is going

to spend three hours to cook a bolognaise sauce, and I am in between [. . .] the Swiss

specialties, we have had them, once you have had the fondue, I don’t really know what

else there is. (Claire, French)

I judge all other ways of eating absolutely inferior. I don’t know why, but I don’t

adapt. For example, I mock Susan a little, her way of cooking, but the others do too,

because she says that it is not possible to wait 3 hours for a sauce [. . .] For me, this is

three hours of doing something like it has to be done. (Federico, Italian)


As Federico’s quote indicates, the residents of the apartment have estab-lished a cultural pecking order for discourses about food cultures, coherentwith de Garine’s (2001) illustration of the role of food in establishing cul-tural differences and classifications. The Swiss residents of the apartmentconsider for instance that they do not have a culinary tradition:

Well I think in Switzerland we have of course stuff like fondue or raclette that others

don’t have, but we don’t really have a culinary tradition, it is not like in France or

Italy. (Jeanne, Swiss)

In comparison to food cultures that have been globally promoted, andwhere food plays a major role in cultural identification, the Swiss respon-dents consider their food culture as inferior. Jeanne explains that apartfrom fondue or raclette, she cannot think of globally recognized ethnicconsumption habits that would differentiate them from other cultures. Thisevaluation of different cultural cooking practices can take place in a seri-ous manner, as the previous excerpt illustrates, or take a more joking turn,where the respondents mock (in a friendly way) each others’ way of eatingand cooking through the use of exaggeration or caricature. Indeed,Francoise refers for instance to her British flatmate’s way of eating in thefollowing way:

I wouldn’t start cooking like Susan, only croque-monsieur [grilled club sandwich] and

stuff floating in oil. (Francoise, Swiss)

In response, Susan humors these stereotypes, embracing them in anironic form of the performance of the deviant (Sandikci & Ger, 2010).Susan, by the tales of her flat mates (further confirmed by informal con-versations with one of the authors) does not even try to participate in thiskind of discussion; she avoids situations where she would need to cook,and defiantly asserts her inability and unwillingness to cook in response tothe others’ devaluation of her food culture:

Susan tries not to come too close, she proposes to help, to cut, but not during prepara-

tion. (Claire, French)

These findings display that during intercultural contact, individualsidentify emic rankings among different food cultures on the basis of per-ceived correspondence with existing cultural stereotypes. On the one hand,they hold discourses valorizing some food cultures. Marking examples arefor instance French or Italian culture, valued as representative of particu-larly well-known and sophisticated culinary traditions (Girardelli, 2004).On the other hand, they define British and Swiss food culture as less richin gastronomic traditions.


The data show thus a very clear shared understanding of individuals’rankings among food cultures, which can have an influence on the way inwhich the display of cultural identities in a multicultural context is fosteredor not. Stereotyping is an active strategy used by informants in articulatingdiscourses of selfhood and otherness in a complex multicultural context.Furthermore, the stereotyping involves consumers’ capacity to articulatecultural selfhood along structures that make them comprehensible toothers. A food cultural practice is thus one such practice, or a “structureof common difference” (Wilk, 1995). Although described here in the caseof respondents from the second data set in particular, these different levelswere also present the larger setting of the first data set, and underliethereby the findings detailed in the next sections, which move beyond thesetting of one shared apartment.

Nostalgia: Beyond Home Culture Stereotypes

In contexts of large cultural differences or cultural products that have beenwell-marketed and valorized as culinary traditions (Firat, 1995) such asItalian, French or Asian, the use of products as tools for culturally reflex-ive performance during intercultural contact seems relatively straightfor-ward. However, in our data we also saw nostalgic references that extendbeyond such celebratory referents to particular origins.

Among our informants’ narratives about food culture, we saw evidenceof the mobilization of a dialectic between the expatriate, the nostalgic andglobal food discourses outlined by James (1999; see also Askegaard et al.,2009). While James (1999) considers food that is perceived to define culi-nary selfhood as most apt for nostalgic discourses, we found that migrantsuse nostalgia discourses to appropriate and re-appropriate food consump-tion objects from the expatriate and the global discourses as well as formobilizing mundane products for nostalgic purposes.

(Re-)appropriating the ExpatriateThe first type of appropriation relates to expatriate consumption culture(James, 1999) � the use of strongly marketed and globally acknowledgedconsumption cultures as discursive tools for identity creation by indivi-duals originating from other cultures. This behavior has been studiedextensively for Mexican, Indian, and Turkish culture, but can also relate toItalian or French food culture (Ger & Ostergaard, 1998; Mehta & Belk,


1991; Penaloza, 1994). In this study, the individuals refer to these culturalelements in a nostalgic way, but also integrate societal narratives about thecultural and spatial origin of the product.

Reflexive integration of expatriate narratives can take the form of eitheradopting or rejecting the marketed conception of the culture. We can forinstance understand Mehta and Belk’s (1991) depiction of Indians display-ing Indian products more strongly in their new context as example ofadoption. Conversely, rejection of marketed culture can take place forinstance by individuals contesting some or all of the marketed depiction ofthe culture. In this study, one respondent highlighted for instance his desireto explain what “real” tapas are in contrast to societal stereotypes:

It’s a culture that people like, tapas for instance, and sometimes they have an idea that

is not completely in line with the concept of tapa. So for me it is a way of “enlighting,”

of explaining the culture. (Mateo, Spanish)

His re-appropriation of tapas in social encounters illustrates his desirefor a return to the correct concept of tapas, a nostalgic desire for an authen-tic past, which he displays by serving his friends “real” tapas. The excerptdemonstrates the re-appropriation by a migrant of an expatriate food ste-reotype pertaining to his own cultural origins. That is, Mateo appropriatesthe “expatriate” articulation of Spanish food through the nostalgic dis-course of cultural selfhood underlining authenticity.

As depicted in the illustration of competing food cultures within a mul-ticultural apartment however, some cultures, although valued for other,nonculinary qualities, cannot boast a positive reputation in terms of foodculture (Chiaro, 2008), although this constitutes a major marker of culturalidentity. This lack of a well-known and extensive reputation in foodculture complicates interactions in situations where mutual display andperformance of attachment to one’s food cultural origins is key. Nostalgicdiscourses about one’s food consumption habits can be expressed with lessease, as the range of typical ethnic products or consumption habits is morelimited. The following excerpt shows how a Dutch respondent, whenreflecting on former consumption habits, rather highlights the importanceof Indonesian cuisine for him:

There’s some typical, and it has to do with myself, that is that the Netherlands has a

tradition in the Indonesian kitchen. [...] So if you ask do you miss a product of the

Netherlands, then it’s in this product range,[...] that I cannot find Indonesian kitchen

here, although I know that the Chinese and east Asian kitchen is well-provided in

Brussels. (Yasper, Dutch)


Foreign cultures that individuals absorbed in their previous consump-tion environment (whether the home cultural one or a previous migrationsetting) might thus be subject to nostalgic discourses, although these influ-ences are not typical for migrants’ original culture. The following excerptillustrates how Anastasia develops nostalgic discourses about Canadianproducts when originally she is Ukrainian and lives in Belgium:

I went to Canada over these two years, and I did bring some things, Canadian things

that I missed. I think whenever you live somewhere you get attached to certain things

about that country. You have a very wide diversity of cheeses, and I take them with

me to Canada, because I miss them and also in Canada to get European things it’s

quite expensive. From Ukraine, bringing the Kiev cake, I will definitely do that. (Ana-

stasia, Ukrainian)

In this case, nostalgic migration discourses extend to other contexts,which relate to previous stays, different from the country of origin. Theinformant hence uses the nostalgia discourse to articulate a longing forroutines originating neither in her “home culture” nor in the mainstreamculture of current the country of residence. In the next quote Mathieu, aFrenchman, nostalgically refers to a consumption habit he acquired inGermany, but which he attributes to American consumption culture. Ashe explains at another moment of the interview, he appreciated Germanwork culture during his stay in Germany:

In Germany, I started developing a more American style, so in the morning, I didn’t

eat at home; I got a coffee somewhere and had breakfast with my colleagues from

work. That’s a thing I developed then, and I still have it here. (Mathieu, French)

His maintenance of what he calls an American style breakfast such asexperienced in Germany reflects his nostalgia for this routine, which hedoes not want to lose.

In a similar way to the Belizean development of local culture (Wilk,1999), migrants, as part of their reflexive articulation of cultural selfhood,feel thus a necessity to construct a discourse about home food culture thatcan be used appropriately in the international context. But while in the Beli-zean context, construction of a local food culture takes place collectively“from scratch,” migration disconnects individuals from well-known culturalenvironments, and embeds them in new consumer cultural contexts. Asopposed to the cultural construction in Belize taking place on the level of acountry, or a society, our respondents discursively integrate, address, andreshape existing stereotypes and preconceptions about food culture and cul-tural identity in a reflexive manner, but on an individual level.


Appropriating the Glocal Consumptionscape � Nostalgia for the RoutineWhile the previous section displays individuals’ nostalgic discourses aboutconsumption habits related to particular expatriate food cultures, thefollowing excerpt indicates that nostalgic discourses can also pertain toproducts which do not have clear cultural origins, but are rather glocalproducts, products belonging to global consumptionscapes whose localproduct range can vary. In this quote, Kate expresses nostalgia for a bodylotion that she cannot find in Belgium:

Vaseline intensive care lotion; it sinks directly into your skin, with no greasy effect at

all, and it really, really softens you skin, it’s incredible. They don’t sell it here anymore.

So I walk into Boots, which is the English equivalent of “Di,” and I just go in and

wreck their stock of Vaseline, and I’m like “Well I’m in Belgium, and I have to go

back, they don’t know it.” (Katie, British)

Her use of expressive language underlined by gestures and exclamations(that do unfortunately not emerge from the written quote) translates theimportance of this product to her. Although not pertaining to food con-sumption in the quote, this discourse could develop similarly for food,which extends our reflection on nostalgia for products that are not part ofthe stereotypical and original culture of migrants. The migrants rely on rel-atively mundane consumption items, which they discursively turn into sub-jects for nostalgic discourses.

Another case is when informants refer to missing the specific choice orselection offered by major food retailers, where it is more the compositionand richness of the local instantiation of the glocal consumptionscape thatis missed rather than a particular food culture.

Sometimes the use of mundane products in nostalgia discourse occurs inan almost ironic way, satirizing existing food cultural discourses by apply-ing them to industrial and mundane products. The discursive use of theseproducts during conversations involving cultural reflexivity and culturalperformance is particularly apparent in the following excerpt:

Well we laugh, because there is Aromat, but it exists in Belgium. Aromat is not a problem,

I don’t know if it’s very Swiss. Knorr, I think it’s Swiss, but I don’t know. (Jeanne, Swiss)

Jeanne expresses nostalgic feelings about a spice mix called Aromat. Shehighlights that this discourse can be seen as a joke, in an ironic way.Indeed, the product is available in Belgium and Jeanne is not even con-vinced of its’ Swiss origin, which turns the nostalgic discourse into a stagedcomplaint, that the other participants of the discussion can identify assuch. This narrative trick suggests migrants’ awareness of the reflexivity at


play in the nostalgic discourse, where they consciously use nostalgia toaddress a mundane consumption item.

DISCUSSION

The findings of this article differentiate between two types of nostalgic dis-courses, illustrating two dimensions of cultural reflexivity. The first onedepicts individuals’ integration of cultural elements recognized and valuedon a societal level in their consumption narratives, either affirming or con-tradicting these stereotypes through their consumption discourses. Thistype of discourse pertains thus to individuals’ appropriation of idealized orstereotypical representations of their culture that were originally externalto their personal consumption routines, and the use of these in their narra-tion of cultural identity. Their discourses correspond thereby to discoursesabout expatriate food as defined by James (1999). Conversely, the secondtype of nostalgic discourse follows upon individuals realizing the disrup-tion of familiar habits and routines in new consumption contexts. In thisdiscourse, the migrants express nostalgic longing for global products,which, although seemingly external to the individuals’ cultural origins, con-stitute elements of their past that they do not want to part from.

In the following, we discuss these two nostalgic discourses by relatingthem to naturalization and cultivation processes such as defined by Wilk(1999), in which cultural reflexivity situates on the level of the reflexiveversus routinized practices (Halkier, Groncow, & Warde, 2001). In his arti-cle discussing the sense of freedom or of constriction which can both arisefrom various levels of routinized habits, Wilk considers reflexive acknowl-edgment of practices and their disappearance in everyday habits as twoparts of the same process of “absorbing a new form of consumption intodaily life” (Wilk, 2009, p. 149), called respectively naturalization and culti-vation. While naturalization refers to “the processes which push consciouspractices back into the habitus, or keep them from surfacing into con-sciousness in the first place” (Wilk, 2009, p. 150), cultivation is the oppo-site movement, bringing “unconscious habits and routines forward intoconsciousness, reflection and discourse”(Wilk, 2009, p. 149).

During intercultural contact, consumers experience Expatriate repres-entations of their own culture, which leads to reflexivity over hithertonaturalized cultural affiliation and behavior. The cultural strategy of


stereotyping is a materialization of this cultivation that over time will leadto a new naturalized routine, and could become, at a later stage, part ofmundane consumption behavior.

In contrast, nostalgic discourses about global and/or mundane pro-ducts without clear cultural link require the development of individuals’awareness about the cultural specificity of certain elements of their con-sumption behavior. We see how the respondents reflexively process theircultural belonging, and develop nostalgic discourses relying on their per-sonal relation to some consumption items, which are not part of the mar-keted and commodified image of the culture, and rather relate toindividuals’ consumption routines. This realization means that naturalizedmundane ethnic consumption items or practices transform into cultivationin self-conscious and reflexive discourses.

As stated by Wilk (2009), the differentiation between the naturalizationand cultivation process is purely analytical, it mainly plays the role of atool enabling additional understanding of cultural consumption discoursesin relation to routines by contrasting naturalization with cultivation ten-dencies in the analysis of cultural reflexivity. In practice, the bordersbetween both are thus floating, individuals’ discourses focusing on natural-ization at some moments, and on cultivation at others. Consequently,migration is perceived less as adaptation to a new consumer cultural envi-ronment with resulting consumer acculturation outcomes straddling twocontexts (home and host culture), and more as translation in consumptiondiscourses of disruptions on a personal and social level. In that light,migrants reflexively address the notion of culture through comparison ofprevious cultural influences and the new cultural input from migration,thereby integrating a multitude of localities either through personal experi-ence or through observation of foreign practices in multicultural groups.

CONCLUSION

On the basis of this dynamic of naturalization and cultivation, we offer acontextualized definition of cultural reflexivity as it materializes in ourfindings, an empirically grounded instantiation of Askegaard et al.’s (2009)more general definition: On the level of individual (consumption) behavior,we conceive of cultural reflexivity as the conscious consideration andenactment of a cultural identity in order to comprehensively and ade-quately represent cultural affiliation.


Increased movement of individuals and products across borders disruptshomogeneity and routines of local consumption contexts and disembedsproducts from a homogeneous and territorial view of localities. Ourconceptualization of cultural reflexivity along the lines of naturalizationand cultivation underlines consequently the instability of the culturalmeaning and identity of food cultural items that occurs through consu-mers’ appropriation processes. Our research hence demonstrates that formigrants, the process of movement can become a problem of disruption ofold routines and establishment of new ones adjusted to the new consump-tionscape rather than acculturation to another culture. This finding, webelieve, is a contribution to the consumer acculturation field to be cautiousof hypostasizing the acculturation dimension of consumer movementsacross borders.

Furthermore, our findings have consequences for how we understanddiscourses of nostalgia in glocalizing markets, in which consumers’ livesare characterized by complex cultural encounters. We demonstrate howstereotyping is used as an effective strategy of maintaining cultural distinc-tions of self and other on the one hand, while articulating longing for mun-dane aspects of glocal consumer culture through the discourse of nostalgiaon the other. We suggest that previous research discussing nostalgia,while acknowledging home culture in a de-essentialized perspective, has bydefault considered the nostalgic as an emotional longing for one’s culturalHeimat, a German equivalent to the notion of home, but which encom-passes a stronger emotional relation to individuals’ origins and linkage toparticular places. Our findings demonstrate that in a globalized marketplace, Nostalgia may reach well beyond Heimat and lay open migrants’cross-cultural consumption experiences.

Finally, this chapter extends current understandings of appropriationprocesses beyond territorially embedded individuals and products. Whilethe idea of appropriation is not new (Arnould & Thompson, 2005; Robert-son, 1995; Wilk, 1995), it is usually used to demonstrate the resilience oflocal cultures as they adapt global products and symbols to local culturalcategories (Ger & Belk, 1996; Wilk, 1995). These studies have centeredstrongly on consumers’ responses to elements of global culture enteringtheir local cultural consumption environment (Ger & Belk, 1996). Underly-ing this understanding of appropriation is a view considering that globalculture as a whole infuses a context in an almost colonizing movement,and that local societies adapt this global elements to the local society’smainstream cultural traditions. What underlies the myth of the local is aco-presence of locality and authenticity whereas the global and the


creolized � those cultural forms with little reference to locality � are oftendeemed inauthentic (Massey, 2005). We demonstrate that this coincidenceof place, locality, and authenticity in terms of what one can long for doesnot necessarily hold in a market place increasingly characterized by cul-tural flows. Rather, consumers may relate to any of the cultural discoursesfrom the global to the local through nostalgia, thereby disconnecting nos-talgia from authenticity or place discourses. Nostalgia, in this sense, ishence an emotional valorization of the cultural discourses of glocalization.Other kinds of emotional valorization practices may be found, for exam-ple, deeming the creolized as a sign of the loss or roots or as the positivesign testifying to the unity of mankind. Further research is needed to iden-tify other kinds of emotional valorizing practices.

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