Abstract
ABSTRACTThis paper explores ethnic majority consumption practices in immigrant economies. Drawing on recent debates on cosmopolitanism, we focus on the question of how the use of immigrant shops by members of the ethnic majority is intertwined with the erosion and/or the (re)production of symbolic boundaries. We conducted 31 in-depth interviews and 15 go-alongs with consumers in immigrant grocery shops in Vienna. Our findings show how consumption is based upon and shaped by the various ways consumers attribute meaning to the shops, the products on offer as well as their shopping experiences. We identified five different types of consumption: consuming nostalgia, consuming patronage, consuming change, consuming alterity and consuming diversity. However, we only consider the latter two as cosmopolitan consumption in a narrower sense. We show that within these types, the expression of openness towards ‘the other’ constitutes a form of cultural capital displayed by members of the privileged classes. The article argues in favour of a more comprehensive understanding of consumption practices in immigrant economies. This encompasses that not every act of shopping in immigrant businesses is cosmopolitan and that research is called to consider that the various types of consumption effect boundaries along ethnicity and class in manifold ways.
Highlights
The consumption of ethnic goods as a form of engagement with ‘the other’ has been a main topic of research in a range of academic disciplines, including anthropology, sociology and cultural studies (Duruz 2005; Heldke 2003; Johnston and Baumann 2015; Long 2004; Wise 2011)
Drawing on recent debates on cosmopolitanism, we focus on the question of how the use of immigrant shops by members of the ethnic majority is intertwined with the erosion and/or theproduction of symbolic boundaries
A systematic analysis of the connection between cosmopolitan consumption and cultural omnivorousness would seem imperative. It was the objective of this article to explore consumption practices among ethnic majority members in immigrant grocery shops and to elucidate how such practices are intertwined with processes of symbolic boundary-making
Summary
The consumption of ethnic goods as a form of engagement with ‘the other’ has been a main topic of research in a range of academic disciplines, including anthropology, sociology and cultural studies (Duruz 2005; Heldke 2003; Johnston and Baumann 2015; Long 2004; Wise 2011). Fresh interest has emerged against the background of an increasing significance of immigrant economies in many Western European cities (Aytar and Rath 2012). ASTLEITHNER supermarkets, restaurants or cultural entrepreneurs offer a wide range of opportunities to engage with different ‘cultures’, often right on one’s own doorstep (Duruz, Luckman, and Bishop 2011; Hiebert, Rath, and Vertovec 2015; Zukin, Kasinitz, and Chen 2016). At least in urban areas, cosmopolitan consumption is not necessarily bound to mobility, as ‘the other’ is immediately available (Germann Molz 2004; Nava 2006)
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