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 intercultural
contacts, as multicultural contacts and multiple migrations challenge
existing consumer acculturation models based on a dualistic process of
acculturation. This chapter explores empirically the character of cultural
reflexivity and its expression in consumers discourses. Given that nostal-
gia is one prominent dimension of the migration conceptualization, we
seek to understand how the role of nostalgia changes in contexts where
consumers 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, 213232
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213
in-depth interviews, the second one combines interviews and observations
to provide a depiction of intercultural contact within the micro cosmos
of a multicultural apartment.
Findings The findings of this chapter illustrate how migrants develop
different nostalgic discourses, to either (re-)appropriate the Expatriate
as defined by James (1999), or to appropriate global consumptionscapes
through 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 routinized
consumption practices as basis for consumers cultural reflexivity.
Originality/value of chapter The contribution of this chapter is firstly
a contextualized and empirically grounded definition of cultural reflexiv-
ity. Secondly, it demonstrates that migrants consumption discourses
revolve more around disruptions of routines than around acculturation
processes. Thirdly, the chapter illustrates the use of nostalgia for emo-
tional valorization of cultures beyond classical home cultural authenticity
discourses.
Keywords: Reflexivity; culture; nostalgia; acculturation; global
consumer culture; glocalization
INTRODUCTION
The representation of ethnic or cultural identity through consumption
behavior has been studied extensively in recent years, establishing the
importance of individuals use and display of ethnic consumption as
enactment of adherence to particular social groups (Cova, 1997; Mehta &
Belk, 1991). This is amplified by the multiplication of intercultural
encounters (Visconti, 2008) in modern societies, which leads consumers to
become 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 need
to 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 or
expatriates, in which it is common to depict ones culture through food
sharing and themed events centering on one or the other culture (King &
Ruiz-Gelices, 2003).
Consequently, narratives and practices dealing with cultural identity
become increasingly prolific among consumers. This links to the notion of
cultural reflexivity such as defined by Askegaard, Arnould, and Kjeld-
gaard; a simulation, where cultural tradition increasingly exists mainly as
a reflexive and conscious practical realization of some idea of culture
(2009, p. 15). Consumer culture theory research in migration and global
consumer culture has been exploring the notion of reflexivity in terms of
pointing to its existence (Arnould & Thompson, 2005) and its various
forms of representation in the form of cultural discourses (Askegaard
et al., 2009). However, there is scant empirical investigation of how this
cultural reflexivity instantiates in consumption discourses, a shortcoming
we address in this article.
This article studies the narratives of migrants in multicultural Brussels
describing cultural interactions and performance of cultural identity. The
study finds that informants discuss different food cultures in terms of their
richness and their global recognition (a cultural pecking order), which
form the basis for a reflexive articulation of food culture in a post-dyadic
migrant consumer culture context. Nostalgia being a major theme in
migrant consumer discourses (Stamboli-Rodriguez, 2011), this articles ana-
lyzes how migrants of a variety of cultural backgrounds and with variable
degrees of previous migration experiences develop nostalgic consumption
narratives. Our study finds that informants in this context mobilize well-
known nostalgic discourses, but that the nostalgia is as much for mundane
or exotic products from previous sites of residence as it is for marketed
aspects of foods typical of home culture. Nostalgia is then not only a
consumption discourse adopted by migrants to reflexively represent their
culture 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 of
glocalization rather than only a longing for products of a particular origin.
Furthermore, we discuss how products can move from one cultural
discourse to another through the processes of naturalization and culti-
vation (Wilk, 2009).
215 Cultural Reflexivity and the Nostalgia for Glocal Consumer Culture
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Ethnic products and consumption habits play an important role in identity
construction, not only on the individual level but also in displaying adher-
ence to a social group (Bouchet, 1995; O

zcaglar-Toulouse, Beji-Becheur,
Fosse-Gomez, Herbert, & Zouaghi, 2009). Migration exacerbates this need
for ethnic affirmation (Sussman, 2000). Mehta and Belk (1991) for instance
show that after migration, Indians in the United States accentuate their
ethnic identity through display of possessions. The process underlying this
active display of culture can be addressed in the light of cultural reflexivity
(Askegaard et al., 2009), that is, individuals learn to consciously reflect on
their culture and its expression, for example, in consumption behavior.
This process is particularly telling for food consumption, which is a
major element of social identity (Moisio, Arnould, & Price, 2004). As
Oswald (1999) illustrates, Haitian migrants in the United States for
instance 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 the
case of bicultural consumers. Similarly, Usunier (1999) highlights how the
socially constructed character of food consumption leads migrants to
reconsider their culture through their eating and cooking habits.
Although previous approaches to cultural and ethnic identity provide
valuable insights about reflexive appropriations of culture, many of them
focus on shifts between ethnically homogeneous contexts. Social networks
of migrant groups like expatriate communities or international student
groups can however be very heterogeneous, which means that previous
research addresses the discursive and reflexive use of ethnic consumption
in multicultural encounters only in a limited way (Cohen, 1977; Langley &
Breese, 2005). When the social space of migration is constituted not
only of fellow nationals and members of the host society but also of
fellow 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 fostering
cultural reflexivity. For instance, previous research has demonstrated how
migrants display their origins cultural wealth by serving products from
their country of origin at themed parties or when inviting people for din-
ner, as reported introspectively in Be ji-Be cheur, O

zcaglar-Toulouse, and
Zouaghi (2012). So this integration in multicultural social groups promotes
216 JULIE EMONTSPOOL AND DANNIE KJELDGAARD
cultural reflexivity, individuals consciously engaging with their culture in
consumption both practically and discursively.
Moreover, intercultural contact occurs not only in between two
contexts, whether homogeneous or heterogeneous. Cases of multiple
migrations increase steadily; migration is less and less limited to singular
movements from a home country to a different host country, but can
involve several intermediary places, a characteristic not particular to
expatriates anymore (Castles, 2002). These multiple migrations, whether
successive or circular (Onwumechili, Nwosu, Jackson, & James-Hughes,
2003; Yeoh & Huang, 2011), exacerbate the reflexive process; individuals
are led to reconsider their cultural identity after each new move.
In this light, the study of individuals consumption discourses during
intercultural contacts requires a focus on environments where individuals
repeatedly review their identity based on the new input. Cultural reflexivity
constitutes then the basis on which this continuous reconsideration of
cultural identity can be understood, as it allows for individuals conscious
and active preoccupation with their culture, and its consumption implica-
tions. Nostalgia is a recurrent theme in migrants discourses, one way in
which they can reflexively address differences in consumption behavior
between home and host culture. We therefore study individuals recourse
to nostalgic consumption discourses during multicultural encounters.
Nostalgia is defined as a bitter-sweet feeling of longing for an (often
idealized) past, which translates in consumption behavior by preference
for products or consumption practices associated with this particular
past 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 nonmigratory
situations, consumer research still acknowledges that nostalgia for homeland
is recurrent in consumption discourses (Holbrook & Schindler, 2003). Con-
sumption items are most often considered to take up importance due to their
strong and distinctive linkage with memories of a the past context, a finding
detailed in the migration context by Stamboli-Rodriguez (2009, 2011). In a
social context, consumption of nostalgic products will thus express belonging
to 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
217 Cultural Reflexivity and the Nostalgia for Glocal Consumer Culture
the case of migration, its culture-specific character. James (1999) opposes
nostalgic food discourses to expatriate, global, and creolized food dis-
courses. In her conception, while nostalgic food relates to food of ones
ethnic or national origin or home country, expatriate food pertains to
other, defined foreign food cultures, which are recognized and adopted on
a global level by consumers of different origin, such as for instance the
Italian culinary tradition. As opposed to these discourses which presup-
pose homogeneity and authenticity of cultural origin, James (1999) defines
global and creolized food products as respectively disconnected from one
specific culture or composed of mixed cultures, both product types global
availability and cross-cultural character priming over clear geo-cultural
origins and authenticity. In this light, nostalgic discourses relate thus to
individuals culture of origin in particular, which raises the question of
how this clear-cut cultural origin translates in cultural identity during
intercultural 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, introduce
each other to their respective cultures. Indeed, Brussels gathers people of
multiple (European) backgrounds working in the European institutions or
other public and private organizations with headquarters in Brussels (Van
Daal, 2006), in addition to welcoming migrants originating from former
colonial relations or different immigration waves (Stengers, 2004). Multiple
cultures gather thus in relatively small space, and continuously make
new acquaintances from different environments due to the high turnover
of migrants.
Two sources of data feed into the analysis. Firstly, this article rests on
17 in-depth interviews with migrants from varied cultural backgrounds and
with different socioeconomic and ethnic status as well as with a variety of
migration biographies (a detailed table of all respondents and their charac-
teristics is available upon request). Part of a larger research project, these
interviews evolved very generally around individuals migration and accul-
turation experience and consumption. Secondly, in order to take into
account intercultural contexts in which migrants of different origins inter-
act, this study draws on interviews undertaken in parallel with four
migrants sharing an apartment in Brussels, aged late twenties-early thirties,
218 JULIE EMONTSPOOL AND DANNIE KJELDGAARD
either finishing their studies or working in Brussels, which corresponds to
a largely represented migrant profile in Brussels (Gatti, 2009).
The interviews were performed in a conversational fashion, leaving the
participants relatively free to follow their own stories with occasional prob-
ing and redirection by the interviewer (McCracken, 1988). Thereby, this
method 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, but
also paid attention at the discursive tools and turns the interviewees used
during 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 of
individuals consumption discourses as compared with a purely content-
reliant analysis (Riessman, 2008).
FINDINGS
The results of this study indicate that previous research about cultural
reflexivity extends to cultural products that are not part of the migrants
original culture. Indeed, previous research stressed the more prominent
and distinctive elements of culture, which according to Firat (1995) are
bound 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 therefore
not 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 cultural
selfhood and otherness (Friedman, 1990). Secondly, the findings demon-
strate that the discourse of nostalgia in cultural reflexivity can encompass
a multiplicity of elements from the glocal consumptionscape and not only
elements 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 of
emic consumer cultural narratives based on stereotypical pecking orders
219 Cultural Reflexivity and the Nostalgia for Glocal Consumer Culture
playing some cultures out against others. These themes are rooted in
stereotypes about food cultures and their value. The findings illustrate this
in the micro cosmos of a multinational apartment. For many young pro-
fessionals living and working in Brussels, shared apartments are a popular
way 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 foreign
migrants, facilitating social contact (Furnham & Bochner, 1986). Six peo-
ple share the apartment investigated for this study; the Frenchwoman
Claire, the Italian Federico, the Spaniard Maria, the British Susan, and the
two Swiss Jeanne and Franc oise. Their day-to-day interactions include dis-
cussions about food cultures, taking place during the moments when they
cook together or other encounters in the joint kitchen.
The descriptions of joint cooking practices point to a differentiation
among the apartments residents based on cultural origins. As the follow-
ing excerpt shows, the respondent does not refer to her friends through
their first names, although both the respondent and the interviewer know
them. Rather, she distinguishes the splitting of the tasks on the basis of
cultural 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 results
from the progressive confirmation of different stereotypes about the value
of one food culture in comparison with another. All inhabitants of the
apartment refer to a common, almost mythical, story deemed to illustrate
the differences, and their fit with larger societal stereotypes about one or
the other food culture. The next excerpts illustrate this recurrent story,
evolving around the time consecrated to cooking, which is described as
indispensable for correct cooking, and which corresponds in the respon-
dents opinion to common perceptions of Italian and British food cultures.
There are some cliche s [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 dont really know what
else there is. (Claire, French)
I judge all other ways of eating absolutely inferior. I dont know why, but I dont
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)
220 JULIE EMONTSPOOL AND DANNIE KJELDGAARD
As Federicos quote indicates, the residents of the apartment have estab-
lished a cultural pecking order for discourses about food cultures, coherent
with de Garines (2001) illustration of the role of food in establishing cul-
tural differences and classifications. The Swiss residents of the apartment
consider 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
dont have, but we dont 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, and
where food plays a major role in cultural identification, the Swiss respon-
dents consider their food culture as inferior. Jeanne explains that apart
from fondue or raclette, she cannot think of globally recognized ethnic
consumption habits that would differentiate them from other cultures. This
evaluation 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 eating
and cooking through the use of exaggeration or caricature. Indeed,
Francoise refers for instance to her British flatmates way of eating in the
following way:
I wouldnt 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 an
ironic 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 this
kind of discussion; she avoids situations where she would need to cook,
and defiantly asserts her inability and unwillingness to cook in response to
the 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, individuals
identify 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 are
for 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 rich
in gastronomic traditions.
221 Cultural Reflexivity and the Nostalgia for Glocal Consumer Culture
The data show thus a very clear shared understanding of individuals
rankings among food cultures, which can have an influence on the way in
which the display of cultural identities in a multicultural context is fostered
or not. Stereotyping is an active strategy used by informants in articulating
discourses of selfhood and otherness in a complex multicultural context.
Furthermore, the stereotyping involves consumers capacity to articulate
cultural selfhood along structures that make them comprehensible to
others. A food cultural practice is thus one such practice, or a structure
of common difference (Wilk, 1995). Although described here in the case
of respondents from the second data set in particular, these different levels
were also present the larger setting of the first data set, and underlie
thereby the findings detailed in the next sections, which move beyond the
setting of one shared apartment.
Nostalgia: Beyond Home Culture Stereotypes
In contexts of large cultural differences or cultural products that have been
well-marketed and valorized as culinary traditions (Firat, 1995) such as
Italian, 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 extend
beyond such celebratory referents to particular origins.
Among our informants narratives about food culture, we saw evidence
of the mobilization of a dialectic between the expatriate, the nostalgic and
global 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 migrants
use nostalgia discourses to appropriate and re-appropriate food consump-
tion objects from the expatriate and the global discourses as well as for
mobilizing mundane products for nostalgic purposes.
(Re-)appropriating the Expatriate
The first type of appropriation relates to expatriate consumption culture
(James, 1999) the use of strongly marketed and globally acknowledged
consumption cultures as discursive tools for identity creation by indivi-
duals originating from other cultures. This behavior has been studied
extensively for Mexican, Indian, and Turkish culture, but can also relate to
Italian or French food culture (Ger & Ostergaard, 1998; Mehta & Belk,
222 JULIE EMONTSPOOL AND DANNIE KJELDGAARD
1991; Pen aloza, 1994). In this study, the individuals refer to these cultural
elements in a nostalgic way, but also integrate societal narratives about the
cultural and spatial origin of the product.
Reflexive integration of expatriate narratives can take the form of either
adopting or rejecting the marketed conception of the culture. We can for
instance understand Mehta and Belks (1991) depiction of Indians display-
ing Indian products more strongly in their new context as example of
adoption. Conversely, rejection of marketed culture can take place for
instance by individuals contesting some or all of the marketed depiction of
the culture. In this study, one respondent highlighted for instance his desire
to explain what real tapas are in contrast to societal stereotypes:
Its 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 desire
for 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 excerpt
demonstrates the re-appropriation by a migrant of an expatriate food ste-
reotype pertaining to his own cultural origins. That is, Mateo appropriates
the 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 food
culture (Chiaro, 2008), although this constitutes a major marker of cultural
identity. This lack of a well-known and extensive reputation in food
culture complicates interactions in situations where mutual display and
performance of attachment to ones food cultural origins is key. Nostalgic
discourses about ones food consumption habits can be expressed with less
ease, as the range of typical ethnic products or consumption habits is more
limited. The following excerpt shows how a Dutch respondent, when
reflecting on former consumption habits, rather highlights the importance
of Indonesian cuisine for him:
Theres 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 its 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)
223 Cultural Reflexivity and the Nostalgia for Glocal Consumer Culture
Foreign cultures that individuals absorbed in their previous consump-
tion environment (whether the home cultural one or a previous migration
setting) might thus be subject to nostalgic discourses, although these influ-
ences are not typical for migrants original culture. The following excerpt
illustrates how Anastasia develops nostalgic discourses about Canadian
products 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 its
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. The
informant hence uses the nostalgia discourse to articulate a longing for
routines originating neither in her home culture nor in the mainstream
culture of current the country of residence. In the next quote Mathieu, a
Frenchman, nostalgically refers to a consumption habit he acquired in
Germany, but which he attributes to American consumption culture. As
he explains at another moment of the interview, he appreciated German
work culture during his stay in Germany:
In Germany, I started developing a more American style, so in the morning, I didnt
eat at home; I got a coffee somewhere and had breakfast with my colleagues from
work. Thats a thing I developed then, and I still have it here. (Mathieu, French)
His maintenance of what he calls an American style breakfast such as
experienced in Germany reflects his nostalgia for this routine, which he
does 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 that
can 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 cultural
environments, and embeds them in new consumer cultural contexts. As
opposed to the cultural construction in Belize taking place on the level of a
country, or a society, our respondents discursively integrate, address, and
reshape existing stereotypes and preconceptions about food culture and cul-
tural identity in a reflexive manner, but on an individual level.
224 JULIE EMONTSPOOL AND DANNIE KJELDGAARD
Appropriating the Glocal Consumptionscape Nostalgia for the Routine
While the previous section displays individuals nostalgic discourses about
consumption habits related to particular expatriate food cultures, the
following excerpt indicates that nostalgic discourses can also pertain to
products which do not have clear cultural origins, but are rather glocal
products, products belonging to global consumptionscapes whose local
product range can vary. In this quote, Kate expresses nostalgia for a body
lotion 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, its incredible. They dont 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 Im like Well Im in Belgium, and I have to go
back, they dont know it. (Katie, British)
Her use of expressive language underlined by gestures and exclamations
(that do unfortunately not emerge from the written quote) translates the
importance 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 of
the 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 or
selection offered by major food retailers, where it is more the composition
and richness of the local instantiation of the glocal consumptionscape that
is missed rather than a particular food culture.
Sometimes the use of mundane products in nostalgia discourse occurs in
an almost ironic way, satirizing existing food cultural discourses by apply-
ing them to industrial and mundane products. The discursive use of these
products during conversations involving cultural reflexivity and cultural
performance 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 dont know if its very Swiss. Knorr, I think its Swiss, but I dont know. (Jeanne, Swiss)
Jeanne expresses nostalgic feelings about a spice mix called Aromat. She
highlights 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 staged
complaint, that the other participants of the discussion can identify as
such. This narrative trick suggests migrants awareness of the reflexivity at
225 Cultural Reflexivity and the Nostalgia for Glocal Consumer Culture
play in the nostalgic discourse, where they consciously use nostalgia to
address 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 one
depicts individuals integration of cultural elements recognized and valued
on a societal level in their consumption narratives, either affirming or con-
tradicting these stereotypes through their consumption discourses. This
type of discourse pertains thus to individuals appropriation of idealized or
stereotypical representations of their culture that were originally external
to their personal consumption routines, and the use of these in their narra-
tion of cultural identity. Their discourses correspond thereby to discourses
about expatriate food as defined by James (1999). Conversely, the second
type of nostalgic discourse follows upon individuals realizing the disrup-
tion of familiar habits and routines in new consumption contexts. In this
discourse, 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 relating
them to naturalization and cultivation processes such as defined by Wilk
(1999), in which cultural reflexivity situates on the level of the reflexive
versus routinized practices (Halkier, Groncow, & Warde, 2001). In his arti-
cle discussing the sense of freedom or of constriction which can both arise
from various levels of routinized habits, Wilk considers reflexive acknowl-
edgment of practices and their disappearance in everyday habits as two
parts of the same process of absorbing a new form of consumption into
daily life (Wilk, 2009, p. 149), called respectively naturalization and culti-
vation. While naturalization refers to the processes which push conscious
practices 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 into
consciousness, reflection and discourse(Wilk, 2009, p. 149).
During intercultural contact, consumers experience Expatriate repres-
entations of their own culture, which leads to reflexivity over hitherto
naturalized cultural affiliation and behavior. The cultural strategy of
226 JULIE EMONTSPOOL AND DANNIE KJELDGAARD
stereotyping is a materialization of this cultivation that over time will lead
to a new naturalized routine, and could become, at a later stage, part of
mundane 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 their
cultural 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 to
individuals consumption routines. This realization means that naturalized
mundane ethnic consumption items or practices transform into cultivation
in self-conscious and reflexive discourses.
As stated by Wilk (2009), the differentiation between the naturalization
and cultivation process is purely analytical, it mainly plays the role of a
tool enabling additional understanding of cultural consumption discourses
in relation to routines by contrasting naturalization with cultivation ten-
dencies in the analysis of cultural reflexivity. In practice, the borders
between 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 two
contexts (home and host culture), and more as translation in consumption
discourses of disruptions on a personal and social level. In that light,
migrants reflexively address the notion of culture through comparison of
previous 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 a
contextualized definition of cultural reflexivity as it materializes in our
findings, 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 and
enactment of a cultural identity in order to comprehensively and ade-
quately represent cultural affiliation.
227 Cultural Reflexivity and the Nostalgia for Glocal Consumer Culture
Increased movement of individuals and products across borders disrupts
homogeneity and routines of local consumption contexts and disembeds
products from a homogeneous and territorial view of localities. Our
conceptualization of cultural reflexivity along the lines of naturalization
and cultivation underlines consequently the instability of the cultural
meaning and identity of food cultural items that occurs through consu-
mers appropriation processes. Our research hence demonstrates that for
migrants, the process of movement can become a problem of disruption of
old routines and establishment of new ones adjusted to the new consump-
tionscape rather than acculturation to another culture. This finding, we
believe, is a contribution to the consumer acculturation field to be cautious
of hypostasizing the acculturation dimension of consumer movements
across borders.
Furthermore, our findings have consequences for how we understand
discourses of nostalgia in glocalizing markets, in which consumers lives
are characterized by complex cultural encounters. We demonstrate how
stereotyping 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 nostalgia
on the other. We suggest that previous research discussing nostalgia,
while acknowledging home culture in a de-essentialized perspective, has by
default considered the nostalgic as an emotional longing for ones cultural
Heimat, a German equivalent to the notion of home, but which encom-
passes a stronger emotional relation to individuals origins and linkage to
particular places. Our findings demonstrate that in a globalized market
place, Nostalgia may reach well beyond Heimat and lay open migrants
cross-cultural consumption experiences.
Finally, this chapter extends current understandings of appropriation
processes beyond territorially embedded individuals and products. While
the idea of appropriation is not new (Arnould & Thompson, 2005; Robert-
son, 1995; Wilk, 1995), it is usually used to demonstrate the resilience of
local cultures as they adapt global products and symbols to local cultural
categories (Ger & Belk, 1996; Wilk, 1995). These studies have centered
strongly on consumers responses to elements of global culture entering
their local cultural consumption environment (Ger & Belk, 1996). Underly-
ing this understanding of appropriation is a view considering that global
culture as a whole infuses a context in an almost colonizing movement,
and that local societies adapt this global elements to the local societys
mainstream cultural traditions. What underlies the myth of the local is a
co-presence of locality and authenticity whereas the global and the
228 JULIE EMONTSPOOL AND DANNIE KJELDGAARD
creolized those cultural forms with little reference to locality are often
deemed inauthentic (Massey, 2005). We demonstrate that this coincidence
of place, locality, and authenticity in terms of what one can long for does
not necessarily hold in a market place increasingly characterized by cul-
tural flows. Rather, consumers may relate to any of the cultural discourses
from the global to the local through nostalgia, thereby disconnecting nos-
talgia from authenticity or place discourses. Nostalgia, in this sense, is
hence 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 positive
sign testifying to the unity of mankind. Further research is needed to iden-
tify other kinds of emotional valorizing practices.
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