How Global Mobility Shapes Consumption Practices
A Dissertation Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
By
Bernardo Figueiredo
June, 2012
School of Marketing Australian School of Business University of New South Wales
1 PLEASE TYPE THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Thesis/Dissertation Sheet Surname or Family name: FIGUEIREDO First name: BERNARDO
Other name/s: AMADO BAPTISTA DE
Abbreviation for degree as given in the University calendar: PhD School: Marketing
Faculty: Australian School of Business
Title: How Global Mobility Shapes Consumption Practices
Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE)
Despite the growing stream of literature concerned with the impact of globalisation on consumer culture, there has been little discussion about how consumers’ geographical mobility, an important feature of globalisation, impacts consumption. This research addresses this gap by investigating how global mobility shapes the consumption practices of “global cosmopolitans,” those consumers who move constantly through different places in the world and identify with multiple cultures. More specifically, it investigates how global cosmopolitans’ notions of home, time and cultural identity shape their consumption practices. Grounded in past work on Consumer Culture Theory, this study uses the Extended Case Method and global ethnography to examine the consumption practices of global cosmopolitans. Two complementary data sets are used: indepth interviews with purposefully-selected global cosmopolitans and ethnographic fieldwork with a community of global cosmopolitans (InterNations). The interviews with cosmopolitans provide a more phenomenological view of their world; whilst the fieldwork with InterNations investigates a more social dimension of global mobility, as the community has online and offline features and more than 200,000 active members in 230 local communities based in large cities around the world. This research extends current marketing literature on the globalisation of consumer culture by offering insights into how consumer behaviour operates under conditions of global mobility. In particular, the findings demonstrate that global mobility destabilises key cultural categories (such as the notion of home, time and national identity) that normally organise and provide meanings to various consumption activities. The findings also reveal that global cosmopolitans engage in various behaviours to re-assemble consumption practices and objects into meaningful bundles, to stabilise their meanings and to find new organising structures for time, home and identity. Specifically, the chapter on time shows how past and future are re-worked by global cosmopolitans to fit their present mobility needs and this new relationship with time affects the way they consume. The chapter on home demonstrates how global cosmopolitans are able to maintain a sense of home by developing a networked home. The chapter discusses the implications for consumption and for the meaning of homey possessions. Finally, the chapter on cultural identity highlights the importance of storytelling and other practices in re-working cosmopolitans’ territorially-based identities into global cosmopolitan ones. Declaration relating to disposition of project thesis/dissertation I hereby grant to the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all property rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstracts International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only).
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2
This dissertation is dedicated to Janaína and Luiz Figueiredo and Adilson Falcão
3 Abstract
Despite the growing stream of literature concerned with the impact of globalisation on consumer culture, there has been little discussion about how consumers’ geographical mobility, an important feature of globalisation, impacts consumption. This research addresses this gap by investigating how global mobility shapes the consumption practices of “global cosmopolitans,” those consumers who move constantly through different places in the world and identify with multiple cultures. More specifically, it investigates how global cosmopolitans’ notions of home, time and cultural identity shape their consumption practices.
Grounded in past work on Consumer Culture Theory, this study uses the Extended Case Method and global ethnography to examine the consumption practices of global cosmopolitans. Two complementary data sets are used: in-depth interviews with purposefully-selected global cosmopolitans and ethnographic fieldwork with a community of global cosmopolitans (InterNations). The interviews with cosmopolitans provide a more phenomenological view of their world; whilst the fieldwork with InterNations investigates a more social dimension of global mobility, as the community has online and offline features and more than 200,000 active members in 230 local communities based in large cities around the world.
This research extends current marketing literature on the globalisation of consumer culture by offering insights into how consumer behaviour operates under conditions of global mobility. In particular, the findings demonstrate that global mobility destabilises key cultural categories (such as the notion of home, time and national identity) that normally organise and provide meanings to various consumption
4 activities. The findings also reveal that global cosmopolitans engage in various behaviours to re-assemble consumption practices and objects into meaningful bundles, to stabilise their meanings and to find new organising structures for time, home and identity. Specifically, the chapter on time shows how past and future are re-worked by global cosmopolitans to fit their present mobility needs and this new relationship with time affects the way they consume. The chapter on home demonstrates how global cosmopolitans are able to maintain a sense of home by developing a networked home. The chapter discusses the implications for consumption and for the meaning of homey possessions. Finally, the chapter on cultural identity highlights the importance of storytelling and other practices in re-working cosmopolitans’ territorially-based identities into global cosmopolitan ones.
5
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.'
Signed ………Bernardo AB Figueiredo…………………...........................
Date ………21.06.2012……..................…………………………...........
AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT
‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.’
Signed ………Bernardo AB Figueiredo…………………........................... Date .......……21.06.2012……..................………………………….............
6
ORIGINALITY STATEMENT
“I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception, or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.”
Signed ………Bernardo AB Figueiredo…………………........................... Date .......……21.06.2012……..................………………………….............
7
Acknowledgements
Four months after I started my PhD, a professor told me: “Although this might look as an individual endeavour, this is actually a collective effort; you will never be able to do this by yourself only!” He was right. This thesis would never been possible without the help of many people.
While there are countless people that contributed to this dissertation, I cannot thank enough my parents Luiz Carlos and Janaina, and my partner Adilson, for their patience, support and unconditional love. Whenever things seemed foggy and gray, you gave me strength to go on. In particular, I would like to especially emphasize my mother’s key role not as only as a supporter but as a diligent reader.
I owe sincere and earnest thankfulness to Dr. Julien Cayla, my supervisor. Without your advice and comments, this dissertation would not be possible. I thank you for “hanging on in there”, for believing we could do it, for the quick turnaround time, and for the high-level feedback.
I would also like to thank Prof. Mark Uncles, my co-supervisor, for being a constant positive influence during the whole process. I thank you for your support, your time, for “being there” when I needed, and for your valuable advices.
I would like to thank the Graduate Research School for providing me with generous scholarship and stipend, which allowed me to focus on learning and doing research during the past 3.5 years. I would also like to thank the Association for Consumer Research and the Jagdish N. Sheth Foundation for 2011 ACR/Sheth Cross-Cultural Dissertation Award, which helped fund this research.
8
I would like to thank the Australian School of Business for the support throughout my doctoral years. I am especially thankful to Nadia Withers, Paula Aldwell and Margot Decelis for their kindness and for keeping the excellent working conditions in the School of Marketing; to Prof. Pam Morrison, Prof. Jack Cadeaux, and Prof. Paul Patterson for the support with the logistics of the dissertation and the funding to attend conferences; to Prof. Ian Wilkinson and Prof. Roger Layton for their valuable comments during the assessment of the proposal.
I owe sincere and deep gratitude to my colleagues at Schulich School of Business, where I spent one term as a visiting scholar. I believe the time I spent in Toronto was invaluable not only because I advanced my doctoral skills but also because I met wonderful people, whom I kept as friends for life. In Particular, I would like to thank Prof. Rob Kozinets for planting the seeds of a “visit to Schulich” when we first met in Sydney, and for facilitating my visit to York, and Prof. Eileen Fischer, for being a wonderful mentor both in and outside the classroom.
I would like to show my gratitude to the Marketing Department in the University of Sydney, which allowed me to attend three of their courses. I would like to especially thank Prof. Marylouise Caldwell and Prof. Paul Henry for keeping me in the loop and inviting me to University meetings and gatherings whenever they thought this could help advance my learning and career.
This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of InterNations, which understood the relevance of this work and was kind enough to open its physical and virtual doors to me. I am also indebted and thankful to all participants of this research, for accepting to share their personal stories and worldviews. For ethical reasons and to protect your right to
9 anonymity, I cannot disclose your names here and thank you individually, but I hope to have managed to capture your voices and your imaginations as truthfully as possible.
I would like to thank the organisers and instructors of three very important seminars, which have helped me tremendously in terms of understanding methods and theories behind “Consumer Culture Theory”: the Seminar on Consumption, Markets, and Culture run by Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey; the Seminar on Canon of Classics run by the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark; and the Consumer Culture Theory Data-Analysis Workshop, which happened at Northwestern University, in Chicago, USA.
It is a great pleasure to thank everyone who helped me to complete my dissertation successfully. In particular I am indebted and thankful to Ahir Gopaldas, Craig Thompson, Daiane Scaraboto, Eric P.H. Li, Fabian Held, Fleura Bardhi, Hazliza Haron, Kate Charlton, Marcia Christina Ferreira, Richard Kedzior, Sarah Wilner, Ting Yu, Ursula Rao, Warat Winit, and Zoe Baker. Your help and advice have been critical to the success of this endeavour. I would also like to thank others, who participated in my journey towards getting a PhD: Chen Ning (Chris), Daisy Liu, Denni Arli, Eric Arnould, Erik Sloth, Güliz Ger, Han Xiao (Hazel). Itir Binay, Jeff Murray, Julie Emontspool, Kang Kang Yu, Lara Moroko, Lisa Peñaloza, Luca Visconti. Marius Luedicke, Markus Giesler, Meng Jie, Nui Jiraporn, Paul Melton, Qian Cheng, Russ Belk, Ryan Miller, Sammy Bonsu, Soren Askegaard, Theresa Teo, Will Neil, and Zeynep Arsel.
I am thankful to the three external reviewers of this thesis, Dr. Eileen Fischer, Dr. Paul Henry and Dr. Dannie Kjeldgaard. I know it must take a lot of time and dedication to do a good thesis review, so I would like you to know that I am deeply grateful for it.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction
15
1.1 Research problem .........................................................................................15 1.2 Research questions and research objective ..................................................23 1.3 Research context ..........................................................................................24 1.4 Research methods.........................................................................................25 1.5 Summary of the main argument and contributions ......................................27 1.6 Research structure ........................................................................................28 2. Research Background
30
2.1 Consumption in late modernity ....................................................................30 2.2 Globalisation of consumer culture ...............................................................33 2.3 Theoretical context .......................................................................................36 3. Methods and Empirical Context
41
3.1 Methodological approach .............................................................................41 3.2 Data collection and procedures ....................................................................42 3.2.1 In-depth interviews: Understanding their global mobility from their point of view ..........................................................................................43 3.2.2 Ethnographic data..................................................................................46 3.2.3 From ethnography to multi-sited ethnography ......................................46 3.2.4 Multi-sited ethnography as a method of data collection .......................47 3.2.5 Field sites ..............................................................................................49 3.2.6 Participant observation and informal interviews...................................50 3.2.7 Netnographic data .................................................................................51 3.2.8 Access to the field sites and the role of the researcher .........................51 3.3 Data analysis ................................................................................................52 3.4 Ethical issues ................................................................................................54
4. Global Mobility and Time
56
11 4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................56 4.2 Time in modernity and late modernity .........................................................57 4.3 Time in Consumer Research ........................................................................60 4.4 Time and Consumer Movement ...................................................................63 4.5 Definitions of terms – conceptions of time ..................................................65 4.6 Findings ........................................................................................................66 4.6.1 Fragmentation, multiplication and disembedding .................................66 4.6.2 Synchronisation of activities and increased consumers’ workload .........................................................................................................69 4.6.3 Temporal coordinating mechanisms .....................................................73 4.6.4 New time structures engendered by global mobility.............................78 4.7 Discussion ....................................................................................................90 4.7.1 Summary ...............................................................................................90 4.7.2 Contributions .........................................................................................92 5. The Networked Home
98
5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................98 5.2 Home in consumer research .........................................................................99 5.3 Networked and deterritorialised home .......................................................103 5.4 Findings ......................................................................................................108 5.4.1 Transnational mobility destabilises home ...........................................108 5.4.2 Fragmentation, multiplication and disembedding ...............................110 5.4.3 When the networked home is grounded in one main focal point: At home with Carla and Simon ....................................................................112 5.4.4 When the networked home is grounded in two or more focal points: At home with Donald and Chloe, Hazel and James, Agu and Cathy ............................................................................................................117 5.4.5 When the networked home is not grounded anywhere: At home with third culture kids Vera, Collette and Morris ........................................124 5.4.6 Maintaining the networked home uprooted: The role of cherished practices, rituals and routines in the performance of the
12 networked home ...........................................................................................131 5.4.7 The empty house .................................................................................133 5.5 Discussion ..................................................................................................136 5.5.1 Summary of findings ...........................................................................136 5.5.2 Contributions .......................................................................................138 6. Global Cosmopolitan Identities
142
6.1 Introduction - globalisation and cultural identity .......................................142 6.2 Defining identity and related terms ............................................................144 6.3 Cultural Identity and the function of consumption practices and products147 6.4 Consumer migration and consumers’ ethnic and national identities .........151 6.5 Findings ......................................................................................................155 6.5.1 Monitoring national and ethnic identities ...........................................155 6.5.2 Flexible and fluid identities: the global cosmopolitan identity project ...........................................................................................................169 6.6 Discussion ..................................................................................................190 6.6.1 Summary .............................................................................................190 6.6.2 Contributions .......................................................................................193
7. Conclusion
202
7.1 Summary ....................................................................................................202 7.2 Research Limitations and Extensions ........................................................209 7.3 Contributions and Implications ..................................................................212 7.3.1 Consumption in late modernity ...........................................................212 7.3.2 Global consumer culture .....................................................................221 8. References
231
Appendices
256
Appendix A - Ethics
.................................................................................257
Appendix b – Fact Sheet and Interview Guide ...............................................264
13 Appendix C – Sample Profile .........................................................................274 Appendix D – Conceptions of Time and Consumer Behaviour ......................280 Appendix E – Self-defining sentences at InterNations Profiles ......................286 Appendix f – How do members dress for InterNations’ gatherings?...............293 Appendix G – Constructing a global past at InterNations ...............................303
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List of Tables and Figures
Figure 1- The networked home ..............................................................................................107 Figure 2- Flag Gallery ...........................................................................................................181 Figure 3 - How mobility affects consumption practices ........................................................202 Figure 4 – Internations’ Gatherings in nine countries ..........................................................301 . Table 1: Managing practices and new structures for time coordination.................................93 Table 2 Practices constituting the networked home ..............................................................140 Table 3- Self-definition through five key characteristics .......................................................178 Table 4- Global cosmopolitan practices ................................................................................196 Table 5- Summary of findings ................................................................................................212 Table 6– Interviewees - Key Information ...............................................................................281 Table 7– Interviewees - Additional Information ....................................................................284 Table 8- Conceptions of time .................................................................................................288 Table 9- What makes me a Global Mind................................................................................293
15 1. Introduction
1.1 Research problem
The purpose of this thesis is to conduct a cultural analysis of global mobility. More specifically, I investigate how global mobility shapes consumption practices 1. Global mobility is not a new phenomenon, as people have been moving globally in greater numbers since mercantilism and the great discoveries of the fifteenth century. However, what is particularly novel is the intensity, speed and volume of global movement that characterizes late modernity (Urry 2007). Anecdotal cases of people living in conditions of intense global mobility abound in the news. For instance, Tom Stucker, United Airlines’ most frequent flyer had flown 9 million miles by 2009, which is equivalent to 32 trips to the moon (Mayerowitz 2009). The evidence for global movement is striking, with research showing how some people spend a large portion of their life travelling (Elliott and Urry 2010; Smith and Favell 2006). In a life span, members of the most mobile sectors of the global population may travel millions of miles and, most importantly, encounter a multitude of cultural frameworks, languages and social norms. Due to their global mobility, some of the informants of this research have lived in more than eight countries, speak six languages and have five passports. Global mobility is a growing phenomenon. Today, the world population moves 23 billion kilometres a day; by 2050 it is predicted that this number will have increased 1
In simple terms, consumption practices refer to the various ways by which people consume and
understand consumption (Holt 1995). A more elaborated explanation is provided by Reckwitz (2002). Based on Schatzki’s (1996) practice theory, Reckwitz (2002, 249) states that a practice “is a routinized type of behaviour which consists of several elements, interconnected to one other: forms of bodily activities, forms of mental activities, ‘things’ and their use, a background knowledge in the form of understanding, know-how, states of emotion and motivational knowledge”. Consumer practices, in aggregate, create and reproduce the structure in which the actions are embedded (Bourdieu 1977; Giddens 1991; Warde 2005).
16 fourfold (Urry 2007). Global mobility includes not only the daily mobility of people commuting to and from work, but also geographical mobility related to migration and the search for career and educational opportunities. Evidence suggests that there are more people living outside their country of origin now than ever before. According to the latest United Nations’ report on mobility (Klugman 2009), the number of people living outside their country of origin has tripled in the last 50 years (214 million in 2009), while the world’s population has only doubled in the same period. Furthermore, the 2007 ORC Global Mobility Program Management Survey (Deloitte-ORC 2007)has shown that multinationals are predicting significant increases in the demand for foreign talent and increases in foreign assignments in the next years, which will increase the number of displaced skilled professionals. Moreover, the global demand for international higher education is forecasted to increase from 1.8 million international students in 2000 to 7.2 million international students in 2025 (Bohm and Pearce 2002). Overall, people are travelling further and faster (Urry 2007). In today’s world, being mobile is not a privilege of global elites only. In developed countries, a great deal of the middle and upper middle class have access to some kind of mobility, especially if they are skilled professionals (OECD 2008). We are moving towards a more mobile world, where global mobility is at the centre of people’s experience of everyday life (Urry 2000). The global mobility of people is also closely associated with the global mobility of things. Media, products, services and objects also move and, as they move, they enable and sustain life in conditions of mobility. The increase in global connections— due to advances in communication systems, technologies and global media—makes it much easier to maintain life in conditions of mobility today than it was 50 years ago. With satellite transmission, cable TV, superfast Internet and other new media, it is possible to access news from many different places in a matter of seconds. Without
17 leaving their homes, people can now access images, symbols and stories from distant lands. For the mobile population, the Internet, mobile phones and calling cards have made it much easier to keep in touch with family and friends and to be up-to-date with what happens around the world while travelling (Friedman 2007). VoIP software, such as “Skype” and “Google Talk”, which cost very little and provide virtual presence (image and voice), allow continuous maintenance of long-distance relationships and important family ties. Global mobility refers not only to the movements of people and things around the world, but also to the meanings associated with those movements. Cresswell (2006, 3) has affirmed that “mobility is the dynamic equivalent of place” and that “movement is rarely just movement; it carries with it the burden of meaning.” Thus, similar to place, which is space with meaning (Tuan 2001), mobility is movement with meaning. Therefore, any study that attempts to understand global mobility must also develop an understanding of what this movement means to the people who move. Global mobility and consumption are closely related. As people move around the world, they encounter diverse marketplaces, they form new fields of consumption, they buy things from suppliers in other markets and get them delivered to their houses, and they experience social norms, rituals, customs, products and practices from other parts of the world. They also develop new ways of developing family relationships, sharing among family members, building community and maintaining everyday life routines in conditions of mobility. The global mobility of consumers creates new ways of relating to objects (Bardhi, Eckhard, and Arnould 2012) and to everyday life. Global enterprises and IT firms are the most interested in issues involving extensive mobility. For example, Apple Computers supports projects such as Portable Effects (http://www.portablefx.com), which explores relationships between mobile people and portable objects. IDEO (www.ideo.com), an American design consultancy, is involved
18 in numerous projects with other corporate partners (e.g., Procter & Gamble, Pepsi-Cola and Samsung) to understand the effects of mobility on consumers’ lives and to create innovative products, services, spaces and experiences for them. Motorola has a team of researchers to study the impact of mobility on perceptions of time (Metcalf and Harboe 2006) and Intel has researchers (Ken and De Paula 2006; Zafiroglu and Asokan 2006) working on the relationship between mobility and notions of home. In addition, many of these firms are interested in mobility in the context of Human Computer Interface (HCI) and the relationships between objects and humans in technological environments. Theoretically, studying the global mobility of consumers is important for two reasons. First, mobility is critical to understanding the production of a global consumer culture. Consumer culture is formed by market-mediated relationships between consumers (Arnould and Thompson 2005) and global consumer culture has been related to the processes that unite and globalise consumer culture (Arnould, Sheth, and Malhotra 2011). However, the way we have studied global consumer culture so far excludes the very thing that generates it: global mobility. To date, studies on global consumer culture have mostly addressed global consumer culture as either a mass of homogenous culture that exists somewhere up and out there—at a meta level of the global (Alden, Batra, and Steenkamp 1999), or as something containing differences and antagonisms (e.g., global versus local debates), but somehow static, objectified and bounded (Craig and Douglas 2006). Consumer research has not yet evaluated the intrinsic role of global mobility on consumer culture: as a set of dynamic processes that are in constant motion and constantly producing new social forms (globalised and localised) and new markets. Thus, if we are to study global consumer culture as a dynamic phenomenon, we need to include global mobility in the framework. In sum, the phenomenon being studied here cannot be explained by existing theories about global consumer culture. Therefore, this study explores the nature of the consumption practices
19 associated with mobile consumers to assess how existing theories can be expanded or revised to account for this global mobility. Furthermore, global mobility is also central to understanding the life of consumers in conditions of late modernity (Nowicka 2006a). Scholars from different fields (Augé 1995; Bauman 2000; Beck 2000; Beck, Giddens, and Lash 1994; Giddens 1990) have argued that we live in a new era, associated with the latest transformations of capitalism in the world. In this phase, named late modernity (or second modernity, reflexive modernity, liquid modernity or super modernity, depending on the author) shifts have been observed in the way we relate to time and space (Giddens 1990), develop identities (Giddens 1991) and live our lives (Beck et al. 1994). Other theorists (Harvey 1999; Jameson 1991), who discuss this phase as postmodernity (emphasising a rupture with modernity), also point to key differences of our times: fragmentation, hyperreality, bricolage, decentralisation of subjects, loss of grand-narratives (Firat and Venkatesh 1995). As Firat and Dholakia (1998) note, we might not be postmodern yet, but we can see elements of postmodernity (e.g., fragmentation) already happening in certain instances of late modernity, as is the case with very mobile conditions. 2 Global mobility is at the centre of life transformation in the processes described by late modern theorists (Urry 2000). For example, the capacity to be mobile alters our relation with space in very deep ways. Fundamental categories of space, such as “near” and “far,” can no longer be taken-for-granted. The new near includes all that is easily accessible. If parents in Russia can be reached through Skype, they are near; if they live 50kms from us in rural areas and cannot be easily reached, they are far. In this new division of space, New York may be closer to London than it is to Northfield, in
2
From now on, references to late modernity theories and authors include processes discussed by
postmodernist theorists (e.g., Jameson, Harvey and Featherstone). I follow Firat and Dholakia’s (1998) view that, although we may be seeing signs of postmodernity (e.g., fragmentation), we live in a phase of intensification of various principles of modernity. Thus, the umbrella term used in this introduction is “late modernity” (Giddens 1990).
20 Vermont, even if the former is 3,500 and the latter 280 miles away. Global mobility seems to accelerate both the processes of fragmentation and the processes of disembedding discussed by late modernists. Therefore, we can gain a much better understanding of some of the processes that are at work in late modernity through an understanding of mobility, which, in turn, help us understand where we are heading in terms of a consumer society. If the mobile condition is a critical condition of late modernity, and if we are becoming more mobile, then understanding the global mobility of consumers might allow us to also understand how consumers of late modernity relate (and will relate in the future, if the late modernists are correct about the direction we are going) to markets, how market-mediated relationships are (and will be) constructed, maintained and destroyed. In sum, in addition to extending and adapting global consumer culture theories to account for global mobility, this study theorises a critical phenomenon that is key to understanding the bigger picture, that is, consumption in late modernity. Whilst we know that mobility is fundamental to understanding consumption in late modernity and that global consumer culture has dynamic aspects, there is very little theory about the global mobility of consumers. The majority of consumer research studies that discuss mobility tend to focus on the immigrant consumer, that is, someone who uproots from one place and re-roots in another place, usually a different country. Although immigrant consumers are an important element of global mobility, the reduced scope of movement and the territorial logic (i.e., the immigrants want to have roots) do not capture the features of global mobility that are most contemporaneous (i.e., the global interconnections, flux of information, formation of networks, establishment of a new imaginary). The remaining literature on consumer mobility comprises various studies (e.g.: Bardhi and Askegaard 2009; Bardhi et al. 2012; Thompson and Tambyah 1999) which, although highly relevant to the matters discussed
21 here, are insufficient to describe and explain the life and behaviour of consumers under conditions of global mobility. There are various issues about the global mobility of consumers that remain unaccounted for. First, we know mobility alters consumers’ relationship with time and space (Bardhi and Askegaard 2009) and identity (Thompson and Tambyah 1999), but we have not developed empirical understandings of how people in constant mobility reorganise their lives to cope with conditions of mobility. For example, we know from existing literature that space, time and identity become destabilised in conditions of mobility (Bauman 2000; Giddens 1990; Nowicka and Kaweh 2009). However, we do not know what that means to consumers. More specifically, we do not know how the disembedding of social life and the fragmentation of everyday life destabilise the structuring of consumption activities. Second, we do not know how consumers feel about the destabilisation that is caused by global mobility. Do they experience it as stressful, or liberating? Third, we know destabilised and fragmented lives may become difficult to manage (Brimm 2010; Butcher 2011) as people need centres of stability and ontological security (Bauman 2000; Giddens 1991), and we can assume that since globally mobile consumers exist and maintain their lives in mobility, they must be doing something to be able to keep their lives stable, despite multiple changes in space, time and identity. What are they doing to manage and stabilise their lives? Fourth, if fragmentation of key stabilising structures (time, space and identity) is occurring, is it possible that new stabilisation structures are being formed? Is it possible that, as suggested by Urry (2003), global mobility is also producing new structures for consumers’ lives (and consequently consumers’ behaviour) to be based upon? If so, what are these new structures? Fifth, through the work of Benedict Anderson (2006), we know that in the absence of time and space proximity as a principle that coordinates social events/actions, people need to imagine their connections and their world in order
22 to develop identities and behaviour associated with this world. While Anderson’s work is about the importance of the national imagination (sustained mainly through print media and state efforts), we wonder how global imaginations are being formed. Understanding the imaginations associated with the global mobility of consumers can help us understand more about the global imaginations and global identities of consumers, especially if these imaginations can be studied in a collective way. Managerially, if we accept the assumption that mobility is key to understanding global consumer culture and life in high modernity, then not understanding how consumers’ lives are maintained in a condition of mobility (i.e., how their consumption practices and worldviews change because of mobility) may prevent managers and policymakers from acting most effectively. For example, the marketing fields of product innovation, strategic marketing and consumer insights are intrinsically linked to understanding the macro and mid-range changes experienced by global consumers in late modernity. For instance, the launch of smartphones and tablets is a direct consequence of understanding consumers’ need for mobility. Without knowing the tendencies and imaginations of globally mobile consumers, it becomes difficult to plan for the needs of the future. Likewise, public policymakers must include the effects of global mobility in their work. If mobility is increasing and if fragmentation is increasing alongside it, understanding what consumers are doing to stabilise their lives can provide important clues to future action that may protect the well-being of consumers. For example, if consumers are having difficulties finding ways of keeping the stability of home in conditions of mobility, policymakers can develop new instruments to facilitate selected types of trades and exchanges that provide stability to home in conditions of mobility (e.g., regulations over access to albums of pictures kept in clouds). Other instruments of control, which result in instability to home, may be alleviated (e.g., rigid laws that
23 hinder the transport of private furniture across countries). In sum, knowing how consumers stabilise their lives in conditions of mobility can also be useful to both managers and policymakers.
1.2 Research questions and research objective
As mentioned previously, consumers’ conditions of global mobility create shifts in their notions of time, space and identity causing them to engage in a different set of consumption practices. Thus, the aim of this research is to contribute to current knowledge of consumption in late modernity and of global consumer culture by investigating the impact of global mobility on consumption practices (i.e., what they do, how they do it, what consumption means to them). Therefore, the main research question is:
RQ: “How does the global mobility of consumers affect their consumption practices?”
To emphasise the fact that global mobility affects time, space and identity dimensions, which, in turn, affect the way people consume, this question can be subdivided into two questions: 1) How does the global mobility of consumers affect their notions of time, space and identity? 2) How do these shifts in their notions of time, space and identity affect their consumption practices?
24 1.3 Research context
From all consumers living in conditions of global mobility, the focus of this study is on one type, called Global Cosmopolitans. According to Linda Brimm, Professor Emeritus of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD and specialist in identity development and change, global cosmopolitans are “members of a talented population of highly educated, multilingual people who have lived, worked and studied for extensive periods in different cultures” (Brimm 2010, 4). The reason for choosing global cosmopolitans over other types of globally mobile consumers is that their prolonged contact with different geographies and multiple cultures provides a more adequate context (Arnould, Price, and Moisio 2006) to study the emerging social imaginaries created by global mobility. Social imaginaries refer to the common understandings “that makes possible common practices and a widely shared sense of legitimacy” (Taylor 2004, 23). They are “deep-seated modes of understanding that provide the most general parameters within which people imagine their communal existence [...] They are neither theories nor ideologies, but implicit ‘backgrounds’ that make possible communal practices and a widely shared sense of their legitimacy” (Steger 2009, 12). Through their multicultural past experiences and their mobile lives, global cosmopolitans build new social imaginaries that support and inform their consumption practices. Another reason for choosing global cosmopolitans is that their position of privileged access to resources (economic, social and cultural capital) makes them more mobile than other groups, whose mobility may be propelled by duty (e.g., militaries), escape (e.g., refugees) or resettlement (e.g., immigrants), rather than personal choice. More importantly, global cosmopolitans are the group of people most inserted in the logics of late capitalism (or flexible capitalism), with their transposable skills, service sector
25 orientation, liberal education and their use of mobility to seek opportunities in global capitalism. It is not by chance that global cosmopolitans tend to live in globally interconnected metropolitan areas—global cities—as these are also spaces of hypermodernity. In this thesis, mobility-related consumption practices and the worldview of global cosmopolitans are studied, because these consumers are exemplars of people who live in a new era. In the era of global cosmopolitanism, territorial boundaries are not as important in determining behaviour as they have been historically. Multiple national identities are not only possible but also desirable, and membership to a group, community or cultural entity is expressed more by consumption practices than by location. It is an assumption of this work that these consumers are now dealing with the shifting conditions that most of us will have to deal with later, as the world moves towards a more mobile, diverse, urban and multicultural landscape. Thus, by investigating their world, social imaginary, problems and needs, this research offers a glimpse into the problems and needs that are likely to become more relevant in the near future for broader groups of consumers.
1.4 Research methods
Since mobility shifts notions of time and space, studying it requires adapting the temporal and spatial aspects of existing methods. In conducting this study, I used a combined approach of Extended Case Method (ECM) and global ethnography, both developed by Burawoy (1998, 2000). The Extended Case Method selects cases that are anomalous, that is, that are not contemplated by current theory. The “anomaly” here is global mobility (consumers who are globally mobile) and global cosmopolitans were
26 chosen as a case because they provide the most appropriate context for studying global mobility of late modernity. Global ethnography is an ethnographic method that tries to examine local and grounded phenomena (consumption practices from diverse sites, in this case) from a different perspective, one that highlights the connection, forces and imaginations that link the observed phenomenon with others in different parts of the world. It is a way of looking at a phenomenon that is grounded in the local with global eyes. In other words, global ethnography looks at the local with a different order of questions and looks for different things. “Globalisation poses a challenge to existing social scientific methods of inquiry and units of analysis by destabilising the embeddedness of social relations in particular communities and places. By locating themselves firmly within the time and space of social actors ‘living the global,’ ethnographers can reveal the socioscapes that people collectively construct of global processes”, which demonstrates “how globalisation is grounded in the local” (Gille and Riain 2002, 271). To collect data, two main techniques were used. First, 41 in-depth interviews were conducted to investigate how global cosmopolitans understand the world they live in. While selective snowball sampling was used in the beginning, later interviews followed purposeful sampling, using theoretical tenets and results from preliminary analysis to guide selection of interviewees. Parallel to that, a second method of data collection was used: multi-sited ethnographic research for 30 months, with a community of global cosmopolitans called “InterNations”. InterNations has online and offline features and more than 200,000 active members in 230 local communities based in large cities around the world. I chose three sites (community in Sydney, community in Toronto and online community) that allowed me to observe global cosmopolitans from different parts of the world in both online and offline interactions. Two other local communities that were part of
27 InterNations were visited for comparison and contrast. The analytic focus remained on the behaviour of consumers associated with the changes in temporal frameworks, in their notions of home, and in the cultural identity of globally mobile consumers. These themes are addressed through the following analytical questions: 3 1) How do consumers coordinate their activities temporarily in conditions of global mobility? 2) How do consumers maintain a sense of home in conditions of global mobility? 3) How do consumers sustain a sense of identity in conditions of global mobility? The iterative analysis (Spiggle 1994) and the ECM weaving with macro-theories (Holt 2002) was done with a focus on three cultural categories that help structure consumption: home (as a category of place/space), temporal frameworks (as a category of time) and cultural identity (as a category of identity). Each analytical category is reported as a separate finding chapter (Chapters 4, 5 and 6).
1.5 Summary of the main argument and contributions
This research contributes to our understanding of consumers’ life in late modernity by showing the different ways by which global mobility shifts consumers’ notions of time, space and identity. Specifically, the findings demonstrate that global mobility destabilises key cultural categories, such as the notion of home, time and national identity, which normally organise and provide meanings to various
3
I call “analytical questions” those that are asked directly to the data. They are different from research
questions because of the level of abstraction. Analytical questions tend to demand more descriptive answers. The interpretation of the answers to analytical questions in the light of theory eventually leads to answers to research questions.
28 consumption activities. Second, the findings show the impact of destabilisation of these categories (time, space and identity), by demonstrating the kind of feelings associated with these processes of destabilisation and the extra workload consumers have to deal with. Third, the findings reveal the practices consumers engage in to try to re-stabilise the fragmentation, disembedding and multiplication of these key categories. Fourth, the findings show that global mobility also produces new structures for time coordination, home making and identity pursuit. By making global mobility a key process in the production of global consumer culture, this work furthers our understanding of global consumer culture. First, the research expands the conceptual and methodological options for overcoming obstacles of “methodological nationalism,” a common assumption in consumer research studies of global consumer culture. Second, the research demonstrates how global consumer culture is constituted of a dynamic set of processes, which has mobility as one of its important features. Third, the research highlights the role of mobile imaginations as capable of structuring and producing consumption practices. Fourth, the research demonstrates how new structures are made possible by the marketplace via arrangements and networks of tangible and intangible elements. Finally, it shows how objects are re-signified according to their function in the network.
1.6 Research structure
Chapter 1 introduces the study, including the research problem and its significance; the research context; the research objective and questions; the methodological approach; the argument and contributions; and the structure of the thesis. Chapter 2 provides the general theoretical background to this research by highlighting
29 key issues of consumer life in late modernity and of global consumer culture. It also theoretically develops the importance of global cosmopolitans as the chosen context. Chapter 3 explains the choice of methods, their application, the data collected and the way they were analysed. It also explains the empirical context of the fieldwork. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 are findings chapters. Chapter 4 deals with the first analytical theme: time in conditions of global mobility. Chapter 5 deals with the second analytical theme: home in conditions of global mobility. Chapter 6 deals with the third analytical theme: cultural identity in conditions of global mobility. Each chapter is divided into three parts. First, a theoretical part, that reviews the consumer research and marketing literature concerning the specific issues of each analytic category (time, home and cultural identity) and frames the research questions to fit that literature. Second, a findings part that answers the research questions for that specific category, highlighting how global mobility destabilises consumers’ lives, how consumers feel about these changes, the way consumers respond to these changes, and the new structures of time, home and cultural identity created as a consequence of that. The third part summarises and discusses the findings in the light of the specific bibliography. Chapter 7 summarises and discusses the general findings, highlighting how the findings from each chapter are integrated into one explanation about how global mobility shapes consumption practices. It also highlights contributions, limitations and implications of this study.
30 2. Research Background
2.1 Consumption in late modernity
Global mobility is central to understanding consumer life in the latest phase of capitalism; it is a key transformational force of late modernity. Therefore, to position this work historically, according to the evolution of consumer society, I quickly review how social scientists have described our era in terms of its contrasts to modernity. Various scholars from different disciplines of social sciences and humanities (Augé 1995; Beck 2000; Beck et al. 1994; Castells 1996; Giddens 1990; Harvey 1999; Jameson 1991; Urry 2000) have affirmed that we live in a new era, associated with the latest transformation of capitalism in the world and its phase of flexible accumulation. While for some authors, the postmodernists, this new era involves a radical change from the tenets of modernity (Featherstone 1995; Harvey 1999; Jameson 1991), others have stated that we are not in a phase that is radically different from modernity. According to this second stream (Augé 1995; Bauman 2000; Beck et al. 1994; Giddens 1990) we are actually living in a phase of an intensification of modernisation processes, where the structure of some institutions of modernity (e.g. nation-state) gets challenged by the very radicalisation of the principles that created them (e.g. capital accumulation). This phase has been given various names: second or reflexive modernity (Beck et al. 1994), late modernity (Giddens 1990), liquid modernity (Bauman 2000), supermodernity (Augé 1995), depending on the particular aspect the authors wanted to stress most. Modernity is the post-medieval phase, associated with the rise of capitalism, and with processes such as industrialisation, rationalisation, secularisation and the rise of the
31 nation-state. These processes became consolidated by the late eighteenth century. According to Giddens, modernity is a shorthand for modern society or industrial civilization. He associated it “with (1) a certain set of attitudes towards the world, the idea of the world as open to transformation, by human intervention; (2) a complex of economic institutions, especially industrial production and a market economy; (3) a certain range of political institutions, including the nation-state and mass democracy. […] It is a society—more technically, a complex of institutions—which, unlike any preceding culture, lives in the future, rather than the past” (Giddens and Pierson 1998, 94). Modernity institutionalised the market as the most important legitimised force in society. It brought individual, private, alienated, passive consumption patterns into existence (Firat and Dholakia 1998). Since the beginning of the modernity era, travelling through the same amount of space has been taking less and less time, which creates a “time-space compression” (Harvey 1999), or “time-space distanciation” (Giddens 1990). Although the terms seem to be contradictory, they actually refer to the same processes, whereby time and space— inseparable dimensions in the pre-modern societies—split up. This time-space distanciation leads to “disembedding,” which is “the ‘lifting out’ of social relations from local contexts of interactions and their restructuring across indefinite spans of timespace” (Giddens 1990, 21). Thus, in modernity, space and time are recombined in forms that do not obey the principle of proximity and locality, which were the principles that organised life in traditional societies. This separation worked to the advantage of capitalism, which used it to create a more efficient accumulation of capital. A good illustration of this is the series of measurements of time rhythms and workplace conditions conducted in order to find new combinations of time and space to increase the efficiency of factory workers at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century (Taylor 2005). This disembedding and re-embedding of social
32 activity is characteristic of modernity, but they are processes that have intensified to a much greater extent in the second modernity with the advent of electronic communication and new forms of measuring risk and trust in flexible capitalism, which is why this phase is seen as a continuation of the first modernity. Second modernity has also been called reflexive modernity, because it is characterised by greater reflexivity, where “social practices are constantly examined and reformed in the light of incoming information about those very practices, thus constitutively altering their character” (Giddens 1990, 38). Reflexivity is associated with an increase in the modern principle of individualisation. In reflexive modernity, the work of disembedding and reembedding and the coordination of activities that were carried by modern institutions, such as the nation-states, are transferred to the individuals in the name of neoliberal freedom (Giddens 1991). Although it does not seem that we are living in postmodern times yet (Firat and Dholakia 1998), some processes reported by researchers of postmodernity and consumption, such as the globalisation of fragmentation (Firat 1997) and the juxtaposition of opposites (Firat and Venkatesh 1995) are becoming more and more common characteristics of our times. In fragmentation, consumption experiences become multiple and disjointed, lacking the commitment to a meta-narrative or a central theme characteristic of modernity. In addition, the juxtaposition of opposites recognises the fragmentation as the basis of consumption and endorses pastiche and bricolage as principles underlying consumption (Firat and Venkatesh 1995). Urry and colleagues (Elliott and Urry 2010; Sheller and Urry 2006; Urry 2000, 2003, 2007) and other advocates of a mobility turn in the social sciences (Adey 2009; Cresswell 2006) argue that, in order to understand current changes in society, sociology must “abandon its original project—the study of society as a set of bounded institutions—and switch the focus to the study of physical, imaginative and virtual
33 movements” (Urry 2000, 257). He argues that globalisation should not be seen as substituting one region, the bounded nation-state, by another region, the global economy and culture. Rather, globalisation involves “replacing the metaphor of society as region with the metaphor of the global conceived as a network and as fluid” (2000, 33). Mobility is an “ontological condition and is expressed in processes as different as global complexity and reflexive modernity: people, commodities, cultures, technologies are all mobile and their reality is one of mobility. Mobilities are not just flows but networked relations and are globally organised in new kinds of spaces and temporal processes” (Delanty 2006, 32). Urry’s proposal of studying mobility with its networks and flows seems to be the appropriate way to advance the understanding of life in conditions of globalisation, and contribute to the ongoing debate of modifications of consumption in late (and post) modernity. Urry’s followers have shown that in many ways mobility challenges people’s relationship to space and time, objects and people 4 (Brimm 2010; Butcher 2009a, 2009b, 2011; Nowicka 2006b, 2007; Nowicka and Kaweh 2009). However, the understanding of the impact of these modifications on consumption practices is still in its infancy. The few studies that exist show that mobility can engender a different ideology of consumption (Thompson and Tambyah 1999) and a different relationship to possessions (Bardhi et al. 2012). It is to this growing conversation about the impact of mobility on our everyday life that this study engages in. 2.2 Globalisation of consumer culture
4
A new academic journal called Mobilities (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/17450101.asp) was
created in 2006 to explore these changes and link them to understanding societies in the 21st century. It has achieved a considerable impact in the social sciences. For example, according to Journal of Citation reports 2011, despite its short history, it already ranks 28/67 in Geography.
34 The literature on global consumer culture can be divided into two groups of studies. The first group tries to understand global consumer culture from a bounded geographical perspective, where global refers to the scope of consumer culture. In other words, it tends to consider global consumer culture as “a culture” composed by elements that are shared on a global scale (Westjohn and Magnusson 2011). Studies from this group may examine the nature of the products, brands and services belonging to global consumer culture, or the various responses people have to these global products, brands and services. This includes attitudes and willingness to buy global products and brands (Alden, Steenkamp, and Batra 2006; Özsomer and Altaras 2008; Steenkamp and de Jong 2010), attitudes towards globally oriented ads (Westjohn et al. 2009), differences between global citizens and others (Cannon and Yaprak 2002), social and world mindedness (Nijssen and Douglas 2008) and ways of segmenting the global consumer (Dawar and Parker 1994; Holt, Quelch, and Taylor 2004). Then, a second group of studies considers global consumer culture not as “a” culture, but as a set of dynamic cultural processes that happen as consequences of globalisation. In other words, the focus is more on the process resulting from globalisation than on the content. Examples of topics of this second stream include the formation of youthscapes as structures of common difference (Kjeldgaard and Askegaard 2006), the development of brandscapes as processes of cultural hegemony and resistance (Thompson and Arsel 2004) and the formation of transnational brands and new imaginaries as a consequence of cultural globalisation (Cayla and Eckhardt 2007). I see global mobility as a perspective that can add to our understanding of the consequences and processes of cultural globalisation (the second group of studies). Instead of looking at globalisation in terms of geographical places (the nations and the globe), I want to follow Appadurai’s (1990) suggestion that we should look at
35 globalisation from the point of view of flows, and their imagination and disjunctures. In that sense, global cosmopolitans—as a group of people who are constantly moving across the globe—constitute a social formation that belongs to global consumer culture, as it is produced by the process of globalisation of consumer culture. However, it is neither part of a shared consumer culture, nor geographically separable from other formations, such as the nation. Hence, to understand global cosmopolitans’ existence, consumption and movement around the world, we should look at the imaginations that their movement engenders, and at the frictions these imaginations may cause with other flows or objects (Tsing 2005). A perspective that focuses on mobility and its imaginations may allow us to gain much deeper and more dynamic understandings of the processes within global consumer culture. According to Lee and Lipuma (2002, 192) if we consider mobility (or “circulation” in their language) as an analytic construct for cultural analysis, then it “must be conceived as more than simply the movement of people, ideas, and commodities from one culture to another. Instead, [...] circulation is a cultural process with its own forms of abstraction, evaluation, and constraint, which are created by the interactions between specific types of circulating forms and the interpretive communities built around them.” The proposed focus on mobility and its imaginations and frictions, creates a new set of issues for understanding global consumer culture. For example, we should try to understand how mobile consumers develop identities that are linked to these cultures of circulation and to particular mobile imaginaries. In order to explore the tensions and disjunctures that Tsing and Appadurai discuss, we should also try to understand how these new forms of identification relate to other forms of identification, such as the national identities. In addition, we should try to understand how mobile consumers imagine and construct places (e.g. home in conditions of mobility) and how that relates to traditional forms of place-making. We should also examine how mobile consumers
36 imagine new forms of being in time and relating to time, how they coordinate their consumption activities in these imagined timescapes and how these temporal imaginations relate to more modern forms of time-keeping and time coordination.
2.3 Theoretical context
Based on the critical review of the literature on globalisation, mobility, cosmopolitanism and transnationalism (Bardhi 2004; Bauman 2000; Beck 2008; Friedman 2007; Hannerz 1990; Nowicka 2006b; Robertson 1995; Roudometof 2005; Szerszynski and Urry 2002; Urry 2000, 2007; Vertovec 1999), I have identified global cosmopolitans to be the ideal context from which to understand how these global trends are altering the relationships between consumers and space. Global cosmopolitans are a group of well-educated, middle and upper class consumers who have lived in, and travelled to, many different countries in search for opportunities, because of career, jobs and education. Linda Brimm (2010, 3) has said that global cosmopolitans are “members of a talented population of highly educated, multilingual people who have lived, worked and studied for extensive periods in different cultures.” They are also known as world citizens, serial expats and flexible citizens. Global cosmopolitans include travelling managers of multinationals, consultants, global bureaucrats (e.g. members of the United Nations, diplomats, global NGOs), academics who have moved for job positions, students who have moved for better educational opportunities, and independent service providers (such as architects, accountants and training specialists who shifted countries and cultures in search of a better life). Although global cosmopolitans have diverse life trajectories, ethnic backgrounds and mobility paths, they have the following factors in common(Butcher 2009b, 2011; Nowicka 2006b; Nowicka and Kaweh 2009):
37 1) Exposure to multiple cultural frameworks through their experience in many different countries; 2) Lack of identification to a single spatial unit (e.g. the concept of home or nationality is quite complex for them); 3) De-territorialised or multi-territorialised identities; 4) Attraction to global cities and resourceful mega-regions; 5) Capacity and access to mobility (as opposed to immigrants and refugees who have very limited control over their mobility). Global cosmopolitans are theoretically relevant to consumer research and marketing, because in their everyday life they deal with many tensions caused by the altered notions of time, space and identity discussed above. Their global mobility acts as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it guarantees higher wages, better education, better job offers and other incentives that accompany global capitalism. On the other hand, it brings a number of challenges associated with being constantly on the move, namely long-distance relationships, discomfort, fragmented identities and a sense of displacement (Bardhi 2004; Butcher 2009b; Nowicka 2006a). For example, Bardhi (2004) argues that they share some alienation from traditional relationships, such as family and close friendships, due to their extremely mobile lives. Although some might search for temporary relief in enclaves of expatriate professionals (Thompson and Tambyah 1999), many still experience discomfort with only superficial temporary relationships and a sense of not knowing where home is (Tung 1998). Nowicka (2006b) explains that the confrontation with other’s differences is stressful and that they may need to find ways to cope with those differences. In other words, mobility creates multiple tensions in the lives of global cosmopolitans as it changes the organisation of basic human domains, such as home, daily rhythms and cultural identity. According to previous research on various types of global cosmopolitans (Bardhi 2004; Butcher
38 2009b; Nowicka 2006b; Thompson and Tambyah 1999), their lives are in constant tension between the opportunities and threats caused by high mobility. As consumers, global cosmopolitans are likely to enact the tensions caused by global mobility in their everyday consumption practices (Thompson and Tambyah 1999). Consumer culture researchers (Epp and Price 2008; Holt and Thompson 2004; Kates 2002; Kozinets 2002; Thompson and Haytko 1997) have shown that consumers not only express their identity through consumption, but also use consumption to manage identity issues and solve tensions in their lives (Holt 1997). For example, Kates (2002) has shown how gay consumers use products and brands to express, accept, challenge and reproduce their subculture. Similarly, Thompson and Haytko (1997, 15) have explored the ways by which consumers use fashion discourses to “negotiate key existential tensions.” Based on these studies on consumption culture theory, this study hypothesises that the marketplace is an important arena where global cosmopolitans articulate their ways of being in the world and dealing with it. As a result, consumption is not only a way of expressing, but also of constituting their identity and of managing differences (Butcher 2011). Most importantly, global cosmopolitans represent a very important movement of people, not so much for the size of their population, but mainly for their strategic placement in the intersection of cultural borders and money. To use Appadurai’s (1999) terms, global cosmopolitans represent an ethnoscape (a transnational group of people constantly in flow) that seeks, and is most successful in, environments where there is concentration of global resources (money, career opportunities, cultural and social capital, technologies and infrastructure). Due to this, global cosmopolitans’ paths juxtapose major finanscapes (global movements of capital), ideoscapes (global movements of ideas), technoscapes (global movements of technologies) and mediascapes (global movements of media images). When global cosmopolitans are not
39 in movement, they dwell in global cities and in mega-regions, the hubs of global integration, attracted by their economic, social and cultural resources (Sassen 1991). Consequently, global cosmopolitans’ trajectories are quite central to understanding the world in flow and the altered temporal, spatial and identity-related dimensions of consumptionscapes (global movements of goods and services).
What makes it interesting to study global cosmopolitans now is their relevant role in facilitating the expansion of capitalism. This expansion is propelled by powerful globalising forces, such as a) the proliferation of transnational corporations that demand a mobile professional workforce (Sklair 2001); b) the spread of cosmopolitanism (Delanty 2006); c) the increased interconnectivity in the mediascapes and technoscapes (Appadurai 1990), which allows global cosmopolitans to have access to images and stories from around the globe and to keep a sustained network of relationships; d) and the culture-ideology of consumerism (Sklair 2001), which refers to “a coherent set of practices, attitudes and values, based on advertising and the mass-media but permeating the whole social structure, that encourages ever-expanding consumption of consumer goods” (Sklair 1994, 177). The connections between global cosmopolitans and the ideology of consumerism is another indication that an analysis of consumption practices of global cosmopolitans will be fruitful in terms of helping reveal more about the impacts of capitalist globalisation. Furthermore, global cosmopolitans’ frequent movement drives them to learn skills to cope with the ever-changing nature of their lives. In order to master the cultural juggling needed to constantly adapt to new cultures and new situations, global cosmopolitans try to develop strategies (conscious and unconscious ways of coping with a new environment) which, once successful, might help them prosper in the global capitalist arena of late modernity.
40 However, there is a dearth of studies that investigate the consumption practices of global cosmopolitans. Exceptions can be found in the studies of Bardhi and colleagues (2004, 2006; Bardhi et al. 2012) and Thompson and Tambyah (1999). Bardhi (2004) focuses her research on developing concepts of anchoring points and anchoring mechanisms, which help transnational mobile professionals to manage and link their identity to places and relationships. Bardhi, Eckhart and Arnould (2012) discuss liquid relationships to possessions as a new type of relationship to possessions that is characteristic of liquid (late) modernity. Another study, conducted by Thompson and Tambyah (1999) discusses the cosmopolitan aspect of expatriate lives in Singapore, by exploring some of the tensions between dwelling and travelling faced by the consumer, and the opportunities for self-development brought about by the consumption of cultural diversity. While these studies are able to shed some light on the cultural dynamics of global cosmopolitans, many questions are left unanswered, especially regarding the links between changes in their perception of time, space and identity, their consumption practices and the globalising logic of capitalism.
41 3. Methods and Empirical Context
To recap, the research question is “How does the global mobility of consumers affect their consumption practices?” This is subdivided into two questions: “How does the global mobility of consumers affect their notions of time, space and identity?” and “How do these shifts in their notions of time, space and identity affect their consumption practices?” This study follows the CCT (Consumer Culture Theory) tradition, which addresses the “sociocultural, experiential, symbolic and ideological aspects of consumption” (Arnould and Thompson 2005, 868). Specifically, this approach is aligned with the “mass-mediated marketplace ideologies and consumers’ interpretive strategies” research program, which focuses on the influence that “cultural globalization exerts upon consumer identity projects and identity-defining patterns of social interaction in distinctive social contexts” (p. 874). Researchers in this program have tended to use qualitative techniques, because the studied sociocultural dimensions of consumption may not be clearly observable through experiments, surveys or database modelling.
3.1 Methodological approach
Given that mobility shifts notions of time and space, studying it requires adapting current methods. I used a combination of two methodological approaches: the Extended Case Method (ECM) and global ethnography, both developed by Burawoy and colleagues (Burawoy 1998, 2000). During the data collection and analysis, these two techniques guided the general approach of the researcher and the questions to the
42 data. The ECM has become the preferred methodology for “researching global questions about markets and cultures from an interpretive perspective” (Cayla and Eckhardt 2008, 218). The ECM selects cases that are atypical, that is, that are not contemplated by current theory. Global mobility is atypical because it has not been empirically investigated in marketing and consumer research (which is the argument of the previous chapters), and the global cosmopolitans are ideal because they provide the most appropriate context for studying global mobility of late modernity. In some ways, they can even be considered to provide an “extreme context” of global mobility in late modernity (Arnould et al. 2006), which is considered useful to theorisation under the ECM. During the entire time of the research, and especially during the analysis phase, the questions that guided the researcher’s attention were: How can these findings fit current theories? How and when do they not fit? How do findings from the selected context improve our understandings of larger issues? Global ethnography is an ethnographic method that tries to examine grounded phenomena (consumption practices, in this case) from a different perspective, one that is not concerned with matters of locality, but that instead highlights the connection, forces and imaginations that link the observed phenomenon with others in different parts of the world. At each decision about the methods and analysis, the methodological questions guiding the processes were: How are consumption practices of global cosmopolitans connected over distances? What forces are driving them to be the way they are? Which imaginations are they producing and living in?
3.2 Data collection and procedures The data collection includes two sets of data: in-depth interviews and data
43 collected in a multi-sited ethnography of a community of global cosmopolitans. In the next paragraphs, I discuss each of these two methods.
3.2.1 In-depth interviews: Understanding their global mobility from their point of view
My first task was to familiarise myself with the worldview held by global cosmopolitans, trying to understand how they see global mobility in their lives. To complete this task and to avoid analytically cutting off important issues related to global mobility, I tried to first understand it through the eyes of the people who experience it every day: the global cosmopolitans. Therefore, I started with a loose definition of global cosmopolitans, taken from the review of the literature (Bardhi et al. 2012; Brimm 2010; Butcher 2011; Nowicka 2006b). Based on theoretically relevant basic characteristics (i.e. having a tertiary degree of education, having lived in at least three different countries in the previous ten years, and having moved because of jobs or educational opportunities—voluntarily), I selected the first group of people to be interviewed. Using in-depth phenomenological interviews (Thompson, Locander, and Pollio 1989; Thompson, Pollio, and Locander 1994), I interviewed seven global cosmopolitans, trying to vary their nationality, ethnic background, life history and mobility patterns across the globeas much as possible. By varying national and ethnic background, I managed to create a multicultural group. Diversity of origin and ethnicity was especially useful at the analysis stage, when I looked at the intersections between national identities and global cosmopolitan identities of participants. Using nonstructured interview techniques, I asked them to tell me about their life history, motivations for moving, relationships and consumption patterns. The information that
44 emerged from these interviews provided the basis for the creation of a flexible interview guide that used their own terms and information to produce a pool of possible questions (see Appendix B). With a better idea of what to ask and in possession of a pool of possible questions to ask, I interviewed 41 people in order to gain a deeper understanding of their world. Specifically, I re-interviewed the same seven people once more, and conducted 34 additional interviews, totalling 36 interviews with 41 interviewees (five couples were interviewed together, in five interviews). While snowball sampling was used in the beginning, following a minimum set of criteria (i.e. having a tertiary degree of education, having lived in at least three different countries in the previous ten years, and having moved because of jobs or educational opportunities—voluntarily), the subsequent interviews followed purposeful sampling, using theoretical tenets and results from preliminary analysis to guide the selection of interviewees. “The process of data collection is controlled by emerging theory” (Glaser and Strauss 1998, 45); therefore, it is based on concepts that emerged from the analytical process “and that appear to have relevance to the analysis” (Strauss and Corbin 1990, 201). The aim of theoretical sampling is to create opportunities to “compare events, incidents or happenings to determine how a category varies in terms of its properties and dimensions” (Strauss and Corbin 1990, 202). The main criteria for theoretical sampling came from the analysis on the three analytic categories: time, home (as a subcategory of space) and cultural identity (as a category of identity), and the wish to better understand the preliminary findings. I also tried to increase the ethnic and national diversity of the initial sample. The bulk of the interviews followed McCracken’s (1988b) model of the long interview, beginning with general questions before addressing questions more directly related to the thesis. Introductory questions address the individual’s life trajectory: “I would like you to tell me about the different places you have lived and the motivations
45 for moving.” The role of the interviewer was to stimulate personal recall and the narration of firsthand experience. It is a type of oral history (Elliott and Davies 2006, 246), which gives the researcher access to people’s memories about their past and its impact on their present. Examples of more specific questions related to the challenges of moving and living outside the country of origin and the consumption practices associated with these altered relationships with time-space include: “What is home for you? Where is home for you? What were the major challenges when you moved to X? Please describe the experiences when you arrived at Z? Have your home-making habits changed from moving to X to Z? What does your mobility mean to you? In which ways do you think it affects who you are and what you do? How often do you see your family and relatives?” Examples of more specific questions related to consumption practices are: “What are your favourite objects? How have your consumption habits changed because of your mobility patterns? How does your experience with different cultures affect your shopping?” The objective of these interviews was to dive deeply into the emic meanings associated with their personal stories, motivations, worldview, and consumption practices. A short questionnaire was used together with the interviews to collect some demographics. All of the interviews comprised over 55 hours of recorded dialogue. All interviews were conducted by this researcher. They were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim, resulting in 1,225 double-spaced pages of text. All names and other identifying information were changed. See the appendix for a summary profile of research participants.
46 3.2.2 Ethnographic data
Whilst I was conducting the in-depth interviews, I simultaneously used a second method of data collection: a multi-sited ethnographic research for 2.5 years, with a community of global cosmopolitans called “InterNations,” which has online and offline features, and more than 200,000 active members in 230 local communities based in large cities around the world. The choice of ethnography as a method is explained below.
3.2.3 From ethnography to multi-sited ethnography
The study is shaped as an ethnography (Arnould and Wallendorf 1994), in the sense that the focus is on describing and interpreting a cultural or social group. Ethnography was the chosen methodology, as it allows for a deeper immersion in the others’ worlds in order to grasp what they experience as meaningful and important (Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw 1995). It helps the researcher to explain consumption practices of members of a collectivity according to their own indigenous concepts and definitions. Since practices are not only described but also (and mainly) performed, ethnography is arguably the most appropriate methodology for this investigation, as it encompasses not only interviews (i.e. what is said), but also observations (i.e. what is done) (Arnould and Wallendorf 1994). Sherry (2008) describes the strong points of ethnography as the four I’s: immersion, immediacy (interactive and progressive contextualised), intimacy (sensitised concepts) and insight (of emic meanings). Ethnography involves “the deep understanding of the lived experience of people as it unfolds in a particular cultural context, and the representation of that understanding in
47 ways that are faithful to that experience” (Sherry 2008, 86). Ethnographies are “interpretations of the interpretations people make of their situations” (Miles and Huberman 1994, 299). Traditionally, ethnography has been used to study cultures that were somehow constricted to and by territory. Even in consumer research, it has mostly been used to study territorially bounded groups, located in a certain area, region or neighbourhood (Elliott and Jankel-Elliott 2003). In recent years, ethnographic methods have developed in order to encompass not only traditionally structured groups, but also more loosely defined groups of people, such as the research on the Harley Davidson community (Schouten and McAlexander 1995) and youth culture (Kjeldgaard and Askegaard 2006). Due to their own nature (of being mobile), global cosmopolitans are spread out around the world and are constantly moving. What brings them together as a group are “practices, bodies of knowledge, conventions and lifestyles that have developed in ways which have become increasingly independent of nation states” (Featherstone 1995, 114). Some may even have difficulty in calling a specific country their home. Many consider themselves more as citizens of the world than part of a local community (Thompson and Tambyah 1999) and they might identify with other transnational mobile professionals. Global cosmopolitans, as a group of mobile people, complicate the task of setting boundaries to the ethnographic study. Thus, multi-sited ethnography has helped the researcher deal with this shortcoming of ethnography.
3.2.4 Multi-sited ethnography as a method of data collection
Multi-sited ethnography is a method that follows “chains, paths, threads, conjunctions or juxtapositions of location in which the ethnographer establishes some
48 form of literal presence with an explicit, posited logic of association or connection among sites” (Marcus 1998, : 90). It provides the methodological basis for this study, as it outlines strategies of following people, objects, stories and metaphors across different sites to construct a flexible and multiple field of research. In multi-sited ethnography, the notion of site is highly flexible. Sites of cultural activity might encompass virtual and physical spaces, archival and promotional material, discourses, images, objects, or flows of information and resources. In multi-sited ethnography “objects of study are mobile and multiply situated” (Kjeldgaard, Csaba, and Ger 2006, 527). Although multi-sited ethnography is often a method of the global ethnography approach (as is the case with this thesis), I make a conceptual differentiation. Global ethnographies can be reached through other methodologies, other than multi-sited ethnography. A single-sited ethnography can serve the purpose of solving global issues, if the set of analytic questions are appropriately framed. In turn, a multi-sited ethnography may never go beyond the comparison among sites. As affirmed by Burawoy (Burawoy 2000, 39), “It is only through the study of global connections that multi-sitedness becomes the object of theorisation.” Accordingly, although global and multi-sited are usually the approach and the method respectively, it is worth differentiating them, for clarity. I conducted a multi-sited ethnography (Marcus 1995) with a community of global cosmopolitans called InterNations. This method is the most appropriate to provide answers to the research question since “the essence of multi-sited research is to follow people, connections, associations, and relationships across space (because they are substantially continuous but spatially non-contiguous)” (Falzon 2009, 2). The multisited ethnography involved multiple means of data collection, which allowed for the triangulation of findings: a) in order to understand more about their shared practices, symbolic meanings and valorised stories, I conducted participant observation of their
49 monthly gatherings in local communities grounded in two very multicultural cities: Sydney, Australia and Toronto, Canada, which are well-known for having a high number of foreign-born inhabitants. A typical gathering in these two cities has more than 100 people from at least 30 different nationalities. During the meetings, they discuss their global and local cultural experiences and the majority of shared stories involve the consumption of products, services, media, places and experiences. b) I conducted online ethnography, or Netnography (Kozinets 2010), to capture consumers’ online interactions on the InterNations website; and c) I conducted in-person, informal interviews with community members to help understand their life histories, motivations for moving, mobility patterns, worldview and consumption practices in each location.
3.2.5 Field sites
I chose to use two grounded communities (the one in Sydney and the one in Toronto) and one virtual community (the online overall community of InterNations) as sites of engagement. The choice of grounded communities (Sydney and Toronto) was based on accessibility for the researcher, and on the fact that both cities rank among the top ten in ethnic diversity and welcome factor (Florida 2008), and both share public policies that openly aim to attract skilled labour (Salt 1997) within national governments (Australia and Canada) that are aligned with the cities’ policies. Besides, both cities have large percentages of people who were not born in the country—33% for Sydney (ABS 2007) and 49% for Toronto (Census 2006), which adds to their multicultural character. These characteristics help to ensure that the communities are good representatives of the intersection between global mobility and the needs of capitalism for flexible labour, which is a key point in situating this research in the late phase of capitalism (Jameson 1991).
50 I also chose to research the online community, because it is where one can see the integration between the individuals from various communities (which follows the general principle of global ethnography of focusing on connections and imaginations). Moreover, the online/offline characteristic is akin to the experiences of blurred spaces reported by global cosmopolitans in their interviews, and thus it allows better understanding of how global cosmopolitans bond and reconnect across distances.
3.2.6 Participant observation and informal interviews
The monthly gatherings organised by InterNations provided rich sites from which to observe global cosmopolitans interacting among themselves. Although they have events happening every month in each of their city-communities, I concentrated my fieldwork in the two field sites (Toronto and Sydney). Occasional visits to other grounded communities of InterNations (e.g. Munich and Sao Paulo) helped to create the basis for comparison and contrast, but they were not considered as sites of engagement of the researcher. In the studied communities, gatherings lasted four to five hours and took placeat a different venue each time (bar, club, restaurant, etc.). The idea of moving gatherings reinforces the need to adopt methodologies that are not constrained by territories or fixed boundaries. Participant observation included immersion in the communities’ activities with two goals in mind: to engage with global cosmopolitans’ world and to observe people, interactions and activities. During these activities, I conducted informal interviews with other members of the community during casual conversations. During the whole period of contact, global cosmopolitans seemed to be happy to be asked about the places they have lived and the challenges they have had in their lives and they engage easily with these topics.
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3.2.7 Netnographic data
Netnography (Kozinets 2010) is the adaptation of ethnographic methodologies to the virtual space. The purpose of Netnography here is to help the researcher’s immersion in the world of global cosmopolitans. It is justified in this case because highly mobile people are likely to maintain their transnational connections via the Internet, as they have reported in the interviews. Participation in the online medium helped to familiarise the researcher with global cosmopolitans’ stories concerning challenges and difficulties they face, as well as with the ways global cosmopolitans manage their relationships across borders and create new spaces. The data corresponds to forum posts, online conversations, personal webpages and photographs, all connected via the social media website run by InterNations (www.internations.org).
3.2.8 Access to the field sites and the role of the researcher
Before I started conducting this research, I had lived outside of my country of origin three times for periods of over six months. Then I moved to another country (Australia) to undertake my PhD studies and during my studies, I moved abroad (Canada) for five months to take extra coursework and to conduct part of my fieldwork. Thus, I can be called a global cosmopolitan myself (or I turned into one during my doctoral research). My global mobility patterns have granted me easy access to the people and sites under investigation, as they saw me as one of them. On the other hand,
52 when interpreting the data, there were moments when I had to look for secondary data, interview negative cases, and talk to other researchers (who were not global cosmopolitans) to help me get some distance from the data. For instance, in the later stages of the analysis, I had to adopt a critical view of global cosmopolitanism, which continuously forced me to search for alternative views to the ones offered by global cosmopolitans. I found these in research conducted with other (non-global cosmopolitan) mobile populations (e.g.: D'Andrea 2007) and less mobile consumers (e.g. the immigrant literature in general), and by theoretically sampling for different cases. For example, the last two people interviewed (number 40 and 41) were a couple who were mobile (but not globally mobile). They lived in a mobile home (a modified caravan) across Australia. They were not members of a group of highly skilled workers, so they provided some contrast to the global cosmopolitan ideology, by offering a global nomadic perspective (of those who, instead of being inserted in the logics of late capitalist, live in the margins of it). These procedures helped me to gain the critical distance necessary to overcome my proximity to the studied context and to construct a sharper analysis. 3.3 Data analysis
The analysis was conducted with a focus on three cultural categories that help structure consumption: home (as a category of place/space), temporal frameworks (as a category of time) and cultural identity (as a category of identity). Each analytical category is reported as a separate finding chapter (Chapters 4, 5 and 6). To analyse the in-depth interviews, I first followed a hermeneutic approach (Thompson and Haytko 1997; Thompson et al. 1994) in which “personal understandings are always situated within a network of culturally shared knowledge,
53 beliefs, ideals, and taken-for-granted assumptions about the nature of social life”(Thompson et al. 1994, 433). For that, I used InterNations as an interpretive community, which helped me to understand and frame cultural meanings of consumption practices as they emerge from the interviews and to re-structure the interview guide to reflect these new understandings. The use of processes of comparison, dimensionalisation and integration in an iterative mode (Spiggle 1994) created the necessary conditions to compare and contrast consumers’ histories of living in different countries and find the most relevant themes in each analytical category. For example, when interviewees talked about time, they discussed how different mobility rhythms affected the way they consumed. The issues raised in the interviews were then taken to informal conversations at the community gatherings, where members were able to comment on and agree or disagree with some of the findings. This helped to produce more accurate interviews, which in turn, created a new set of answers, which were taken to the community and revised. At each iteration, I was able to gain deeper knowledge of the phenomenon and to check if the thematic categorisation I was creating was actually sound. As for the multi-sited ethnographic data, as is typical of ethnographic research, data analysis was iterative and continuous (Arnould and Wallendorf 1994). Analysis began with the analysis of discourses and practices collected in each site of engagement. Then, it continuously moved back and forth across data from each site of engagement, with the organisation of the data into categories and themes representing key research themes, recurring discourses and consumption practices, identity-related practices, shifts in spatial construction of home and shifts in time perception. To integrate all data, I used the Extended Case Method. Burawoy’s (1998) method was useful to conceptually move from micro to macro analysis. The method starts out with a dialogue between observer and participants, then “embeds such
54 dialogue within a dialogue between local processes and extra local forces that in turn can be comprehended only through a third, expanding dialogue of theory with itself” (Burawoy 2009, : 20). Following Holt (2002), I applied ECM analysis in two steps: 1) first, analytical reduction of contextualised data across time and space to extract the key consumption practices and underlying narratives (micro-themes), which in this case are the ones related to global mobility in each analytical category; and 2) the weaving of the compacted data with macro-theories that are relevant to global consumer culture and consumption in late modernity. The method is useful because the stories and practices of global cosmopolitan consumers are different from other consumers considered in current macro-theories, forcing existing theory to be extended or modified to account for these differences. The value of the Extended Case Method is that it re-situates the findings about the global cosmopolitans’ world (e.g. their altered notions of time, space and identity) in the bigger picture by asking: How do these findings challenge our current knowledge of consumer research theories? How do they address the shifting conditions of rising global mobility and global interconnectedness? It is the simultaneous weaving of local results with theory on the one hand, and with macro-trends on the other hand, that ground the Extended Case Method and provide its strength.
3.4 Ethical issues
All the necessary ethical procedures (see Appendix A) were taken care of to guarantee that there is non-coercive recruitment of participants, that their privacy and confidentiality are protected, and that each participant is informed about their rights to leave the process whenever they want. The UNSW Ethics Committee has approved the
55 proposed way of obtaining regular consent forms for the interviews (Approval No: 09666) and for the ethnographic study with InterNations (Approval No. 106069), considering them of “minimal ethical impact.” The purpose and nature of the research are always disclosed to the participants and they were allowed to withdraw from the research at any time, if they wished to. Feedback and access to the results of the study will also be made available to participants at the completion of the research.
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4. Global Mobility and Time
4.1 Introduction
When one thinks of geographical mobility, one tends to focus on spatial instead of temporal dimensions. However, global mobility has to do as much with time as with space. Global mobility creates new relationships to temporal dimensions and distorts old ones (Urry 2000). In this chapter, I examine the impact of global mobility on timerelated consumption practices. As a source of stability, time helps to structure consumers’ lives. When the mobility of consumers’ lives changes their relationship with time, what happens to their consumption practices? This chapter contributes to answering two related questions: How does the global mobility of consumers affect their notions of time? And how do these shifts in their notions of time affect their consumption practices? I argue that global mobility destabilises the customary ways time structures consumers’ activities and behaviours, and that it does so through three different – but complementary – disassembling processes: the fragmentation of meanings, the multiplication of structures and the disembedding of activities. The taken-for-granted way of organising activities around certain hours, periods, cycles and events, which is characteristic of routine living in local contexts, becomes jeopardised by the mobile conditions and multiple frameworks of the global cosmopolitan life. In addition, I show that there are two important consequences of these processes. On the one hand, consumers must engage in various strategies to coordinate the fragmented, multiple and disembedded time-related activities and to manage the extra workload this coordination requires (e.g. the coordinating effort someone who lives and
57 works in various countries must take in order to manage the different time structures present in different geographies). These strategies often use temporal coordinating mechanisms to help coordinate consumers’ activities (e.g. Google calendar). On the other hand, new time structures and new relationships to time may be created by global mobility. I show that these time structures and relationships (e.g. mobility cycles) can offer alternative points around which consumers’ activities may be organised, which in turn reduces the coordinating workload caused by mobility. In the section related to the research findings about time, I develop this argument further and provide evidence to support its logic. Before presenting the findings, I first provide an overview of the issues about time in late modernity. Next, I quickly review issues involving time in consumer research, and then I present some conceptualisations of time that guide the interpretation of findings. 4.2 Time in modernity and late modernity
Time must be understood as a product of human construction and history. Durkheim (2001) argues that time is a social institution and that the category of time is not natural but social. According to him, only humans have a concept of time, and time in societies is impersonal and abstract and not simply individual. Besides being social, time is also historical, as notions of social time have changed along with the different phases of human history (Lash and Urry 1994). British historian E.P. Thompson (1967) argues that an orientation to time becomes the critical characteristic of industrial capitalism and that pre-modern societies had notions of time very different from the ones that developed during modernity. Whereas pre-modern societies were task oriented, modern societies are time oriented. Whereas cycles of nature organically regulated life in pre-modern societies, the clock is the main metaphor for the way time
58 coordinates social activities in modernity. Thompson claims that “as the seventeenth century moves on, the image of clock-work extends, until, with Newton, it has engrossed the universe” (1967, 67). With modernity and industrial capitalism, the measurement of time becomes a crucial activity. Benjamin Franklin’s 1748 sentence “time is money” exemplifies well the growing Protestant ethic and its emphasis on the idea that time is a resource not to be wasted, something to be frugal with and to be managed with the utmost diligence (Adam 1990). Scientific management principles (Taylor 2005) have their origins in the search for efficiency in factories through the measurement and control of time. Giddens (1991, 17) explains that “the wide-spread use of mechanical timing devices facilitated, but also presumed, deeply structured changes in the tissue of everyday life – changes which could not only be local, but were inevitably universalising. A world that has a universal dating system, and globally standardised time zones, as ours does today, is socially and experientially different from all premodern eras”. Giddens’ comment refers to a number of characteristics that were pivotal to the functioning of life in modernity; these characteristics were a consequence of timespace distanciation, namely the disembedding of time from meaningful practices (time became abstract), the breaking down of time into precisely measured and invariant units, the widespread use of various means of measuring and showing the passage of time (clocks, bells, schedules, deadlines, calendars), the synchronised measures of time across distances (e.g. national territories and even the globe), the use of time as a resource to be managed and the commoditisation of time (Lash and Urry 1994; Urry 2000). With time-space distanciation, spatial mobility becomes both “the pre-requisite for and the consequence of social interaction” (Beckmann 2001, 597), because timespace distanciation involves people developing the ability to perform their social
59 obligations and maintain their ties and networks over a much more extended span of space (Giddens 1990). Similarly, mobility is also seen as a key ingredient in the compression of time-space, which is discussed by Harvey (1999). The compression of time-space refers to the “incremental rate at which transportation has continued to bring places together by gradually shortening the amount of time it takes to get between them” (Janelle 1968). The growth of nineteenth-century railway networks and twentieth-century automobile and airplane networks “established the material foundation that enabled one to speed their body across space, while altering one’s sense of it as they did so” (Adey 2009, 198). Therefore, time-space compression “pushes places together” by making it easier for people to go from one place to another (Adey 2009). This compression also has consequences for human relationships, as distance becomes less and less important in structuring them, and for capitalism, given the “considerable pressure to accelerate the velocity of circulation of capital, because to do so is to increase the sum of values produced and the rate of profit” (Harvey 1999, 86). In sum, both Harvey and Giddens, through the articulation of different concepts, show that mobility, as a key force of modernity, establishes different relationships among people: in conditions of mobility, relationships need temporal coordination and are less dependent on space. In late modernity, mobility is intensified to a much higher degree. In the era of the Internet we approach a period of what Urry (2000, 126) calls instantaneous time, a period of new informational and communication technologies based upon “inconceivably brief instants which are wholly beyond human consciousness”. This period has the “simultaneous character of social and technical relationships which replaces the linear logic of clock-time” and involves the “widespread significance of exceptionally short term and fragmented time, even when it is not instantaneous and simultaneous”. Urry (2000) highlights some of the characteristics of instantaneous time:
60 a) a collage effect: once events have become more important than location, their presentation in the media takes the form of the juxtaposition of stories, which have in common only the fact they are newsworthy. This serves to abstract events from context and narrative; b) a global present: distant events intrude in everyday life; c) a throwaway society: products, jobs, values and personal relationships are markedly temporary, and products, places and images are increasingly disposable; d) dissolution of the future in an extended present: people no longer find certainty in the future and the new generations do not seem to have “long-term plans or dreams of the future” (p.129); and e) de-synchronisation: the time-paths of individuals are often desynchronised. Although the social sciences have suggested that time in late modernity possesses characteristics different from time in modernity, caused by the increase in time-space distanciation and compression, discussions are usually held on the theoretical level. The dearth of empirical work exploring time in late modernity has probably to do with the scope of the subject (macro) and the nature of time (intangible). Nevertheless, I believe global mobility can illuminate the ways late modernity produces different ways of relating to time and the consequences of these new relationships for consumption. 4.3 Time in Consumer Research
Marketing scholars and consumer researchers have long been concerned with issues involving time (Jacoby, Szybillo, and Berning 1976). Many products and services, such as bank loans, travel and life insurance, are closely linked to time considerations. Many consumption processes depend on time as an input (e.g. fast food vs. home cooking), buying decisions are situated in a temporal frame and various consumption situations are embedded in time. Although time has been discussed through many different lenses and in many of
61 its dimensions, two major ways of looking at time are distinguishable. On the one hand, some studies have considered time as an objective variable. Rooted in economics, these studies have looked at time as something that can be objectively measured. The main “focus in the ‘commodity’ paradigm of time was on time-use patterns and how consumers spend time on activities relating to consumption such as information search, acquisition, purchase decision, and consumption itself (Usunier and Valette-Florence 2007). Researchers in this stream have investigated the relationships between consumption and the duration of various activities (e.g. shopping, watching TV commercials, waiting in queues, planning a purchase, trying a new product). They have also looked at the way shopping patterns vary depending on the time of the day, season of the year, family life cycle and other cyclical dimensions of time. In economics, time is understood as a utility that can be measured in countable units and traded. It is scarce, and for that reason it has exchange value and can be spent or saved (Hornik 1984; Nickols and Fox 1983; Strober and Weinberg 1980). On the other hand, since the 1980s many marketing and consumer researchers have begun to consider time as a subjective framework that shapes behaviour. Consumers’ perceptions of time inform their attitudes, actions and decisions regarding what and how to consume. For example, researchers have developed the concept of timestyles to refer to the perceptual time patterns that consumers develop (Usunier and Valette-Florence 1994). Timestyles “are the customary ways in which people perceive and use time” (Cotte, Ratneshwar, and Mick 2004, 333). They express the different orientations consumers have in terms of the way they deal with time in their everyday lives. For example, Cotte et al. examine timestyles through four different dimensions: social orientation (time for me, time for others); temporal orientations (past, future, present); planning orientation (analytic and spontaneous); and polychronic orientation (monochronic, or one-thing-at-a-time, and multitasking styles). Usunier and Florence
62 (2007) also elaborate on timestyles, although they use slightly different dimensions, which include not only temporal orientations, but also other timestyle dimensions such as preference for organised or unorganised time, compliance with time (i.e. time submissiveness and time anxiety) and motivational aspects of time (i.e. tenacity and preference for quick return). Timestyles are a useful tool for creating typologies and segments of consumers of time-loaded products and services such as banks.
Subjective time can be understood not only as a psychological and individual experience, but also as a socially and culturally constructed phenomenon. Sociology and anthropology tend to view perceptions of time as notions that have developed culturally, through socialisation and sharing. According to Usunier and Florence (2007, 333), “individuals have their own attitudes to time and time management, which result from their personality traits but also from the particular national/cultural group in which they have been raised. Consequently, they have developed a view of what time is and how it should be managed in terms of ‘synchronization with others’ within the native group”. Usunier and Florence add that “synchronization, which in Greek means developing a common time framework, is the key learning process through which people develop beliefs, attitudes and behaviours in relation to time. Time-loaded activities display both cultural and individual variability”. The authors have conducted studies in various countries to test their timestyle scale, showing that timestyles vary also at the national level. In the same vein, Graham (1981) discusses three perceptual models of time, each of which corresponds to a cultural legacy. In the linear-separable time, or Anglo time, the past is gone, the individual must be prepared for the future, there is an idea of progress and time is money. In the circular-traditional, or mañana model, individuals want to live for the day, time is abundant and there is no clear idea of progress. Finally,
63 in the procedural-traditional model, the model of traditional tribal societies, there are ethical prohibitions against haste, and rituals and cosmic time are important. These studies emphasise that time is not just an individual perception, but a collectively shared notion. The latter concept of time is the one I use in this dissertation. Thus, I look at time’s social dimension, its “social function in so far as it allows people to have a common organisation of activities and helps synchronize individuals behaviours” (Usunier and Valette-Florence 1994, 220). Following Bergadaà (2007, 388), “time is not considered here as a variable, but as a framework for action”. Each time framework organises a number of behaviours and social activities (e.g. eating, cooking, shopping and playing). Consequently, changes in the framework are likely to affect the way social life is organised. The literature review on consumer research has shown that studies rarely historicise time. In other words, the way the literature analyses time tends to follow a modern frame and fails to acknowledge its own compliance with certain tenets of modernity that assume time is a resource that must be managed and controlled. Since the purpose of this study is to use the concept of mobility to provide insights into late modernity, historicising becomes a condition of understanding the changes we are observing now.
4.4 Time and Consumer Movement
In order to understand the role of global mobility in restructuring time-related activities, it is also important to review the studies that have discussed relationships between time and movement, that is, studies that are part of the literature on consumer migration and acculturation. In this literature, two time-related issues tend to be emphasised: differences in time perceptions between homeland and host culture, and
64 feelings of nostalgia towards the homeland. For instance, Askegard et al. (2005) discuss the differences between Danish time (of punctuality and velocity) and Greenlandic “natural” time. The tempo of life is considered a major difference between the two cultures. For example, Greenlandic time is dependent on natural conditions and spontaneity; Danish time is planned and scheduled. In natural time, one celebrates when there is food, instead of having food when there is leisure and socialisation, as in Danish time (Askegaard, Kjeldgaard, and Arnould 2010). Another central time-related theme in this literature is nostalgia, that is, the longing for the past, which for some immigrants is also a longing for a past, generally constructed as ideal, that is located somewhere else (i.e. in the homeland). Consumer nostalgia has been defined as a “preference towards experiences associated with objects (people, places or things) that were more common (popular, fashionable or widely circulated) when one was younger” (Holbrook and Schindler 2003, 108). Various studies in consumer research have shown how nostalgia may result in consumers buying products and services to feel closer to their roots (Schindler and Holbrook 2003) or to feel that they belong to a group (Loveland, Smeesters, and Mandel 2010), such as an immigrant community. Similarly, consumers may long for the time framework itself. For example, Peñaloza’s (1994) informants contrast the “run, run” time of Americans with the much-missed “enjoyable” time of Mexico. They are nostalgic for the Mexican way of perceiving time. In this case, ethnicity is also a mode of being in time (e.g. the mañana attitude) because time orientations also help to define ethnic belonging. Both themes (i.e. differences between the homeland and host culture and nostalgia for the homeland) are deeply related to perceptions and feelings towards symbolic properties of territoriality. If late (liquid) modernity is challenging consumers’ relationships to territoriality (Bauman 2000), it is also likely to challenge consumers’ needs for territorial comparison and feelings of nostalgia for the homeland. However,
65 we have little understanding of the contours of these changes. More empirical studies, such as the one that follows, are necessary to advance knowledge in this area,
4.5 Definitions of terms – conceptions of time
Scholars tend to discuss time using a handful of concepts: clock time, events, genesis, cyclical time, life cycle, and present-past-future relationships. Appendix D provides a review of the meanings of each conceptualisation and provides examples that demonstrate how these conceptions of time help structure consumers’ lives. Despite the existence of many conceptions of time and individual timestyles, social life is possible because individuals share temporal frameworks, which refer to the set of assumptions, conceptions and practices related to time. Shared temporal frameworks are important because they allow the coordination (i.e. synchronisation and ordering) of various timeloaded social activities such as eating, playing and shopping. Many consumers’ activities are assembled within specific time frameworks. Christmas, for example, can be seen as a sequence of consumers’ activities such as shopping, sending cards, travelling, exchanging gifts, eating and drinking, and taking and uploading pictures. These activities are organised by a shared time framework. In other words, Christmas (as a consumption event) is possible because people share a number of assumptions about what Christmas is, what it involves and how it should be celebrated. Thus, temporal frameworks organise consumers’ activities.
I now present the findings, where I argue that when consumers move globally, their temporal frameworks are challenged. Due to global mobility, consumer activities may disassemble through processes of fragmentation, multiplication and disembedding. I argue that this disassembling of activities places an extra workload on consumers, who
66 must engage in various strategies to manage disassembled activities and rearrange them within new time frameworks. The findings section provides support for this argument.
4.6 Findings
4.6.1 Fragmentation, multiplication and disembedding
I: So, how does the family get together? So, normally, it’s Christmas in Argentina or Uruguay. We go normally to Punta Del Este and it’s hard, especially for my sister [who lives in London]. She’s a freelance theatre set designer and puppeteer, so she normally has work, she can’t come this Christmas, which is a shame. But my grandparents, they are the ones that are still alive, living in Argentina, so they can go to Uruguay, and my parents rent a house, and we all come together there. Then we try to get my brother [who lives in Switzerland] and sister to come, but it’s always a bit difficult with managing different times. I: So Christmas is always the time to get together? Yeah. I: And you go to Uruguay because your family used to go? Yeah well that’s where we like to go. My dad . . . a lot of my dad’s friends are there and that’s where a lot of my friends go as well and it’s safe, it’s a good alternative in Latin America, like a safe alternative. It’s the Switzerland of Latin America right? So we are safe, yeah. (Vera)
Although Vera’s family is spread around the world, Christmas is a moment of synchronisation of their activities. Some are able to travel from diverse regions (Argentina, Australia, the UK, and Switzerland) once a year to spend Christmas together. Others cannot participate physically but find ways to connect to their family via telephone or online channels. I find that global mobility interferes in the way time coordinates consumer behaviour and social activities through three different – but complementary – disassembling processes: fragmentation of meanings, multiplication of structures and
67 disembedding of activities. Before proceeding to other topics, it is important to clarify and differentiate these three processes. Fragmentation of meanings refers to processes by which the meanings of activities once coordinated around a single time notion are fragmented due to global mobility and separation. For example, if all the members of Vera’s family cannot come together (and there are always some members who cannot) their original idea of how to celebrate Christmas is compromised. If Vera cannot join the others, she will still try to contact them via Skype or email and “celebrate together”, but the meanings and activities associated with that event become fragmented. In Vera’s case, to celebrate Christmas is to get together with the extended family. In conditions of high mobility and distance from family, Christmas may change to gathering around a computer and talking happily to the screen. This new way of celebrating Christmas may not hold the same meanings as Christmas did before. At a macro level, Vera and her family are still living according to the meta-narrative of Christmas. However, mobility sometimes makes it impossible to celebrate as they used to. Although talking to a screen might still contain fragments of her “original” idea of Christmas, it does not have the same meaning. The problem with this fragmentation of meaning is that it is hardly experienced as liberating (as proclaimed by postmodern theorists). Consumers like Vera expend great effort to maintain unity of activities and of meaning (e.g. crossing the world to meet in Uruguay for Christmas to avoid fragmentation). Global cosmopolitans seem to have modern minds (or to follow modern myths/rituals), seeking coherence, unity and stability of meaning in a world that is fragmented. Multiplication of structures refers to processes by which access to different temporal frameworks multiplies the ways in which activities can be organised around time. For instance, in Vera’s case, if she decides to stay in Australia for Christmas, she may celebrate it according to multiple temporal frameworks. She can contact her family in Uruguay via Google Talk and through telepresence participate in that (fragmented)
68 Christmas experience. After talking to her family there she can join her boyfriend to celebrate a completely separate Christmas with him and his family. The time differences and the separation of cultural frameworks allow her to celebrate Christmas in these two ways. Although related to fragmentation of meaning, multiplication of frameworks is a consequence of mobility and the exposure to multiple ways of life. It generates options and the potential for more activities. Multiplication is generally framed as a good thing by informants, who in general valorise having options. However, as the next section demonstrates, it may be stressful and may demand synchronising efforts. Disembedding of activities refers to the dissociation of certain social activities from other activities that were once embedded in the same process or routine and coordinated around the same notion of time. Or, to use Giddens’ (1991, 21) words, disembedding is the “lifting out of social relations from local contexts of interaction and their restructuring across indefinite spans of time-space”. Vera, for example, lived in Switzerland for many years. Christmas was associated with snow, ice-skating, skying, drinking hot chocolate and various other consumption activities. Now, her Christmases are split between the years she is able to go to Uruguay and the years she stays in Australia. In both countries, winter activities are disembedded from Christmas, since the holiday occurs in the summer. Vera has learned to associate Christmas with going to the beach, outdoorsy activities and barbeques. Winter activities have become disembedded for her notion of Christmas. At the same time, Christmas has become abstracted from the idea of local activities. The more she moves and the more she replaces activities, the more Christmas will be dissociated from local activities to become a deterritorialised abstract event. The disembedding of time-space, which is a phenomenon of modernity, tends to be even more common in conditions of mobility. The radicalisation of disembedding is consistent with the assumption that mobility emulates conditions of late modernity (a period of radicalisation of modern principles).
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4.6.2 Synchronisation of activities and increased consumers’ workload
When consumers move globally, they are exposed to multiple temporal frameworks. Unlike immigrants, who may deal with two different temporal frameworks only remotely or psychologically, global cosmopolitans must manage activities that have to be synchronised across various temporal frameworks. This may increase consumers’ workload. A simple phone call, which usually demands little effort from participants, may require attention and coordination if consumers’ social networks are spread around the globe. When Vera, who lives in Australia, contacts her sister in the UK, she has to be aware that they are in very different time zones (nine hours apart). This requires planning and synchronisation for both parties. For instance, in order to avoid calling her sister in the middle of the night or during her sister’s working hours, Vera must be constantly aware not only of time differences but also of differences in the temporal organisation of social life in these two distinct contexts. Similarly, Maria, a top manager of a global corporation, and Sandra, a Canadian designer, engage in temporal coordinating activities that demand their time and effort.
There was a project going on in India at the time. So that there just was no point to do in that project out of London, so I needed to relocate to India for few months and then come back again. [. . .] I lived in Hong Kong for a while as well. [ . . .] Three to six months usually on these projects depending on how complex there and in Chicago as well in the U.S. It was actually really an uneven time, so I know you can obviously see that it does have an impact all the time. But at the time it was very accelerating, very exciting, very stimulating especially when you are, still quite fresh to the industry. [. . .] But over time, yes it does impact on your ability to maintain close contact with your relationships
70 in a regular basis. You just have to try and manage as best as possibly you can. I used a lot of technology. So Skype and all the others, I have telecom and facilities usually at my disposal. So I use them quite lot as well also if I am travelling. [. . .] I use whatever spare time I have waiting in airports, or flying, to actually write letters to people. And then post them whenever I actually touch down or spend a few days in a location: to my parents, my sister and my close family, as well as my partner at the time. So yeah, I spend a lot of time doing that. (Maria)
In my last job I went to the UK and it was one of those things: I left out on a Sunday, I had a red eye, I’d go into the office, the London-based office of my company, I had to go in on a Monday morning, it was like my job, I don’t live there, you know, I had to check-in in the hotel [. . .] you act like it’s not a big deal, you get on this plane and you get off , and you are like ‘oh, you’re here?’ No, my world is back home, you know, like my hair dryer doesn’t work here, that’s a big deal you know? But people act like it’s nothing. ‘Well, it’s just a six hour flight’. No, it’s more than that. I’ve tried very hard to remind people that – travel takes a lot out of you, so don’t expect me to [think it is fine] – don’t schedule things first day Monday morning, that’s not going to happen, Don’t expect me to feel like I can leave at 5 o’clock Friday and be happy with that, because it’s going to take me six hours to get home, minus three time zones, I am in a plane for whole the night and I don’t get the Friday night. ‘So I’m going to leave at 12 on Friday, not 5, right?’ That’s when you get the weekend. So I do make a point of saying it does, it is a big deal! (Sandra)
Maria and Sandra provide vivid descriptions of the stress that managing activities across temporal frameworks causes. Mobility disrupts habits and routines, forcing consumers to leave the security of their rhythms and engage their attention and emotion with what they must do to coordinate life. It is not only the coordination of social networks that puts an extra burden on consumers. Various activities such as shopping for, storing, using and disposing objects and services may also require extra coordinating efforts from globally mobile consumers. For example, Maria prefers to use
71 “local” Internet pages when sending gifts, because she feels they are more reliable than global firms in terms of managing delivery times.
So I notice that increasingly with travel, I had to look for different forms of actually doing my shopping. So I do not have the time to go in, as I used to do when I was younger, and browse and enjoy and grab different things; I do most of it via the Internet. And I have been given much more exposure to certain Internet pages, and so forth, through my travels. [. . .] So, exposure, and also the lifestyle, sort of forces you to explore different avenues for it. I: Which avenues? Well, Internet shopping mainly. So I use it for my grocery shopping and for most of my purchases. It’s mostly Internet based. Sending gifts to my various friends and family members I will do via the Internet. And I actually have got Internet pages appropriate for most of the locations rather than using Australian Internet pages. So for my friends in Germany I’ve got German websites. For my friends in Spain I have got Spanish websites and so forth, because locally I know that I can actually rely on them delivering the product at certain times to the households for me. (Maria)
For Maria, gift giving becomes an activity that is segmented by location. She enjoys it because she can use the knowledge she has about products and countries to provide the best product and best delivery. While Maria evaluates this multiplication of ways of gift giving as a positive thing, it also forces her to apply more energy to coordinate what gifts are sent as well as to whom and where. Her mobile life has connected her to the Internet, which, in addition to saving time, allows her to avoid the commoditising and impersonal nature of gift giving and instead to customise her gifts by furnishing webpages appropriate for each country. Regionalisation, the “zoning of space and time in relationship to routinised social practices”, has been observed by Lash and Urry (1994, 232) and Giddens (1984) as consequences of modernity, but what is interesting here is that the consumer plays along with this zoning and, instead of breaking with it, emulates the zoning itself. This is notable because the literature on liquid modernity (Bauman 2000) and postmodernity (Featherstone 2007) usually presents consumers as liberated to construct new modes of consumption due to the
72 multiplications of possible choices. However, her “new mode” of consumption emulates the zoning and regionalisation characteristic of modern ways of managing time. It is also common to see global cosmopolitans postponing the purchase of goods in order to get a better deal somewhere else. Global cosmopolitans’ strong knowledge of the uneven distribution of resources around the world makes them aware of the benefits of withholding a purchase until they are able to make it somewhere else. For instance, when Khaled and Lara were living in Qatar they made recurrent trips to Canada to visit Khaled’s family. Since products in Canada were much cheaper, they tended to use these trips to make up for the shopping they avoided in Dubai. Similarly, global cosmopolitans can wait until they are able to use services located in other countries because those services are reliable or represent a better deal for them. Here again, consumers are acting according to modern principles of rationality, adapting to flexible capitalism. They are gaining value or saving money by identifying the right time to purchase. And the right time is associated with being in the right place. Mobility becomes a divisor between here and there, and consequently between the right and wrong time for purchasing. Thus, consumers are computing their future mobility in their decision processes not just for money saving, but to find the appropriate time for getting the most out of a situation.
So in Switzerland I remember every time I would go to Argentina, I would go to the gynaecologist there because I knew him already and he had my records and I only needed to go once a year and it was cheaper because I had the insurance that wasn’t the best in Switzerland. Also because just going to it in Argentina would be cheaper anyway and you don’t need to have health coverage or anything, you just go and pay up front in Argentina. So I did that with the gynaecologist for like a couple of years. (Vera)
Like Vera, many globally mobile consumers use their mobility and their
73 knowledge about various places in the world to save money, get better deals or get better products and services, which seems a very rational way of experiencing the effects of mobility on consumption. While postponing consumption until a better opportunity arises provides positive outcomes for consumers, such postponement also puts an extra burden on them; that is, they must increase their temporal coordination of these activities to decide what consumer actions to perform, when and where.
4.6.3 Temporal coordinating mechanisms
In order to facilitate the coordination of multiple temporal frameworks, informants employ various temporal coordinating mechanisms (Massey, MontoyaWeiss, and Hung 2003), which include strategies, processes, routines or objects that aid in the effort of synchronisation, scheduling and allocation of time-loaded resources. For example, some global cosmopolitans keep multiple clocks on the wall, each showing the current time in a different time zone. While this is a common practice in commercial business and public spaces, it was interesting to observe it in people’s homes. A Brazilian-American couple, who are members of InterNations, had three clocks on the wall of their living room: one showed the time in Sao Paulo, the second the time in Los Angeles (US) and the third the time in New England (US). These are places where the couple has extended family, residences and work interests. In the same vein, it was very common to find informants with multiple clocks on their smartphones and computers. These were usually places where they had some kind of ongoing social interaction (e.g. places where the family lived) or places they had lived before. Assembling timekeeping objects from different time zones is a commonly used practice among cosmopolitans and has increased with the coupling of mobile technology (e.g. smartphones) with functions that allow consumers to see the time and weather in
74 multiple places of interest. Mobile technological devices that displayed time from various places were commonly used by the participants in this study. Certain routines can also be considered coordinating mechanisms. For example, Carla works as a journalist for an American multinational financial news corporation. Her job is to follow the stock and commodity markets around the world and provide financial reports about them.
You look at the stock markets, you look at the commodity, the main commodity indexes, you look at whatever the top news was. The system is set up in such a way to make it easy for you to do all of these things, so you can create a calendar of events throughout the region, so I have a calendar of events through the European Union, US, Australia, China, Japan [...], so it just gives me a table of what's coming out, so you know if you have labour data coming out which is very important, if you have manufacturing data coming up which is very important. You watch for those numbers, you figure out whether it was better than expected, what was worse than expected, what kind of impact they had in the market. So you know you are going to look at the US when you are coming in the morning and throughout the day you are going to figure out what's happening in Australia and then after that and you know the rest of Asia and Europe. So that’s basically how you look at it. (Carla) Carla has developed a routine that allows her to manage her attention to the various temporal frameworks of financial markets around the world. In addition, her job provides her with an electronic schedule of important global financial events that allows her to track these events and organise them within her local temporal framework. Both her routines and the electronic organiser she uses to organise the routines are illustrations of temporal coordinating mechanisms Global cosmopolitans use temporal coordinating mechanisms to help them synchronise diverse temporal frameworks (as in Carla’s example), but they also use disengaging mechanisms to maintain their mobility (i.e. to coordinate activities while moving). For example, some global cosmopolitans develop portable routines that can travel with them and that can be performed anywhere, irrespective of local temporal
75 frameworks. Sandra explains: I get up early and work out in the gym, go to work, come back. It’s a routine. I have actually developed my whole routine as not place-dependent, you know. So when you get up in the morning, a kind of routine is good for your body. It’s kind of good for your soul. It can be oppressive at times, but if there’s a healthy balance for the routine, it’s good for you, right? It’s relaxing. [. . .] It also will be the sequence of tasks, the sequence of activities, so like get up, go to the gym, run on the treadmill and do some weights and then go back to the hotel, then have a shower, then put on the nasal, then do my makeup and then my hair, then have breakfast. None of those are dependent on my house or this café; I carry all of those variables with me as I go. So I’ve got my iPod, I’ve got my external speaker, I’ve got my work out gear, I know exactly how to change my workout depending on the gym, once every gym has a cardio machine and some form of weights and so I can like change it depending. It’s very helpful when I keep that kind of routine. (Sandra). Sandra’s portable routines work as disengaging mechanisms because they allow her to be independent (to a certain extent) from local routines and frameworks. There are a number of objects that facilitate portability and disengagement. These objects can either be portable (e.g. iPod, speakers, makeup) or easily replaceable by similar objects with identical functions (i.e. she can execute this routine as long as every hotel has a gym, an energy plug, a shower and a treadmill). Sandra and Carla show how consumers may use temporal coordinating mechanisms to organise individual activities across temporal frameworks or while moving. However, synchronisation may also occur on a collective level, since many activities performed by one consumer are related to activities performed by other consumers in different temporal frameworks. For example, Sandra and her husband are constantly apart because of their travelling. They must find ways of coordinating their calendars in order to follow each other’s lives.
We have a shared calendar, so I can see his calendar and he can see my calendar. So he knows when I am going to places, I’ll put it in and he can look and find out where he is going. It’s a calendar and it’s actually a shared calendar. He’s got his and I’ve got mine and they export to each other. So I can see his. It’s on my iPhone. So I set that up on purpose so that he can see where I am. For
76 example, he bought a couple of tickets to two concerts, one on a Sunday and the other right the next day, on a Monday, and these were coming up. I had to travel and I said, “oh, no, I’m going to miss your concerts, when are your concerts?” And he is like “oh, I don’t know, they are on this day, and the next day. I just wrote it on the calendar, I don’t know when they are”. And I thought I was going to miss him because I thought I had to travel for a client meeting. It turned up I didn’t have to. I had the Monday off, which is good. But I mean, if I had to go, I had to go, I wouldn’t go to the concerts. (Sandra)
During the data analysis, it became clear that, like Sandra, other informants use various technological devices to help them coordinate multiple temporal frameworks and their activities while travelling or when living in different temporal frameworks. Shared calendars (e.g. iCalendars, Google Calendars, and Microsoft Outlook) are frequently used as tools for temporal coordination of collective activities. These objects represent a special category of temporal coordinating mechanisms that the management and information literatures have named “temporal boundary objects” (Sapsed and Salter 2004; Yakura 2002). A boundary object exists at the boundaries between interpretive communities and allows the calibration of perspectives. Boundary objects “are both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and the constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites” (Star and Griesemer 1989, 393). They provide a reified answer to the question “How do heterogeneity and cooperation coexist?” They have different meanings in different social worlds, but their structures have enough in common to make them recognizable and useful as coordination mechanisms. Building on the notion of boundary objects, Yakura (2002, 956) refers to certain project management tools – such as timelines – as temporal boundary objects, because they are “visual representations of time that are both interpretively flexible and robust” and provide the basis for negotiations over interpretations of time. Timelines “make time concrete and negotiable for various groups of participants” (p. 956) in different social worlds. Like timelines, shared
77 calendars (such as the one used by Sandra) are temporal boundary objects because they provide a common basis for negotiation of activities that may belong to different temporal frameworks. For example, when Sandra is in the US and her husband in Canada, having a shared calendar allows them to coordinate their activities, despite the fact that they are operating in different contexts and sometimes incompatible temporal frameworks. Temporal boundary objects have become very useful as temporal coordinating mechanisms for global cosmopolitans. For example, the online platform that hosts InterNations’ website (www.internations.org) is a temporal boundary object, as it allows the online and offline activities and the various events of the community to be articulated and organised in time. It allows the community to exist through organisation of practices happening in different temporal frameworks. Although the social network of global cosmopolitans may continuously exist in the virtual world, it is through the synchronisation of concrete distant events and activities that the cosmopolitan community materialises in everyday life as an integrated collectivity. Albums of pictures shared on the Internet, through Picasa, Flickr or Facebook, are also examples of temporal boundary objects, because the individuals are able to share and calibrate representations of past events collected in different temporal frameworks that are nonetheless part of a communal reconstruction of the past. Temporary boundary objects are especially meaningful to this study because they also serve as frameworks for action. Shared calendars, pictures and online platforms allow synchronised consumer activities to occur. A good illustration of the power of temporal boundary objects to generate synchronised actions can be found in “tuángòu”, early forms of collective purchase which later inspired business models such as the one used by Groupon or LivingSocial. Created in China by savvy local web forum users, tuángòu allowed various participants to coordinate their purchases by
78 securing bulk purchases for less (Economist 2006; Khoshnampour and Nosrati 2011). While bulk purchase decisions at Groupon and LivingSocial are now centralised and pre-offered as deals to consumers, the early forms of collective purchasing like tuángòu used online forums to synchronise consumption activities and bulk buying, and, for this reason, the forms of tuángòu acted as temporal boundary objects.
4.6.4 New time structures engendered by global mobility
4.6.4.1 Embodied mobility rhythms
Mobility has its own events, rhythms and cycles that can interfere with or even replace consumers’ temporal frameworks. For example, public transportation services are supported by a series of routines that allow these services to be consumed collectively. A typical illustration of the rhythms imposed by mobility are the routines people follow in long-haul flights, from check-in and boarding to receiving safety explanations, eating meals and watching movies. Standardisation of procedures guarantees that people sharing different cultural backgrounds, coming from different temporal frameworks and flying through different time zones are able to coordinate their various consumption activities during the flight. In order to use these mobility services, consumers must engage in provisional routines that tend to overshadow their customary temporal frameworks. Some consumers even develop complementary personal routines that enable them to experience a better fit with the imposed mobility rhythms.
I don’t check it, if I can, I will avoid it, I don’t check it. I once went for nine days without checking the bag, that’s extreme, you really have to be hard core to do that. So I have my carry-on, and I have my briefcase, so my laptop goes in
79 there. I move all the things around. I’ve got headphones. I used to keep them in the front pocket of the carry-on, but before I get on the plane, I put them in my briefcase because often times they will take your carry on and they will measure it, they will put it in that thing, where the carry-on has to fit in. If my headphones and my umbrella are in the front pocket, it is not going to fit, so I move them, it’s the same with my laptop case. It’s very systematic like I move things around at certain changes of the security check-in and the check-in process, I change things around. Sometimes they make you weigh when you check-in, and if you don’t check-in online, so if you have to talk to anybody when you check-in, it’s problematic because they can just make you weigh things. And you are never going to make it, it’s like 10 kilos! And you’re never going to make it, right? If you’re going for five days, you’re not going to make it to 10 kilos. So if they make you weigh things, you may be screwed; so avoid talking to people if possible, check-in online, get your boarding pass and just go right in, don’t talk to anybody! Sometimes I’ve checked it, but if I can avoid it, I will. The reason you don’t want to check your bag is because you don’t want to wait on the other side. Really, when you get there isn’t a big deal. It is when you get home. All you want to do is get home, you don’t want to wait for your bag, and it takes so long to get bags unpacked from the carousel. I just want to go that’s what primarily I want to go home. I have done it, and every time I’ve done it, I am like “oh, it’s real credit because I just want to go home now”. So I am very systematic, I have got a system. (Sandra)
As in Sandra’s case, mobility rhythms may become so habitual that consumers will develop a different set of personal (embodied) routines for the sole purpose of coping with their mobility rhythms. While Sandra’s routines facilitate short-term recurrent travel, global mobility also involves much longer time spans, as is the case with serial expatriates (e.g. diplomats) and their “mobility cycles”.
4.6.4.2 Mobility cycles
Globally mobile consumers may develop new frameworks for cyclical time. The novelty about these new frameworks is that they are structured around patterns of global mobility. Thus, some informants, especially those who have moved many times, seem to perceive their lives in part through recurring cycles of mobility. It is common for
80 informants to refer to these phases when explaining their actions and emotions. They use expressions such as “whenever I arrive in a new place . . .” or “we have done this before so . . .” and “it is always hard to leave” to indicate their familiarity with these mobility cycles. Moreover, mobility cycles organise consumers’ activities by phases: movement, arrival, stay and departure. For example, Vera comments on the activities associated with the “arrival” and “leaving” phases:
Yeah, I have to do all the paperwork, open a bank account, register in all the different consulates; probably find a place to live, do things like driver’s license, then paper work. When you first arrive it’s like “admin”, and yeah that’s what I do when I arrive and when I’m leaving the same thing, you have to go and deregister everything, close the bank accounts, pay your taxes or recover the taxes (Vera). As consumers go through each phase they can compare them with previous ones and use their experience as a guide for action. For example, Donald has lived in South Africa, Canada and Australia. Through his movement he has learned that some challenges belong to the arrival phase (e.g. looking for a new home, understanding the geography of the new place, meeting new circles of friends, understanding where the supermarket is and when the shops are open), some belong to the stay phase (e.g. getting to know what is valorised by local culture, getting used to the local assortment of local and global retailers, products, services and brands, evaluating consumption options, prioritising certain friendships, understanding the status hierarchy and cultural symbols of the new cultural context), and some belong to the departure phase (e.g. choosing what to do with possessions – carry now, carry later, throw away, give to friends, sell). Donald can make decisions for the future based on the framework of mobility cycles. Because of his awareness of these cycles, he can refrain from buying a house and car to avoid having to dispose of them later, or he can rent a furnished home to avoid having to deal with the furniture in the future. Becoming aware of mobility
81 cycles allows consumers to compare the practices and outcomes of each phase, so past happenings, contextual variables and even errors made in the past can be used to calibrate and assess actions in the present. In some ways, consumers are monitoring themselves (Giddens 1991) through cycles of mobility. To provide another example, Luca, a diplomat, faces the constant problem of choosing a place to live every time he needs to take a position in a new country. Before the Internet age, finding a house was something that required a great deal of time and effort. He had the help of embassy staff, but deciding on a house was a personal decision and required him to set aside time to search. Now, this process is much easier, not only because the Internet allows him to search for a number of houses even before moving to another country, but also because he has learned from his past moves and knows what to look for in a temporary house. Similarly, Suzy (an informant from the InterNations’ gathering) used the Internet to find a place to live even before she moved from India to the US. She was happy to have a place to stay when she arrived, but she quickly realised she was stuck with that apartment for six months (the minimum lease period) before she could move to another. Over the years, she developed a system in which, before moving, she finds a place to stay for the period of a month only. Her main criteria are accessibility (i.e. proximity to main transportation hubs) and the existence of furniture. After arriving, she uses a list she had produced before moving to search for a more permanent apartment. The permanent apartment is selected by other criteria that are important for her, such as cosiness, level of sunlight and proximity to entertainment and shopping areas – criteria that are more difficult to verify through the Internet. She believes that she has optimised her search system over the years. However, what is important to observe is that Donald, Suzy and Luca have internalised mobility cycles as part of their decision making (i.e. they have come to take them for granted). Developing cultural heuristics (Peñaloza and Gilly 1999) to deal with cycles of mobility is an
82 important way of minimising the extra decision effort caused by mobility’s disruption of cultural frameworks. Knowing that he will move in the future and having moved in the past has also helped Simon make practical decisions about what and what not to purchase. After his move from Arizona to New York, Simon was more cautious about “collecting stuff” again, because he knew he was not going to stay there for a long time.
I lived in Arizona for nine years where I had a wine chest at that time, because I had a bigger house, but I sold it, I gave things to charity, I gave a lot away to charity and gave away to friends. Then I moved with like two suitcases to New York. In New York I collected a bit of stuff again – but I never really collected too many things and never really spent a lot of money on furniture or really heavy things or stuff that I would want to keep in the long term because I always had this feeling that I am not going to be there for too long. (Simon)
Like Simon, many interviewees opted for buying less because they knew they would move again (eventually) and that would mean further expenses or having the trouble to dispose of them. It was interesting to observe that even when consumers did not know much about when and where their next move would happen, they seemed to have internalised these mobility cycles, embodying them in some of their daily consumption practices. They acted as if they knew they would move again and that the movement would require either transporting or disposing of possessions; this knowledge affected many of their present decisions.
All of my furniture is from IKEA and it’s the cheapest furniture I could possibly get because we don’t know when we are going to have to move next. You know and if we move to Australia I don’t want to have to pay a $15,000 moving cost to be able to move a $100 dining table you know, I am going to throw out that dining table when I leave. It completely changes what you buy you know, even when we go to places. One of the things that we used to do is to buy some sort of piece of art in every place that we visited, so we have all these really cool things from trips through Southeast Asia. We have like these beautiful quilts and
83 paintings, but we don’t buy that stuff anymore because we don’t know [when we are moving next]. (Diva)
Like Simon, Diva avoids buying expensive furniture and even souvenirs, because they may create a future problem. Similarly, Hazel and James rented all their furniture because they knew they were going to be in Canada for a short time before moving to Spain. Donald and his family took many possessions to Canada because the firm paid for the move. They also bought a house in Canada because they anticipated staying there. However, when they later moved to Australia and realised they might move again, they decided to rent furniture for the rented house. They maintained ownership of the house in Canada because of their possible return. Sometimes mobility cycles are so ingrained in consumers’ way of thinking and feeling that they interfere in the way consumers evaluate products and services. For example, Vera explains how cycles of mobility affect the way she buys clothes:
I always think I’m not going to have this for a long time so I normally don’t buy really expensive things and because I know I might just throw it away. [. . .] Even this top, you could probably buy the same one in a designer shop but a bit better quality and spend more money on it and it will last a bit longer and it will look a bit better but I know that I probably won’t use it for that long, or I won’t have it for that long so I’ll just buy the cheaper version [. . .] anything that’s big and heavy I won’t think of buying it, because of travelling and having to carry it with me and I’d rather buy something at the destination and instead of buying one and then thinking “oh I’m going to take this with me for the rest of my life”. (Vera) Cycles of mobility challenge traditional marketing notions of the family life cycle. The marketing literature has used the notions of life-cycle stages (children, teenagers, bachelors, newly married couples, full-nest families with younger children, full-nest families with older children, empty-nest families) to infer expenditures and preferences for consumer goods such as food, durables, housing and vacations (Wagner and Hanna 1983; Wilkes 1995). However, mobility cycles and the need to constantly
84 dispose of and re-acquire objects break with these conventional models. Mobile individuals are constantly adapting to new food, avoiding buying non-portable durable goods and postponing the purchase of property to a future moment in which they expect to settle down (i.e. they generally rent property, unless the purchase is made for investment purposes). And due to their constant travelling, global cosmopolitans’ vacations may take on different symbolic properties, such as time to visit their relatives and former countries or to simply enjoy staying put. Therefore, the family cycles of global cosmopolitans follow patterns that depart from traditional models and are coordinated through cycles of mobility. In addition, cyclical notions of time allow consumers to understand future as well as past moves and to somehow be emotionally or physically prepared to move. For example, June, a self-proclaimed cosmopolitan, explains how her knowledge that she would move in the future made some aspects of her current life easier:
It just made it easier in a way if you know that you [are moving], I liked the idea of the three to four years, because that’s long enough to really build a life and to make friends but it never had that “forever” attached to it so there was always the opportunity if you don’t really like it then it’s only for three to four years. (June)
And when asked if knowing that she would move affects her life, she replied:
Of course but that’s the whole point, if you go and you don’t miss them and nobody misses you then it’s a waste of time so you should always miss something about it when you leave. And you should always, I think you should always leave people behind who are going to miss you but then you can meet again. I mean, this is really global! (June)
June adjusted her philosophy about how friendships should happen in order to valorise the positive aspects of leaving people behind and missing them. While she may
85 suffer feelings of loss, her philosophy shows she has found a way to justify and cope with the separation from friends in the future. She endorses this view by linking it to “being really global”. Being able to leave people behind, miss them and reunite with them is a symbol of global identity for June. Interestingly, I observed that this phenomenon also occurs in relation to material objects. For many, being a global cosmopolitan is associated with the ability to leave things behind.
I have a friend in Switzerland who’s Argentine but she listens to the radio from Argentina, she’s looking at the news from Argentina, she’s watching the TV or streaming. She is basically in Switzerland but completely connected to Argentina, she is just very nostalgic all the time and misses it incredibly like if you move country; you move country you are in that country, so get over the other one or go back, right? (Vera) Through a comparison with her immigrant friend, Vera reaffirms her commitment to a cosmopolitan ideology that, like June’s, is centred upon being able to leave things behind and move on. Global cosmopolitans avoid feelings of nostalgia, as such feelings may compromise their survival in a mobile world. Even when global cosmopolitans admit they find it difficult to move on, they are quick to emphasise the importance of developing the competence to do so readily. Thus, while Luca admits that leaving things and people behind is not enjoyable, he underlines the fact that it is not difficult for him. Since my whole life I’ve been living abroad I don’t find it difficult. I find every time I have to move, and part of my work is moving as I have to do that as my work, is not nice. You only get to know the people and the country and you appreciate that and sometimes it’s not really nice to leave a country and leave friends and go to another country that you don’t know anybody and it’s a whole new process again then you have to leave again. But I don’t find it difficult (Luca).
A cosmopolitan ideology that devalues nostalgia contrasts sharply with previous literature in consumer research on immigrants, which has identified nostalgia as a key factor in their lives (Hirschman and Holbrook 1982). This literature has documented
86 immigrants’ preference for objects that connect to their past (Mehta and Belk 1991). However, unlike immigrants, global cosmopolitans tend to forsake nostalgic objects in the pursuit of flexibility and mobility. Only a few cherished and irreplaceable objects manage to endure the cosmopolitan counter-nostalgic ideology. 4.6.4.3 Future orientation and reconstruction of the past
The devaluation of nostalgia does not mean that global cosmopolitans lack a sense of the past. On the contrary, they have a well-developed sense of past, which is generally organised by the different places they have lived. Thus, it is common for global cosmopolitans to talk about the past as places where they have conducted their lives. They refer to the time they lived in place A, the time they moved to B, the time they stayed in C. Or they may think of a place first, before identifying the time period associated with it, as Alice does in this passage.
When you try to remember which year for a great memory, you have to remember the environment, which brings back the country you lived in at the time, which narrows down the year of that event, the year it happened. Like in: oh that time I ate grilled crickets, it was in Cameroon, therefore it can only have been in... 1994. (Aline Morreau, InterNations’ thread: “Re: You know you're a TCK when . . .”, posted on 02/06/2011)
This way of organising the past is also expressed concretely in the way global cosmopolitans organise their physical and electronic photo albums. Some informants, like Irvin, Hazel and James, keep their old personal pictures in shoeboxes or in albums, classified by places instead of dates. Most of them have managed to scan their old pictures into some kind of electronic format. The more recent albums are stored in pen drives, computers or virtual archives (clouds). Interestingly, even informants’ e-albums are ordered by places. In conditions of mobility, place and time seem to be
87 interchangeable in terms of ordering the past. Last year means life in Canada to Hazel, and the three years before means living in Luxembourg. Since place offers memory much more materiality than does abstract time, it seems a natural way to organise personal memory. In Harvey’s time-space compression and Urry’s instantaneous time, time disappears and everything becomes a juxtaposition of places. If cosmopolitans want to tell a story about their lives, which requires ordering, organising their biographies according to time or place gives the same results, as is revealed by Aline’s statement above. This phenomenon is ironic as, in pre-modern societies, time was also inseparable from place, but in a different way. In those societies, near and soon were similar concepts (Thompson 1967). As everyone walked from one place to another, the nearest meant the soonest. In late modern societies, near and soon are very different things due to time-space distanciation (Giddens 1990). However, the ordering of activities in space can still be similar to ordering them in time, as the example of photograph albums illustrates. Consistent with this view, global cosmopolitans sometimes refer to a trip to their parents' places as a return to their past. Such time travel is possible when parents still live in the same town where informants grew up. Periodic visits to their original homeland have the flavour of travelling back to their origins, not only spatially but also temporally. Note how Donna, when discussing her travels back to her parents’ village (her homeland), refers to it as a place that has never changed.
[My home] is a place that so far has never changed. I know it’s always been the same halls, I know they are never going to move away from their village, so yeah you kind of go back to find same places, the same shops, the same neighbours. It’s quite nice, it’s something, something that you know that you don’t have set up to, but I also know I wouldn’t live there. [. . .] So that’s nice you know, you go back, everything you know, everyone, and it’s also nice to be going away. But I would go crazy if I had to stay there longer. Such a thing is not going to happen (Donna).
88 For Donna, going back in time by travelling to her place of origin can be enjoyed sporadically, but most global cosmopolitans dread the thought of going back permanently to their origins. Conversely, the research revealed that most informants’ lives are marked by some kind of anticipation for the future. The future is also somewhere else, a “place” that will eventually come. As seen above, this affects purchases to the extent that the certainty of a future move (even when its date and direction are unspecified) hinders the accumulation of non-transportable goods because cosmopolitans want to avoid the hassle of having to get rid of them when it comes time to move again. For example, Paul Kim, a Korean-German-Canadian medical researcher, receives a good salary and could easily have purchased apartments in the various countries where he has lived. But he only rents places to live, because buying property would create the need to resell or lease it when moving again, and he wants to avoid the hassle. For the same reasons, he looks only for furnished apartments or, when they are difficult to find, he buys his furniture at IKEA (i.e. at an inexpensive store) because he can easily get rid of it when he needs to. Interestingly, global mobility facilitates the reconstruction of the past. Without a neighbouring social network to legitimise their past, global cosmopolitans may engage in the construction of a new past. Through storytelling and personal narratives, they are able to depict memories and distant places in a way that others in their local context – that is, those who did not share the same moments – will find it difficult to verify. While not sharing a common past with others in the local network may endow global cosmopolitans with a certain power to re-create any past they want, it also has its drawbacks. This lack of a shared past may cause feelings of loneliness, as reported by Chen Li, Irvin and Maria.
Kind of tiring, just moving along, you just see different furniture every year and you’re sometimes lonely. (Chen Li)
89
It just felt like I lost contact and I lost, although I liked it there because, sometimes I felt like crying, alone, but I had friends but they had their own family, they had someone to take care of. (Irvin) I am not alone because I have got 50 people around me, but it’s not the same friendship obviously as to people who you, who knew you when you’re very child running around and doing all these sort of things. (Maria)
However, the sense of a shared past can be fostered when global cosmopolitans meet. During InterNations gatherings, I observed that global cosmopolitans can spend long hours with one another sharing the experiences they have had in various places. They seem to deeply enjoy this activity, especially when the members of a group with whom they share stories have all lived in the same country for a certain time. Interestingly, talking about places held in common (or similar kinds of experience) seems to give them a sense of a shared past, even if they lived in the same country during different periods and therefore did not experience the same “national” events (e.g. the fall of a specific political regime). As happens with people from traditional local communities, the sharing of information about a “common past” seems to strengthen the bond among members. Having experiences in common is a powerful way of bonding among InterNations members. The construction of a common past through storytelling about places and past experiences happened not only during the monthly InterNations gatherings, but also continuously, at a more global level, in discussions mediated by InterNations’ online platform. For example, in 2011, the organisers of the website, in a conjoint effort with the TV network CNN, promoted a campaign for discussing the thirty most important global events of the last thirty years. The list included events very diverse in nature: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the invasion of Iraq and the death of Michael Jackson, to take a few examples. Members who wanted to participate were asked to select the three global events that had the greatest impact on their lives and to write three short texts describing
90 how each event affected their lives. This initiative had a much higher level of participation than others, even though it demanded time for writing (see Appendix G for a thank you letter with some examples of personal stories, sharing and voting related to this initiative). More than 4,000 personal memories from thousands of members coming from more than 140 different countries were generated. This is a large number of responses, especially compared to most InterNations’ online threads, which do not have more than 30 postings. Participants managed to classify the most impactful global events, but independently of the results, it is important to notice that these kinds of action, which aim at constructing and organising a global past, are greatly valued by global cosmopolitans. Contrary to a local past, which does not have much utility for consumers moving to a new environment, the global past is a common point of reference and a means of integration for them. Further, the global past is transposable (it works in different parts of the globe) and therefore useful for the needs of their mobile lives. 4.7 Discussion 4.7.1 Summary
In the findings, I first demonstrated that global mobility challenges the customary ways time structures consumer activities and behaviours through three destabilising processes (i.e. fragmentation, multiplication and disembedding). These disruptions tend to be experienced as a burden and as stressful by consumers, who must make extra effort to coordinate their everyday activities. These coordinating efforts may include diverse temporal coordinating mechanisms: regionalising, or zoning, consumption practices (e.g. having different shopping websites for each country), projecting themselves into the future by using mobility to determine the appropriateness
91 of a consumption practice (buying now or later has to do with the period when the next move will happen), assembling time-keeping objects in a single place (e.g. a wall of clocks), developing time-management routines, developing disengaging mechanisms (e.g. portable routines) and using temporal boundary objects (e.g. using InterNations to relate to communities that are inserted in different temporal frameworks, or using sites for collective purchase, which organise the moment of purchase independent of the temporal frameworks associated with each person/society). All these temporal coordinating mechanisms and temporal boundary objects help coordinate time-related activities and ease consumers’ extra coordinating workload. Additionally, new time structures are created by global mobility: mobility rhythms, mobility events, mobility cycles and a new relationship to the future and past. I show that these time structures can offer alternative points around which consumers’ activities may be organised, which in turn reduces the coordinating workload caused by mobility. Some consumers, for example, develop careful routines that allow them to cope with constant travelling. In many ways, they internalise the rhythms of those routines and incorporate (embody) them into their everyday life (see Table 1).
Table 1: Managing practices and new structures for time coordination Consumers’ managing practices
New mobility-related structures
•
Zoning (grouping activities per time-zone or culture)
•
Projecting themselves into the future
•
Assembling time-keeping objects in one place
•
Developing time-management routines
•
Developing portable routines
•
Using temporal boundary objects
•
Temporal boundary objects
•
Embodied mobility rhythms
•
Cycles of global mobility
•
Reconstructed global past
•
Future orientation
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Mobility cycles are also very important in structuring the life of global cosmopolitans. Phases of arrival, stay and departure provide points of stability for consumers, something they may count on when planning their purchases and consuming. For some consumers, these cycles are so embodied that they will automatically refuse to buy anything that may be difficult to dispose of in the future or that may hinder their future mobility. In addition, mobile consumers seem to organise their past (e.g. photographs) on the basis of places they have lived instead of using dates or other temporal classifications. Additionally, global cosmopolitans seem to be oriented towards the future, putting little value on nostalgic objects and great value on objects that are portable and can facilitate future mobility. This orientation does not entail a lack of interest in having a past, but global cosmopolitans do seem more interested in reconstructing their past from their present than in preserving the past they already have. The “new” past seems to be organised in terms of global rather than local events.
4.7.2 Contributions
The primary contribution of this chapter is its delineation of the processes by which global mobility shapes time-related consumption practices. First, the global mobility of consumers destabilises their lives by fragmenting, multiplying and disembedding time-related consumption activities. Second, these disruptions are experienced as an extra workload by consumers, who then engage in various time management practices to coordinate their lives in conditions of fragmentation, multiplication and disembeddedness. Besides using time-management practices, global
93 cosmopolitans also seek stability through an alignment with new time structures that are produced by mobility itself. These processes are very different from the ones lived by immigrants. As shown in the literature review, the mobility of immigrant consumers is related to time most strongly through two territorial factors: nostalgia for homeland and the management of temporal frameworks from two different lands. While nostalgia plays a central role in the consumption practices of immigrants, it is not a dominant theme in the life of global cosmopolitans. As noticed by Thompson and Tambyah (1999), global cosmopolitans adhere to an ideology that favours travel over home. Therefore, nostalgia, as a feeling that may discourage travel, seems to be suppressed. One could argue that informants may in fact feel nostalgic about places they have lived, but if that is the case, they were careful not to demonstrate that feeling in their interviews or in their interactions at InterNations. This discursive practice only reinforces the view that they espouse an ideology that undervalues nostalgia (one only hides what one does not wish to show). At the InterNations gatherings, it became clear that this group is always forward looking (and very modern in this respect), My observations during the meeting and about the online posts confirmed that they regard nostalgia as a weakness, something that may hold them back. Thus, objects associated with nostalgia are not collected by these consumers. Further evidence of this practice is provided in the next chapter, about home-making practices. Nevertheless, being future-oriented does not mean that they exclude the past. In fact, having a past is also a need for this group, because it provides a sense of continuity, which authenticates the group and provides them with meaning and a collectively shared history. Thus, they engage in an active production of the past, one that supports their vision, customs and way of being (e.g. their engagement with sharing personal stories about 30 global events). In “The Invention of Tradition”, Hobsbawn
94 (1992, 9) explains that traditions can be invented and that they perform three functions: a) establishing or symbolising social cohesion of real or artificial communities; b) legitimising institution, status and relations of authority; and c) inculcating beliefs, value systems and conventions of behaviour. As with national traditions, which were promoted to help institutionalise the sense of nation (Braun 1975), it seems that global cosmopolitans are developing a shared global past to establish symbolic cohesion, legitimise their own existence and promote a new set of beliefs (one that favours them). Since members of this group belong to the upper part of the world’s social pyramid (upper and middle classes of developed countries and upper classes of emerging economies are in positions of power when compared to the rest of the world population), these changes of beliefs seem to create more than a subculture of consumption (Kozinets 2001; Schouten and McAlexander 1995). Cosmopolitans seem to be producing and leading the way for the “new beliefs” of global consumer culture associated with the need to reconstruct a global past. These new beliefs might be at an early stage of formation, where reconstruction of a global past has not yet created many traditions that are particular to this group (the monthly meetings can be considered rituals but they have not lasted long enough to be considered traditions). However, the findings from InterNations suggest that the reconstruction of global pasts might become a trend of global consumer culture in late modernity. For example, from the 1990s to the year 2000, we saw a formidable example of reconstruction of the past on a global scale, when thousands of books, documentaries, TV programs and films were launched in an attempt to revise the history of the discovery of the Americas, re-telling the Columbus story from multiple points of view, and challenging then-dominant views. Other groups, such as the Steampunks (www.steampunk.com), who try to create an alternative post-Victorian time, also deal with the active re-creation of the past. A characteristic of global cosmopolitans, however, is to produce a past that is a function of
95 their present and of their mobility, instead of being a function of Victorian time as with the Steampunks (Onion 2008). This is interesting to consumer research because, in contrast to the nostalgic strategy seen in retro-branding efforts (Brown, Kozinets, and Sherry Jr 2003), the construction of the global past by global cosmopolitans serves to authenticate their mobile lifestyle (not to revive the past). Classifying the 30 most important global events is a way of making sense of the present through the ordering and construction of a past that authenticates the present and allows recollection in conditions of global mobility. The created past legitimates global cosmopolitans’ own existence as a collectivity, “for all invented tradition uses history as a legitimator of action and cement of group cohesion” (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1992, 9). This has important implications for consumer research, as it shows that global cosmopolitans may be open to products, images and brands that help them create and tell a story about the global past. The “truth” or “authenticity” of the story is arguably of minor importance. It is more important for the story to resonate with cosmopolitans’ mobile ideologies and philosophy of life (see Appendix G for an illustration of how narratives of the past underscore their global mobility). It is also interesting to observe that global cosmopolitans are able to gain stability in their mobile lives by trusting new temporal structures provided by mobility. Mobility cycles, for example, provide a sense of security to the hectic mobile lives of consumers, which seems to work as a shield against the ontological insecurity of second modernity, the “risk society”(Beck 1992). Knowing they will go through similar phases again and again allows cosmopolitans to be prepared for the constant adaptation that life in mobility requires (e.g. as shown in the way they develop cultural heuristics to deal with the needs of each phase). The need for stability and structure is so intense that many global cosmopolitans internalise/embody these cycles and believe in the certainty of mobility, avoiding decisions that may prove undesirable in future cycles (e.g.
96 avoiding the purchase of large pieces of furniture that are difficult to transport, even when there is no future move scheduled). Research in behavioural decision theory has affirmed that people often fail tests of self-control by making decisions that result in greater immediate gratification but greater long-term costs (Liberman and Trope 1998; Loewenstein 1996; Soman 2001). However, this valorisation of the present over future outcomes does not seem to correspond with the practices of global cosmopolitans, who avoid purchasing things in the present for the sake of future benefit. A possible explanation for this dissonant behaviour is that global cosmopolitans are so sure of their future mobility that the future weighs favourably the present. The findings point to an interesting blend of modernity and late modernity. As Urry (2000) argues, the informants are living in a world of excess, de-synchronisation, intrusion of distant events into everyday life and multiple temporal frameworks. However, their way of handing their problems and hopes and managing their lives seems very modern. They seek stability, perform regionalisation, desire progress and want to be able to make sensible, rational decisions based on the information they receive. These are essentially modern strategies being applied to periods of great instability. Cosmopolitans cling to mobility for an answer, have faith in the future and strive to construct a past that is consistent with their present. Most importantly, they seem to expect that the market, through its coordinating mechanisms and devices, will help them to manage disruption, fragmentation and disembedding. On the surface, they seem to be playful consumers making their creative bricolage through postmodernity. However, adopting a cosmopolitan ideology (a discourse that equates mobility with creativity and freedom) is a strategy, a way of coping with the destabilisation that mobility (and late modernity) creates.
97
98 5. The Networked Home
5.1 Introduction
The objective of this chapter is to demonstrate how the mobility of global cosmopolitan consumers shapes the way they relate to notions of home and to introduce the concept of the networked home. Past work on consumer research has shown that many consumption practices and objects are strongly attached to the notion of a fixed and grounded home. This notion of a territorial home structures consumption, as it establishes relationships and provides meanings to the practices and objects that occur inside the house and that are carried by members of the family. The global mobility of consumers, a growing feature of globalisation, has challenged the way consumers organise their everyday lives. Given the number of studies placing home as a central concept for consumer research, it is surprising that not much research attempts to understand changes in the notions of home in conditions of global mobility. Very little is known about how mobility changes home-related practices. Consumer research has explored relationships between movement and consumption, but research on transnational mobile people suggests that consumers under conditions of constant mobility may have different constructions of the notion of home and that these different constructions may result in, and be a result of, a different set of practices (Nowicka 2007). Despite the growing amount of research about the relationship between migration and home, rather less attention has been paid to mobility as a recurrent condition. I argue that globally mobile consumers (i.e. global cosmopolitans) maintain a strong notion of home; however,their home is not seen as a physical building that provides shelter to the family, but rather as a network of various elements that may be
99 grounded or uprooted. While my general research question is: “How does the global mobility of consumers affect their home-related practices?”, it translates into more specific questions: How do consumers maintain a sense of home in conditions of global mobility? In particular, how do consumers maintain the coordinating and stabilising functions of the networked home when its components are not associated with one specific territory? By answering these questions, the research findings contribute to an understanding of consumer life in conditions of mobility and, more specifically, of the transformations of home in conditions of mobility. The findings uncover important and emergent consumer practices that tend to become ubiquitous as consumers become more mobile. The text is divided as follows. First, a brief review of the literature about home in consumer research is used to pinpoint key issues. Second, recent literature on the influence of global mobility on notions of home is discussed, and the concept of the networked home is introduced. Third, findings of this research are introduced, according to the type of networked home or the practices used to maintain it. There follows a summary and a discussion of the key findings, highlighting where they contribute to extending the marketing and consumer research literature.
5.2 Home in consumer research
Home is a central concept in consumer research. Various angles have been used to explore the notion of home in consumer research, each favouring one of home’s diverse meanings and functions. First, as a place, home can be the site of various consumption practices such eating, drinking, playing, sharing, planning, storing and disposing (Jackson and Moores 1995; Wilk 1989). Second, home can assume anthropomorphic
100 characteristics and be seen as “the shell of the self” (Csikszentmihalyi and RochbergHalton 1981), for its capability of expressing the personality and mood of its owners. As such, it can been considered part of the extended self (Belk 1988). Third, it is the container of possessions, a shelter of material things, especially the valuable ones (Belk 1988). Possessions “are homey when they have a personal significance for the owner (e.g. gifts, crafts, trophies, mementoes, family heirlooms)” (McCracken 2005, 26). Fourth, home is also the site of memories (Marcoux 2001) and biographies. People telling stories about objects they have in their homes are also telling stories about themselves (Hurdley 2006) or about others who are part of their past. Fifth, home is not just a place of safety for material things, it is also a storehouse of signs, sheltering those things that provide meaning to consumers’ lives and help them make sense of the world and its cultural categories (Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton 1981; Douglas 1991). Sixth, it is the site of negotiation of identity within a network of relations, harbouring family life and identity interplay (Epp and Price 2008). Seventh, home is the site of feelings of comfort, familiarity, safety, intimacy and warmth (Hill 1991). Eighth, home is also the prime site of the private, in contrast of anything outside home, which is considered part of the public (Richins 1994). Finally, home is the site of the sacred (Sherry 1998). It is separated from the outside world by “careful attention given to entry thresholds” (Belk, Wallendorf, and Sherry 1989, 10). Additionally, home can also have structuring properties. McCracken (2005) explains that as much as home is organised and derives meaning from social relations and activities, home can also have agency, by reproducing these social relations and activities by the way it organises material culture. Thus, home “creates the stage on which all life of the domestic developments of self and family can be undertaken” (McCracken 2005, 39). The same logic that organises each object in the house (e.g. a big stove in the middle of the kitchen symbolising the role of cooking in a specific
101 home) is reproduced and reinforced when these objects are used (e.g. the more one uses the stove, the more one reinforces its prime position in the kitchen). Besides reproducing social relations and activities, home can also be an enabling context within which other meanings become possible. Many objects seem to gain different meanings once they are within the boundaries of home. For example, a chair, a doll, a broom can de-commoditise and gain singular meanings once inside home (Diamond et al. 2009). Objects and people may gain specific roles and meanings in the home according to their relationships to other objects and people in the house (Epp and Price 2010). In that sense, home can work as a “marketplace corrector,” especially useful as a means of stripping possessions of their commercially assigned meanings (McCracken 2005). In addition, home may have the paradoxical functions of status marker and status corrector. The way home is constructed, designed, decorated, located and put to use sends a number of signals about its inhabitants and its objects. Curiously, as pointed out by McCracken (2005), creating a homey environment, or using homey objects, may be a strategy to relieve certain burdens created by other status strategies. For example, objects that are engaging, disorganised, warm and playful, such as a piece of tourist art, may be used to counterbalance the formality and calculated charm of an interior designed to mark status. Home has also been explored in connection with consumers’ movement. The literature on immigration and acculturation discusses home as the site of negotiations between immigrants’ culture of origin and host culture. On one hand “to lose a home is to lose a private museum of memory” (Hecht 2001, 123), as one must deal with symbolic losses that are critical to consumers’ lives. The immigrant attempts to recreate the old home in the new territory, through usage of objects, re-enactment of social relations and the reproduction of practices. In times of transition and in an unfamiliar landscape, consumers may desire dearly familiar products. These transitional objects
102 may be perceived as part of a coping strategy “that provides a solution to the undesirable effects of change, such as uncertainty, cognitive load, or emotional fatigue” (Wood 2010, 52). Transitional objects may act as a security blanket, creating the conditions for identity preservation and home reconstruction (Mehta and Belk 1991). Interestingly, sometimes losses are praised, instead of being repaired. Belk (1992) provides examples of cases when losses by Mormons in migration, reframed as sacrifices, helped to turn the moving into a sacred journey. On the other hand, the new home is also a place that can help consumers to engage with the host culture. For example, Peñaloza (1994) describes how immigrants engage with the host culture through diverse brands and products that come into the house, as well as through their children and more settled relatives, that help with the translation from their culture of origin into their host culture. Hence, home is at the same time a site for the preservation of the culture of origin and a site of intercultural tensions and intergenerational mediations, where memory and identity are dynamically reconstructed (Marcoux 2001; Oswald 1999). Although considerable research has been devoted to the link between home and consumption for non-immigrant (rooted) and traditional immigrant consumers (i.e. those who might move only once in a lifetime), rather less attention has been paid to mobility as a recurrent condition, one that affects and is affected by consumers’ construction of home. In particular, little has been written on the effects of transnational mobility on altering consumers’ notion of home, despite the number of consumers who live in some level of constant mobility (e.g. diplomats and top level global executives). This is surprising, given that research on transnational mobile people suggests that they may have different notions of home (Nowicka 2007). For example, some studies suggest that unlike immigrants, transnational mobile professionals do not seem to seek to create roots and reproduce the old home in the host culture. They are aware of their
103 constant moving, and consequently they know their stay in a new country is not permanent. This may limit the emotional effort they have to undergo to re-create home (Nowicka 2006b). Other studies have suggested that Third Culture Kids (i.e. people who have moved a lot and spent a significant part of their developmental years outside the parents’ culture) may have never formed an idea of a traditional home and thus the idea of reconstruction might not be part of their life goals. Their notion of home may be shattered from a very early age (Pollock and Van Reken 2009). Given the importance that the notion of home has to consumption and given that the notion of home is altered under conditions of mobility, it is imperative to understand how home is understood, experienced and maintained by individuals who are living in mobile conditions and the implications of these understandings, experiences and home-making strategies to consumer behaviour.
5.3 Networked and deterritorialised home
Although not much has been written about the idea of home in conditions of mobility, early studies on transnational mobile professionals suggest that, in conditions of mobility, the notion of home is decoupled from the idea that it must have a physical territory. Bardhi and Askegaard (2009) found that globally mobile professionals hold a portable notion of home, which they define as home-as-order. The home-as-order concept defines home in terms of three types of orientations: spatial, temporal and socio-cultural. They argue that as long as consumers can reproduce these orientations, they are also able to recreate home somewhere else. For example, they find that through the reproduction of home-as-order consumers are able to transform hotel environments into home-like environments. Drawing on the works of geographer Doreen Massey (2005), Nowicka (2007)
104 reaches similar conclusions about the decoupling of home from physical territory. Furthermore, she contends that home is not seen by transnational mobile people as a particular location. Instead, “it is defined by the relationships connecting the mobile individuals with people and objects” (Nowicka 2007, 82). In other words, it is a network—comprising people, objects and relationships—that is not grounded permanently anywhere. According to Nowicka, this network can be manifested in one particular territorial location or in many. In conditions of mobility, the place where one grows up might be different from the place where relationships are. The most familiar place might not be the place where one lives at the moment, and the place where one feels comfortable might not be the place where most of one’s possessions are. Nevertheless, they are part of the same network. These local manifestations are called focal points, which are points where the contingencies bring the network to ground itself in a particular territory. However, an important point to note is that a specific territory is not part of home for Nowicka. Therefore, when transnational mobile professionals move, home might anchor itself in a different territory. Home will be home somewhere else, but the relationship between the elements that constitute home may remain stable and may still be conveyed through the notion of home. Following Nowicka, I argue that home can be better understood in mobile conditions if it is conceptualised as a network of elements. The notion of home traditionally comprises a variety of physical objects (e.g. the building, the furniture, appliances, grocery products, books, electronics), social relations (e.g. family ties), daily practices (e.g. eating, showering, sleeping) and emotions (e.g. attachment, comfort, security, familiarity, dependence, conformity). Home establishes stable relationships between those elements, that is, it connects physical objects to social relations, daily practices and emotions into a symbolic ensemble (Epp and Price 2010; Miller 1998). If one imagines an object that occupies a place in the house, one also imagines other
105 surrounding objects, some of the daily practices involving that object and some emotions associated with it. For instance, a bed occupies a place in a bedroom; it has pillows, a doona (duvet), a mattress and linen. It takes part in the daily rituals of sleeping, love making and intimate sharing. It provides a sense of intimacy and comfort. A table might be used for dining and be associated with table cloths, napkins, plates, cutlery, family relations, eating, sharing and controlling. Table and bed are also connected in various ways and the sum of all relationships contributes to creating a sense of home. All elements in a house are connected to one another in diverse relationships of congruence and dissonance. The notion of home captures all that in a single signifier. As a signifier of an ensemble of relationships between these elements, the notion of home also assembles diverse meanings. For example, Marsden (2001, 81) lists a number of meanings associated with home: it can be the safe place that provides protection from the outside world; it can be the centre for relationships with family; it can be a place of choice in regard to lifestyle and entertaining activities; it can be the territory of control; it can reflect personal identity; it can be a place that protects one’s privacy; it can be an expression of achievement or social status; it can be a place where one is born or where one wants to die. In addition, the various meanings of home share the property of homeyness, which is the quality of things that resemble or are suggestive of home. McCracken (2005, 46) has demonstrated that homeyness has a number of symbolic, physical and pragmatic properties that are important to understand consumption. Most importantly, “homeyness supplies the template for construction of an environment and a family [...] It also supplies some of the meaningful coordinates according to which the family and the home are to be discriminated from other domains, especially the work and public life”. This notion of home as a network of elements and meanings has gained the
106 attention of scholars and practitioners from the technological industry. For example, Williams et al. (2008), in a partnership with Intel aimed at studying the effects of transnational mobility, discuss the concept of distributed home, “in which kinship, affinity and exchange are used to create home” (p. 327). This concept emerged from an ethnographic research focused on the transnational mobility of Thai retirees. The researchers found that the idea of home was associated with families and households, instead of houses as built structures. When home is where the family is, one needs to consider “the ongoing practices by which that group bind themselves together” (p. 328). Williams and her colleagues contend that by repeated behaviours (practices) of exchange, home-as-kinship can be sustained even in conditions of transnational mobility. They provide examples of their informants maintaining social bonds through exchange relationships, in which “food, cell phones, labour, support during illness, gardening supplies, transportation, and computer use were all given and received” (p. 327). They also noticed that participants frequently “transported goods such as food, clothing, cosmetics, souvenirs, or brand-name items” (p. 328) from one country to another, to give as gifts. These practices of exchange establish, constitute and display kinship and closeness, and consequently the distributed home.
107 Figure 1- The networked home
Emotions Social relations Daily practices Objects Meanings
TERRITORIAL HOME
NETWORKED HOME
Thus, in mobile conditions, although the notion of home is not a stable physical place where domestic life is realised (Douglas 1991) and although it comprises an array of multiple sites that might symbolise different expressions of home, it may still preserve its stabilising and coordinating functions. I call it the networked home. The networked home (Figure 1) has a coordinating function because it establishes a network of relationships among its components (e.g. physical objects, social relations, daily practices and emotions). The networked home also has a stabilising function, because this network of components tends to last for a period of time even during conditions of mobility. This network maintains the meanings and properties of home even when these elements are decoupled from territory and spread out through diverse territories. I argue that to understand how transnational mobility shapes notions of home and their respective consumption practices, it is essential to understand how consumers understand, experience and maintain the networked home in conditions of mobility. In particular, it is important to understand how the networked home is able to function as a
108 coordinating and stabilising cultural category that assembles diverse elements and relationships into a bundle that is meaningful to consumers in conditions of mobility.
5.4 Findings
5.4.1 Transnational mobility destabilises home The questions “Where is home for you? And what does it mean?” seemed to be particularly complex for informants. It became clear it was not the first time they had to answer to themselves or others questions about the meaning of home. Some smiled before answering the questions, others seemed to pause and search internally for an answer, but most had a prompt—but complex—answer to the question, showing that they had thought about that before. It seems that home is such an important concept in all cultures and such a common issue with globally mobile consumers, that they seemed very familiar with the troublesome issues of home associated with mobility. They also seemed to know that their answer would differ from the traditional answer and that made most of them more talkative when addressing the issue. The same interest was demonstrated by members of InterNations (the studied community of global cosmopolitans), both during the gatherings and through the various postings in forums on the website. It became clear that home was a complicated concept for them. The totality of the answers suggests a reason for the concept of home being so central and troublesome to globally mobile professionals. Home, as it is traditionally perceived, as a stable unity which conflates various elements (e.g. physical objects, social relations, daily practices, emotions, functions and meanings in a single signifier and in a single geographic place), can no longer exist. Their transnational mobility had produced a number of conditions (e.g. constant moving, friends spread all over the world,
109 temporary houses, shifting jobs) that made it impossible to keep its unity and stability. Globally mobile consumers seem to struggle with the notion of home, sometimes fascinated by it, sometimes dismissive of it, but always engaged with it. The three passages below, taken from the InterNations website, show members’ engagement with home, as well as the different views on home. It is interesting to observe their high level of self-reflexivity, performativity and over rationalisation over the theme. The performativity is a characteristic of all data coming from InterNations, and this is discussed further in Chapter 6, about cultural identity. Here, the focus is on the different ways the notion of home is articulated. The longer I stayed in Thailand, the more I felt at home there. I felt some connection while riding my bike with others to work and the daily life of buying food for dinner at the market. The more that I knew the names of people who I dealt with on a daily basis while living in Japan, the more I felt home there (the bouncer at the door to my favourite club, the woman at the movie store, the mail carrier, the man who made soba noodles near my work!). I think that by knowing the names of people at the places you go to, it can help make a person feel like he or she is living in more of a community. My intellect and passion is alive and at home in Boston and Toronto; my aesthetic heart and soul is most at home in Italy and France. My home is dynamic and in the process of being created on a daily basis. I agree with John [another member] that you create home by being comfortable with yourself but I think it definitely helps to have a great husband and family who can help maintain some happy constant while in a state of flux (Alessandra Visconti, InterNations’ thread: “Where is home?”, posted on 05/08/2008).
Everybody has a different understanding of such an abstract word "home". Yes, the feelings that one should have there are the point. Anyway, I feel quite lost. Many people are around me, but I am lonely. Many countries I have lived in, but I feel without roots. My family is now spread in four countries...It is not always possible to live there where one feels the best, is it? You cannot always choose, sometimes you just must move on. And if this "must" happen several times, you feel lost. (Claudia Green, InterNations’ thread: “Where is home?”, posted on 01/08/2008).
K: Home is where my bed is. J: Karen, love your statement :) What if one keeps switching beds, though? Home everywhere? What about the bums and their beds under Paris' Pont Neuf? Do they feel at
110 home? Maybe. K: I am a job-related globetrotter, moving around the world every couple of years...so yes, I feel everywhere at home or try to make out of it a "home". (Karen and Joseph, InterNations’ thread: “Where is home?”, posted on 05/08/2008)
These three passages show that although each informant has a different notion of home, they all struggle to make sense of where and what home is. For Alessandra, home is dynamic and fragmented. Different things and places may be home, but none of them is entirely home. Similarly, Claudia reports feeling without roots, which in her case is associated with a sense of being lost. For Karen, home can be anywhere, as she seems to accept it. Nevertheless, she subscribes to the online forum that discusses home-related themes, showing that the notion of home is not a settled one.
5.4.2 Fragmentation, multiplication and disembedding
Findings reveal that transnational mobility destabilises home through three complementary processes: fragmentation, multiplication and disembedding. Fragmentation occurs at the level of the signifier (i.e. fragmentation of meaning). It means that home as a signifier ceases to be composed of all the traditional elements (tangible objects, relationships, practices, memories, emotions). Informants who used to have a fixed home and engaged in a mobile life tend to describe this process of fragmentation with a feeling of incompleteness. For some informants, something seems to be missing; the new homes are never as fulfilling as their former traditional home. Instead of occupying the same place, the components of home become disaggregated leaving a sensation of fragmentation. While the unity of home is fragmented, its physical locations and its elements may become multiplied. For example, Alessandra feels at home in Thailand when riding her bike, in Japan when knowing people by
111 name, in Boston and Toronto when using intellect and passion, in Italy and France when using her aesthetic heart. Multiplication is seen by the number of geographic sites that can now be claimed as home. Thus, while the traditional home is rooted and fixed in a territory, Alessandra’s homes occupy multiple sites. For example, Karen’s homes are felt in every single bed she has to sleep in. Finally, transnational mobility disembeds home from its source, surroundings and original meanings. For example, Claudia feels lost, detached from her friends, family and the warmth of a traditional home. Although fragmentation, multiplication and disembedding are sides of the same triangle for most informants, some of them tended to emphasise one of the processes over the others.
The disassembling of the elements (e.g. family and close relationships, cherished possessions, the house and its objects, daily practices) that for most informants were once co-existing in the same space leads to them having to face the risk of losing the stabilising and coordinating functions of home, that is, the ability of home of concentrating all these elements together and in some kind of relationship to each other in a way that is meaningful to them. To avoid this loss and to maintain the totality of benefits provided by home (i.e. its meanings and functions), consumers increase the amount of symbolic work in order to produce home as a network of linked elements. If home has to be re-constructed as a network of linked elements, consumers must become the primary agent in creating this network. Therefore, individuals may engage in various consumption practices to reconstruct home as a network of elements—the house, cherished objects, family life and daily habits—and to reconnect these elements in a way that can recreate the meanings and feelings of being at home (i.e. comfort, security, familiarity, intimacy and warmth). These practices are related to the way the elements of networked home are grounded and interconnected. They can be grouped into four categories: practices related to accessing the networked home, practices related to grounding the networked home, practices related to linking the networked home and
112 practices related to keeping the networked home uprooted. These practices are discussed throughout the paper and summarised in the end.
In the next sections, I introduce three cases of networked home: a) with one stable focal point, which tends to be the type of home found with informants who are new to the mobile condition; b) with two or more stable focal points, which tends to be found with informants who have lived in a few countries; and c) one with no stable focal points, which was the case of the home of some people who have been mobile from very early life (e.g. Third Culture Kids). Although the four practices are constitutive of each type of home, accessing practices are highlighted by the first case; grounding practices are highlighted by the second case and linking practice are highlighted by the third case. The practices that keep home uprooted are treated in a separate section as they are not directly related to the focal points.
5.4.3 When the networked home is grounded in one main focal point: At home with Carla and Simon
Carla and Simon were both born in Bombay, India. Simon moved to the United States to attend university when he was 17. After graduation, he moved to New York, where he met Carla, who was undertaking a master degree. The couple lived in New York for some years and decided to move to Australia “for a change.” They do not expect to live in Australia for many years. Carla eventually wants to return to India, while Simon, who is now also an American citizen, wishes to move back to the US. However, they expect to move to other places first, before creating roots. Although Simon shows less signs of attachment to his home country than Carla, the main focal point for both—that is, the main grounding site of their networked home—is their neighbourhood in India, because that is where their parents and most of
113 their friends live, and memories are concentrated.
I: What represents home for you? Carla: My mom. Simon: For me home is just being more of like the resting place; but I kind of feel like I know I am going to move on from that place. So to somewhere I can be a little comfortable. Carla: We don’t have one static idea of home. Simon: Not really, we don’t. Carla: Takshila. Simon: Well, for me on a day-to-day basis home is where I am living like, this is home, but I know we are not going to be here forever. So I don’t settle into one place—if you are talking about home in that sense. But what I consider as home would be like Bombay where I grew up, in Takshila. Carla: It’s the name of the colony he grew up. Simon: It’s a neighbourhood where we grew up like a whole bunch of our friends, like our common friends, we all grew up in this like common area. Carla: And most of them still live there. Simon: A lot of them, yeah still live there …So we have—actually I have fond memories of that area. So that’s always going to be like home for me. But as far as where I am making home as I am moving to different countries, that’s more like a temporary kind of thing to me […] (Carla and Simon).
Takshila seems to be the source of comfort, familiarity, intimacy, warmth and memories for Carla and Simon. They have lived in the US before and they have made friends there, but their history there was not enough to make the US a strong part of their networked home. Most components of home are found in the same place, in Takshila. Their current home is seen as temporary. Because the components of home are so concentrated in one place (Takshila) and because this place is distant, their strategy to feel at home revolves around accessing that one focal point (i.e. site where some of the elements of the networked home become grounded). They need to create different ways of accessing home so they can enjoy the emotional benefits that come with it. Most of the time, these ways are market-mediated, that is, the market provides the resources (i.e. products and services) they need to access the networked home.
114 The most direct way of accessing home is through periodic travel to India. Both of them travel to India at least two times per year. Their travels put them in contact with the land, relatives, memories and friends. This involves having a budget for those trips, reserving part of their yearly holidays to go there, taking a number of gifts, and many other consumption practices, which are developed to be able to physically access home in its pivotal place and take advantage of it. Despite its effectiveness as a link to the networked home, this strategy is expensive and cannot be realised too often.
During the rest of the year, they need other ways of accessing home. For example, Carla has a very close relationship with her brother and she thinks he is an important element of home. For her, home is “sitting on the couch, standing in the kitchen; talking to my brother.” Therefore, she can access that feeling and image by replicating it using products and services found in the market: For instance, my brother calls incredibly frequently on Skype and we can sit and have conversations with him for hours where he is just sitting there and we are doing what we have to do like working in the kitchen or reading or talking on the phone and is similarly doing whatever he wants to do with his life and he will just stay online for stretches of hours. So to me that would be home because his life is sort of part of mine, does that make sense? My life is more about relations; my idea of home is more about relationships. So that seems like home, that process where he calls and then sits there and does his thing and I do my thing. I suppose that bridges the distance (Carla).
Skype is not just a means of communication, where information is exchanged between siblings. It is also a form of sharing, of being together, of experiencing that moment. Turned on for hours, Skype works as a window that connects the two houses. Similar to a traditional home, where members of the family may perform different behaviours while sharing the same roof, the networked home allows for the siblings to experience home, despite the geographical distance. Simon and Carla have other ways of accessing home, as the market may provide them with elements that they miss. For example, when they cook at home, they always cook Indian food, prepared in the same
115 style they are used to.
Carla and Simon illustrate globally mobile people who still have most components of home in their place of origin. This is a particular case of networked home, because the elements are still organised by proximity to the place of origin. While home remains elsewhere, in the place of origin, consumers’ task is to find ways to access home, not to re-create it. For this reason, their ways of accessing distant home are very similar to other ways found in the consumer immigration literature (Mehta and Belk 1991; Oswald 1999), which includes travelling, using means of communication and engaging in consumption practices that are characteristic of the original home. However, unlike immigrants, they do not try to re-ground their Indian home in the new place, and they do not show feelings of nostalgia towards home either. Simon says, “We don’t hang out [with other Indians], we don’t watch so many Indian movies, and we don’t do a lot of Indian get-togethers and stuff.” At this stage of their lives, the homeas-a-network is a matter of access, not of reproduction (re-grounding) or invention (recreation).
So I don’t really think about home that much, it’s always like I am always thinking about new places I want to go or something to do, but I don’t really think about home really. If I do—I mean if I do think about home—or if I am going to go to India then I get excited because then I start thinking about, okay. I am going to meet my friends, my family or have good food and like I am going to go back to where I grew up, yeah so it’s like I am going to feel like comfortable and I am going to feel good over there. That’s usually when I am just like—when I am planning a trip or when I am going to there. But the normal course of time, I don’t really sit back and think about it, so I don’t really miss or think about home that much (Simon).
Despite the fact that their networked home is concentrated in their place of origin, there are signs that they are beginning to develop a new focal point for their
116 networked home. The new house is not yet a stable part of the networked home, but it may increasingly become so, if they stay there longer.
Carla: So I have always been through the transitional thing. It’s just home is more people than it is places. Simon: And things yeah, although it doesn’t seem like we are not attached to things as much. Carla: But it seems we are much more attached to all the things in this house than in the past. I: Why? Carla: This is my first apartment on my own, without a flatmate, which wasn’t furnished. So we actually bought everything here ourselves. So to that extent this is the first time I am buying my own furniture and things. So it’s a lovely house, so I think we already have really good memories and it’s only been a few months. Simon: Yeah we bought it together. Carla: Yeah and I mean we spend a lot of time thinking about it—we spent a lot of time thinking about that table for instance. Simon: We like the lamps and even the furniture. Carla: Yes. So everything in this house is a symbol of our lives together and this is the first sort of space that we have created for ourselves. So in that sense this furniture will be more missed than at other points. I: So you are not taking the furniture when you move? Carla: I don’t think so, I would like to take the table but—I don’t know what it is about the table. I suppose everything—most of the furniture we bought from someone who was leaving the country. So we sort of picked between what they had and then we added to it. But that’s probably the one thing that we bought— we had rented everything else and then we needed a table. So we went out looking for a table and then we saw this one. And we spent three hours in the store looking at all the different things and finally sort of bought this table (Carla and Simon).
Buying furniture for the house, and especially doing it together, putting time and effort into this practice, creates certain conditions for the new house to start becoming part of their notion of home. In the same vein, they described the process of deciding, searching and purchasing a 42-inch TV, which is now a source of attachment to the new house. The effort and time and long discussion involved in purchasing the TV helped create conditions for the house to become a second focal point for the networked home.
117 The couple was interviewed twice with an interval of a year, and it became clear that after their first year in Sydney, they had more attachments, more memories and more history associated with the new house. The house was much emptier the first time, than the second time. Most furniture was bought second-hand and the styles did not match. Besides some photographs, there were no decorative objects from India. They seemed to not care so much about furniture. Nevertheless, the table and the TV are things they will miss when they move again (their moving again seems to be a fact to them, although there is no real plan for that at the moment). As explained by Carla, this place will be missed more than others, because it symbolises a cherished phase of their lives. Simon and Carla represent the case of a consumer moving from the stage of having one focal point, to the stage of having two focal points. Their new house is not yet grounded enough to be a second focal point. If they keep investing their time and money into buying things for the house and increasing the amount of home-making practices, they will create a second focal point for their networked home, which will share with Takshila the main functions and meanings of home. However, if they keep moving, their current home will be another temporary home, whose importance and role will depend on a number of factors. The next section discusses cases of people whose networked home is grounded in two or more focal points.
5.4.4 When the networked home is grounded in two or more focal points: At home with Donald and Chloe, Hazel and James, Agu and Cathy
Donald and Chloe left Johannesburg four and a half years before he was interviewed in Sydney. They had always wanted to have the experience of living abroad, and as financial accountants it was not difficult for them to find jobs in one of the global accounting firms that could guarantee that their plans would be fulfilled.
118 When they started their jobs, they already knew they would eventually move to Canada. They said they really enjoyed their lives in Vancouver. However, after two and a half years, they moved temporarily to Sydney, “to check things out.” They had left their furniture in Vancouver.
Where is home? We, if I talk about home I usually refer to South Africa, which is our home and our families and a lot of our history is there, but I think that is more colloquial discussion and referencing as opposed to where it really is, because I think home is probably Canada Vancouver. Because we know we are here for a time and the plan is to go back to Vancouver, and our home is where we are living practically, as opposed to where the heart is. […] Where do we feel at home? Yeah it’s becoming a bit grey or a little bit vague I suppose because we have been away from our country of birth for almost four years. [...] But I think it’s a mindset as well because if you have the mindset that you are travelling now and its temporary and you are definitely going back to South Africa then that will definitely be home. Whereas my wife and I, we are quite indifferent or ambiguous, we haven’t decided where we will actually live for the remainder of our life, or places. So that’s why home is not well defined in our household. [...] at the moment this [Sydney] is just a temporary contract. So that’s when you say “Where is home?” that’s a tough question, we are not 100% sure ourselves. Our country of birth home is South Africa, our current home to be honest—probably our current home is Canada because our furniture is there, because of our existing life that we have moved from South Africa to Canada is there, that’s where we have our PR [Permanent Residency], the existing jobs are there. But if you are asking well, psychologically in your heart where’s home, that might be the same, yeah probably it’s the same at this stage. Sorry I don’t know if that’s confusing (Donald).
Donald struggles when trying to define where home is. This is partially due to the fact that the elements that comprise his networked home (i.e. relationships, house, possession, practices) are grounded in more than one place. Different from Simon and Carla, who are only beginning to ground home in a second focal point, Donald and Chloe have already created more than one focal point for their home. Home in Johannesburg harbours the heart, memories and family. Home in Canada contains their belongings and their most important work relations. Sydney is only the place where they are living at the moment, which may become a third focal point. Similar to Simon
119 and Carla, buying furniture was an important grounding step for Donald and Chloe:
We took some things from South Africa, but most of them, 90% of it we had bought in Canada to furnish an apartment there that we rented. I: Why did you choose to rent a furnished house here but not in Canada? So when we signed work agreements to go to Canada from South Africa it was for a two-year commitment, and when we went over, financially, we looked at how much it would cost us to refurnish as opposed to un-furnish and furnish and accommodation and the latter was the better option. So it’s cheaper to buy furniture if you are going to be there for an extended period of time and there’s also things you like and you can choose, whereas here because it’s only a short timeframe financially it doesn’t make sense to buy furniture. [...] if we are going to come in for two years, we would likely have shipped all our furniture over here and rented an unfurnished apartment and put that furniture in there, or sell some of it and ship some of it and buy here or sell all of it and buy new here and that would be a purely a financial decision. I: So you can abstract yourself from attachments to your possessions? Except for a few select items; absolutely! I: Which items would you save? We would save our clothes, I think our clothes would make sense because there’s no resale value on clothes and you want to have a wardrobe, that’s difficult to replace and so that we keep. We have got some personal items like a tea set, a South African tea set that was bought, so that’s quite special, we have got some wedding presents that we took to Canada with us that we bring here, some cutlery and crockery and linen, I think we would want to bring over here. I suppose because it’s smaller and it’s easier to transport than big pieces of furniture. Again if we had to come for two years we would want to come with the company. So the company would pay for the transporting and then it makes sense to bring it. If we are coming on our own, completely on our own and we had to pay for everything, we would look very hard at what it will cost us and then we would bring as little as possible, you know maybe bring those special items that we could not replace, like the South African tea set, and our clothes we would definitely bring. I: What is there in the tea set? It’s an African design, it’s an African prince and handmade in South Africa. I: Was it a gift? Yeah it was a gift from my wife’s grandmother. But, we are living out of a suitcase here. So it’s just clothes, some books, iPod and the camera and those kinds of things, yeah. I: How does that feel? Yeah it’s okay for now, but if we are to be here longer we would—like we do miss our stuff, we do miss our things, which we like and we are comfortable with (Donald).
120 This part of Donald’s interview illustrates a number of interesting issues about the role of objects in grounding home-as-network. First, there are some kinds of objects (such as furniture) and houses that help to ground the networked home in one of its focal points. The first reason Donald provides for calling Canada his current home is the fact that his furniture is still there. However, he explains that, if his stay in Sydney required him to stay longer, he would have shipped his furniture to Sydney. Supporting the practical logic of saving and financially grounded decisions, which tells him when to take furniture and when to rent it, there is a symbolic role of furniture that signals that home in Canada is still more permanent than in Sydney, reminding us that possessions are “good to think with” (Douglas 1992). His logic suggests that if Sydney becomes a more permanent home one day, furniture will then be shipped (or purchased) and it will become a third grounding point for Donald’s networked home. I found a number of global cosmopolitans who had moved to another country, but kept their furniture in storage until they decided where they were finally going to settle down. Furniture seems to have an important function in keeping the networked home grounded at a focal point. To illustrate a more extreme case: Gruber, a financial consultant from Germany who had lived in the UK for most of his adult life, confessed he had been keeping his belongings in storage in the UK for nine years. When he moved to Sydney, he put all his belongings (including heavy furniture) in storage, because he did not know how long he was going to remain in Sydney. As the years went by, it became clearer that he was not going to go back soon. He bought himself an apartment in Sydney, and decorated it with new furniture, and he even got his Australian citizenship. He does not plan to go back to the UK in the near future, but he still pays for his belongings to be kept in storage. When asked to explain the reasons for keeping it there and spending so much money on that, he replied: I know I will probably never go back, but I would have to find time to go there and sort things out. Having everything sent here is too expensive and I probably
121 do not need most of the things there anyway. But, for some reasons, I can’t let it go either. I must find time some day to go there and sort things out (Gruber, field note taken at InterNations gathering). This suggests that keeping his furniture in the UK, and paying for it, has had a symbolic function to him of keeping the ties to that geography. In other words, it has allowed the networked home to keep one of its focal points in the UK. Similarly, another informant, Agu, has kept an apartment in Johannesburg for its symbolic functions. Agu is from an Indian community in Durban, South Africa, and he has lived in many different places in the world due to his job in a high-paying consulting firm. Durban is a natural focal point of his networked home because his family, relatives and childhood memories are there. However, for him, home is even more associated with Johannesburg, which is the place where he went to university and started working. He lives in Canada at the moment, but he plans to be able to go back to Johannesburg some day, after living in some countries in Asia. His way of grounding home in Johannesburg is to possess an apartment there. Because he rents his apartment out, he cannot keep his furniture there, so the furniture is in storage in Johannesburg.
I: What is the feeling of having an apartment in Johannesburg? It makes me feel bit more stable in the sense that I know that there’s a place, even though I have rented it out for lease to someone else. Makes me feel like there’s always a place that I know I am going to go back and my stuff is not all over the place. It's—even the stuff I’ve collected over the years, it's there and I will always go there. It's in storage. It is some of the stuff, but all the big stuff is there. So I know that, when I go home, I just go right into it (Agu).
Owning a home or even keeping a pied-a-terre—i.e. a small house or apartment kept for occasional use somewhere else—are common ways for global cosmopolitans to ground themselves (Ong 2007). Furniture and heavy objects seem to mimic that property. The findings suggest that furniture is especially relevant when consumers need to ground their networked home in a place where its other elements (i.e. social
122 relations, current house, daily practices) are not present, as is the case for Agu and Gruber. The second issue that can be drawn from Donald’s quotes, and from other similar cases, is that cherished and irreplaceable objects may also be able to ground home. Similar to what happens with furniture, they mark the existence of a focal point of the networked home. Thus, Donald keeps his tea set in Vancouver (focal point) and mentions he would bring the African tea set if they decided to stay in Australia longer, as it would become an additional focal point. However, cherished and irreplaceable objects follow a different logic: the logic of safety. Unlike furniture, which can be sold and re-purchased, these objects are irreplaceable, and consequently they must be kept in safe places. Since transnational mobility entails risks, it is common for global cosmopolitans not to carry their most cherished possessions, even when the place where they live is already part of the networked home. They keep the cherished and safe possessions in the safest of all focal points. In the research findings, the most commonly mentioned place for keeping cherished and irreplaceable possessions is at their parents’ house. I: So what did you do to all of those things? Well I sold, I moved something back to China because my company was paying relocation, but I didn’t—well couldn’t take everything, so I got rid of some stuff, and the rest was moved back to China. So when I moved here [Toronto] I still had a lot of things at my parents’ place. I mean that’s—because I know my parents will always be there and I would rather leave the things with them. (Cathy)
Cathy is originally from Beijing. After leaving China, she moved to Finland and other countries and then returned to China, where she lived for a couple of years. Then she moved to Canada, where she has been living for four years. Home is a word that she uses to refer to her parents’ house, to Finland and to her current house in Canada. Among the three places, her parents’ is the most stable and the safest. For that reason, it
123 is the chosen place for cherished objects. Similarly, Hazel and James also have many homes. She is from Scotland; he is from Spain. They have both lived in Scotland, Spain, Luxembourg and Canada, where they were interviewed.
I: What are three of your favourite objects? Hazel: Three favourite objects. I don’t know, do you? James: I don’t know. I don’t have much attachment for objects...Oh, my coin collection. Hazel: Oh, yeah, your coin collection [...] I: Where is your coin collection? James: Here, I mean, part is here, and part is in Spain at my parents’. I: Have you brought your collection here? James: No, I was collecting Euros, so that one is still in Spain, and when I moved over here I started collecting Canadian dollars; the different coins and all that kind of stuff. Hazel: Three objects that’s difficult. James: I don’t think there are many things we ... Hazel: ... really need. I would say something really stupid about my teddy bear but it’s not even here, it’s at home but I’ve had it since I was born. I: At home, where? Hazel: At, sorry, Scotland, that’s true, bad use of word. At Scotland, with my parents, in my parents’ house. I got it when I was born so it grew up with me and I always felt like he was the same age as me. My sister was never allowed to touch him. I used to try and bribe my sister with my teddy bear, like you can sleep with special ted if you do XYZ. And then when I went to university I didn’t take it because I was scared of anything happening and so special ted lives in my parents’ house because I am too scared of anything happening to him, which seems ridiculous but I would say that’s one of my precious objects. I: Anything else that you can think of? James: I can’t think of the object I would like to have, but then you know it doesn’t have to be like that one, like, I love driving [sic] bicycles so I’d like to have a bicycle but my bicycle is not here right now, it’s in Spain.
This passage clearly illustrates the role of safer places in keeping cherished and irreplaceable possessions. For these consumers, their parents’ house is also part of their networked home. For example, although Hazel calls her current place home, she constantly refers to her parents’ house as home, even though she left her parents’ home many years before. These slip-ups suggest that her networked home has many focal
124 points and that one of them is at her parents’ house. In sum, where the networked home is distributed across various geographical regions, consumers may use objects and consumption practices to ground it in multiple focal points (as is the case with Donald’s furniture). Moreover, irreplaceable and cherished possessions may mark where the safest (and usually the most stable) focal point is. This extends the literature on cherished and irreplaceable possessions (Curasi, Price, and Arnould 2004; Grayson and Shulman 2000) by showing that besides indexing a specific time or person, cherished and irreplaceable possessions can ground the networked home and mark its safest focal point. Grounding home in stable focal points helps to stabilise meanings and provide safe places for depositing emotions and cherished possessions. However, some people do not have the opportunity to ground home in stable points. They must rely on other strategies to stabilise meanings and assemble the components of home. The next section discusses these cases.
5.4.5 When the networked home is not grounded anywhere: At home with third culture kids Vera, Collette and Morris I once heard someone say ‘I'm a citizen of the world,’ and I admit I feel the same way. Home for me is where I currently live, with my husband and my belongings. But nevertheless I feel home in every country I lived, because there are always good memories and friends attached to it. Lots of people use the expression "back home", referring to the country they were born in. It never occurred to me, even if I feel very much at home there too. (Rosanna Lorna, InterNations’ thread: “Where is home?”, posted on 28/07/2008)
Similar to Rosanna’s home, some informants’ networked home never really grounds itself anywhere. The elements of the networked home (i.e. tangible objects, relationships, daily practices, emotions) do exist, but they are not anchored for long in any location. These elements are never in a site long enough to turn it into a stable focal
125 point that global cosmopolitan consumers can count on to support their networked home for longer periods of time. For example, third culture kids, individuals who have circulated from a very early age, tend to lack stable focal points for their networked home. Thus, for many of them, it is difficult to point out a single place of origin, as they have lived in so many places that the place they were born bears little significance to them. In addition, for many, the place where their parents live at the moment is not the place where they were born or one of the various places where they grew up. For that reason, they may feel home is everywhere, or that home is nowhere. For example, Collette sees only the here and now. For her, anywhere can be home.
I: Where is home for you? It’s where I am at any point, I mean, when I say going home, I say going to where my family are. But if I can—I feel if I can make anywhere as my home. I: You think you can live anywhere... Almost anywhere. I: So when you think about home? What is home for you? My room, my things and friends and maybe family as well. Just feeling comfortable being around—being in a place that I feel comfortable and with people that I care about. I: So do you—what nationality do you carry? Citizen of the world. You know, I am British, I consider myself British, not Scottish, I mean, I am Scottish, I guess, that my parents were English, are English, so I don’t feel, you know, patriotic about being from Scotland, from Europe (Collette).
Collette claims that her home can exist in any place she feels comfortable with people she cares about. However, the elements of her networked home are so spread out and so uprooted that it is difficult from them alone to provide some of the benefits of home in the same way the focal points do. She longs for a more condensed and grounded network. For example, when asked about her biggest dreams, Collette referred to the ability of having her social network altogether in the same place.
I: What are your biggest dreams?
126 Dreams, I wish everyone that I have met all over the world could be in one place at one time, that would be a dream come true because the downside of travelling so much is that you have to move on—that you eventually leave and then everyone I know is all over the place. And I just have small pockets of friends everywhere and so, I guess, my dream would be to have them all in one place at one time (Collette). Collette’s confession provides an illustration of the emotional burden that global cosmopolitans carry as a consequence of not having their lives concentrated in only one place. Consistent with Thompson and Tambyah (1999), global cosmopolitans also seem to live in the constant tension between the dreams and advantages of a mobile life and the backdrops of the lack of unified home and community. Thompson and Tambyah explain that the “cosmopolitan ideology” tends to dismiss home as unimportant and to over valorise mobility. However, unlike Thompson and Tambyah’s informants, those who participated in this study seemed to be able to “solve” these tensions by building a networked home. In other words, the networked home is more than an ideological move to privilege mobility over home. Global cosmopolitans seem to actively engage in various practices to create a different structure for home in conditions of mobility: the networked home. The networked home helps to resolve this tension by providing temporary relief for mobile people as it grounds itself in many different focal points. However, some global cosmopolitans, such as Collette, do not have their networked homes strongly grounded in any focal point, making them poor surrogates for home. Collette wishes she could have her social network in “one place at one time.” Since stable focal points are not there to assemble and stabilise the components of the networked home, these elements must be assembled through other ways, such as the linking practices. Consumers use linking practices to help weave the components of home together. Linking practices can involve the movements of goods (e.g. gift-giving) and people (e.g. travelling). The importance of linking practices is even higher in situations when there are no stable points, as is the case with third culture kids. Morris, for
127 example, provides an interesting example of how he connects the various sites of his networked home. He first shows that no focal point is really stable. Morris has travelled extensively from a very early age. Born in Hong Kong, he was first brought up in Taiwan, then Japan, and then he moved back to Hong Kong, the USA, Canada and the UK, where he joined the navy and was sent to work in Iraq for four years. He does not feel strong attachment to any place. He has friends, family, memories, possessions, and engages in daily practices but none of these elements are grounded in any specific place. Friends, family and memories are spread all over the world. His daily practices are associated with here and now, and they change all the time. His possessions are at his many friends’ houses.
I: So where is home for you? M: Home is wherever I feel like home. The thing is: I really do mean that. There is no one place that is home [...] When I was in Iraq, it [home] was wherever I could feasibly rest my head without danger of getting shot or bombed or whatever, right. So at that moment it would have been like home, that’s temporary [...] and Japan feels like home, but a lot of places feel like home too (Morris).
Although the elements are not grounded for long anywhere, they are connected through various linking practices conducted by Morris. For example, Morris enjoys skiing, mountain climbing and diving. His sporting equipment is kept at his friends’ houses in different parts of North America, Europe and Asia. When he needs them, he must either collect them at these friends’ houses or ask them to send them over. Getting in touch with friends and visiting them strengthens social ties and consequently the networked home. It also creates new memories, which further interconnects these possessions and friends. Similarly, Heidi, an American-born global cosmopolitan and member of InterNations, comments on her teddy bear Osito:
In 2000, my friend whom I became really close to in Ecuador bought me a bear
128 to help me get over my boyfriend whom I thought I would marry. Osito has travelled with me to most of my countries and I lend him out to friends—no matter the age—when they are homesick, or have lost a loved one, when they cannot return to their country to be with them (Heidi Tall, InterNations’ thread: “Where is home?”, posted on 28/07/2008).
Similar to Morris’ objects, Osito moves around among Heidi’s friends. Both objects play an important role in connecting the elements of the networked home and in stabilising its meanings, but they work in a different way from the objects described previously. Unlike Hazel’s teddy bear, Osito is not kept in a focal point that represents the safest place in the networked home. On the contrary, Osito moves within Heidi’s networked home offering comfort to its members. Unlike Donald’s furniture, these objects do not help ground the networked home in a focal point. Instead, their function is to link the various elements of the networked home via movement. They may move with their owners or independently within the networked home. According to Williams et al.(2008), a distributed notion of home is constructed by practices of exchange. They found that transnational ties are formed between friends and relatives who “frequently transported goods such as food, clothing, cosmetics, souvenirs, or brand-name items from one country to another” (p. 328). Because commodities make categories of culture stable and visible (Sherry 1983), the circulation of goods among focal points can help to make the networked home more tangible. Thus, similar to the Kula circle (Malinowski 1929) and the system of total prestation of the gift (Mauss 2002), the circulation of objects may strengthen the ties between the components of the networked home, contributing to the stability of its meanings and guaranteeing their place in it. In addition, the notion of home itself may be unfamiliar for some of them. For example, Vera has lived in many places since she was very young and, among passports and documents of permanent residencies, she is a citizen of five countries. She struggles to understand the question about the meaning of home. Despite insistence from the
129 interviewer in getting an answer from her, she explained she understood home as being here and now:
I: So when people ask ‘Where is your home?’, how do you answer? I say it’s here, now it’s here or I say I don’t really have a home. I: When you move to a new country what do you have to do to make, to feel at home? I try and make friends… and where I have a bed I guess, a place, like a bed, that you call bed, like your bed. But more like the people aspect I think. I: Okay. Yeah, so where I have like a support network or a like a social life or something I don’t know yeah. I: Okay, so what’s home for you then? So at the moment it’s here. I: Yeah but what does it mean to you? What does home mean? I: Yeah. Here, where you are at the moment. Right? (Vera)
Vera may consider the place where she is currently living as home, but this does not warrant her any access to feelings of familiarity and safety that characterise home. Thus, with this objective, she may engage in practices that connect her and the other deterritorialised elements of home. For example, parents and siblings, as in most thirdculture-kid families, are spread around the world. For Vera, they are not associated with specific places, because they are also as mobile as she is. Nevertheless, they engage in practices that connect them and keep them as a family, such as celebrating Christmas together every year, travelling to each others’ current places and exchanging gifts. Technology (e.g. Skype and other connecting applications) are key connectors in maintaining a functioning networked home. However, unlike Carla’s usage of Skype, Vera’s use of technology does not provide her with access to a distant focal point of the networked home. On the contrary, technology is used to create temporary performances of the networked home that is not grounded anywhere. For example, here Vera explains how she keeps in touch with her brother in Switzerland and her sister in the UK.
130
I: So how do you keep in contact [with your siblings]? We’ll Skype or WhatsApp […] so we video each other. It’s like oh you are on Skype let’s talk or it’s like oh I’ll message you I need to talk to you, it’s all over the place, so it’s not like a schedule or… it’s when we can, how we can and it’s not very often. So like my sister I’ll talk to her. I talked to her the other day it was like it probably been a month I hadn’t talked to her and she was in Norway travelling but then when we talk, we’ll talk for like an hour or two hours, and just [we] can talk random… we’ll talk about everything it’s not like, I don’t know. It’s not like the relationships been in a problem because we haven’t talked for a month, it’s fine… I: Okay. And WhatsApp how do you use that? We’ll take pictures and send it to each other like things that make us think about each other. So typically if my brother and sister see something marketing related they’ll take a picture and send it to me and if I see something design… my brother is an industrial designer so if I see something design related I’ll send it to him and my sister is in the arts and theatre so I see something I’ll send it to her or just really random like ‘hey how are you?’ [...] WhatsApp is a texting system. It’s an app that you use on your phone so you can use it if you have an iPhone or if you have an Android and you can also send recordings and voice recordings sometimes you send recordings like with my parents we do a lot of recording updates, yeah. I: Before all this technology like Skype, how did you keep in touch with them? Through letters or postcards. I was friends with a girl from the UK when I was between eight to 13, and when I left there, we were like... it was an all girls school and we had a band, we were like a group of… we almost got expelled because we were the bad girls, it was not even high school, it was middle school, and I left and then some of them stopped seeing each other, some of them didn’t, but now we are friends on Facebook and she just wrote me a text on Facebook saying that she’s found the letter I wrote to her from 1997 and said something about having a boyfriend for two weeks. Yeah so we used to write or call I guess but probably more write than call. I: And do you think Facebook is substituting that or…? With those relationships that are now not as close yes. Well I’m probably using it with the close ones as well but not really because I won’t really Facebook my sister. I’ll Facebook my sister and brother, but again just to send them links that are interesting for them or like a music video that made me think of my brother I know he’ll like I’ll send it through that. But it’s definitely more it’s better to Skype and talk or even WhatsApp because it’s like right there right in the moment than an email or a Facebook (Vera).
It is clear from this passage that Skype, WhatsApp and Facebook are more than
131 communication tools to Vera. They help construct and maintain the links between herself and members of her networked home. She can exchange ideas and all sorts of immaterial possessions, such as pictures, photos, gifts and music. The networked home takes full advantage of new technologies, bringing even the memories of her childhood back through the revival of old time friendships.
5.4.6 Maintaining the networked home uprooted: The role of cherished practices, rituals and routines in the performance of the networked home
Certain objects and practices that are part of the networked home may move with consumers. As long as consumers can use or perform them, they are able to simulate the sensation of being at home. Beyond their functional value, they provide sensations of familiarity, safety, comfort and warmth. For example, objects that can fit in a suitcase—such as Donald’s clothes, books, iPod and camera—allow him to keep doing activities he likes to do and which provide him with a feeling of homeyness, no matter where he is. With a few exceptions, global cosmopolitans do not value these objects because they are cherished and irreplaceable. They are valued because they allow consumers to engage in practices and routines that are dear to them, that are homey. Global cosmopolitans seem to be more attached to practices than to singular objects, as practices tend to be more mobile than the objects themselves. For example, Luca, a diplomat who has now lived and worked in many countries has developed a diet that he can apply almost everywhere. He explains: “I have the same food, steak, rice and beans, or rice and potatoes, perhaps pasta. It’s the same what I have in every place.” The daily practice of eating the same food every day provides him with the familiarity of routines and daily practices. He has developed a way of adapting to different places by attaching himself to what remains constant. He is attached to the practices of eating rice
132 and potatoes, not to a specific piece of potato. Even when not using the same objects to engage in home-related practices, the practices themselves may be the same or similar in different places. It is the familiarity that confers the practices with a “homey” feeling. For example, Sandra is proud of having developed a routine that is capable of being executed anywhere. Likewise, Victor and Tom have routines that are transportable and therefore capable of simulating home.
Well, actually this place [a local coffee house] that we’re in right now is part of my routine, I live just over there, I come here and I do my writing in the morning and I have a coffee and I have my music, which is great. I’ll enjoy that, on the days I go to the gym or work out or come home, get ready and shower. Now what I created is a new routine that I can do when I am out. So I have my iPhone and my music on my iPhone and I have an external speaker that I carry with me and take with me in my bag. I have my gear, I have my laptop, all my data is there and so I get ready in the hotel in the same way regardless of what hotel it is, so I got my music with it and I plug it in and I play my music and I get ready, have my work out, my work out is now not dependant on my own gym, but dependant on a generic gym. So I have my music that I bring with me to my workout (Sandra).
I have a passion that I can take with me everywhere. Because it is there. The sky. I’m a skydiver and will always take my parachute with me so I can find a proper drop zone and manage to jump as much as I can. …skydiving is my sacred thing, my ritual. It is the action that gets the best of me. And the sky is the sky, no matter where you are. Then I feel “home.” (Victor Marinelli, InterNations’ thread “What is sacred for expatriates”, posted on 19/12/2011)
The thing that is sacred for me whenever I go abroad for a longer period of time is to be able to ride the bicycle every day to work. I know that might sound crazy (and very cheesy since I am Dutch), but I have been doing that for pretty much all my life, except when it's pouring, in which case I am forced to take the car (Tom Van Buren, InterNations’ thread “What is sacred for expatriates?”, posted on 19/12/2011)
Victor and Tom explained that these daily rituals are sacred to them. Rook
133 (1985) has described the importance of rituals to consumer research in bringing order and understanding. Here, these rituals gain a special function: to preserve the sacredness of the networked home. Through repetitive action, consumers are able to maintain part of the sacredness reported in the traditional home (Sherry 1998). In addition to individual rituals, consumers who travel with their families can also count on collective rituals to create a sense of home. Carla and Simon for example tend to cook Indian food together as a way of maintaining home (and its sacredness). As emphasised by Rook (1985, 255), “ritual practices cement relationships and foster joint participation in the household activities.” It is interesting to observe that these rituals also have the same function in maintaining the networked home. This transportability of routines to other places has been noticed before by Bardhi and Askegaard (2009), when they investigated home-making strategies of business travellers in hotels. They found that the practice of following certain habits and doing activities in a certain order, or using the same physical objects, can simulate the feeling of home in the hotel space. I extend their findings by showing that some elements of home are reproduced and linked through routines and ritualised action, even when home is not grounded in a focal point (i.e. in a hotel). Their routinized activities can help them feel at home, momentarily, during their performance, no matter where they are, as long as they can replicate the practices and their related objects.
5.4.7 The empty house
Some of the interviews were conducted at participants’ dwellings, others were conducted at cafes, but informants brought pictures of their houses. It became very clear from the first interviews that their houses tended to have more empty spaces than a more traditional house. The rooms, especially the living rooms, seemed empty and a bit
134 too functional. Understandably, people who had just moved would not have had the time to accumulate possessions and buy furniture, but the “empty house phenomenon” was also observed in the dwellings of global cosmopolitans who had been settled for longer periods of time. These houses were not carefully decorated houses with plenty of little details to explore, as are the houses usually described in consumer research (e.g., Üstüner and Holt 2010). As the interviews unfolded, it gradually became clear that when the components of the networked home are distributed among many focal points, the house where consumers are currently living may become like an empty shell, which is not only devoid of objects but also devoid of its homey meanings. This seemed to be particularly true for global cosmopolitans who were single or divorced. Global cosmopolitans who travelled with their spouses and more so with kids seemed to have a less detached relationship with their current dwelling, which is understandable as family life strengthens a focal point by concentrating its elements in a single site (see Carla and Simon above for this argument). Nevertheless, even the houses of married global cosmopolitans were emptier than the houses described in the consumer literature. Apart from a few objects that transmitted character and singularity (McCracken 2005), the rest of the objects seemed common and replaceable. This observation was confirmed by the interviewees, who seemed to hold a relationship of instrumentality with these household items. It is possible that the lack of objects expressed the lack of investment of individuals’ time and energy in their house. Houses are mostly rented as they are transitory. The ones who purchased a house did it for speculation purposes. When the house is only a building, consumers may only develop a relationship of instrumentality with their houses. The furniture of this house is part of a functional decision.
I: Do you rent your house or own it?
135 I rent it. I: Is the furniture there rented or owned? It’s owned. I: Is what you did the same in the US? What? I: In the US, did you also buy things? Yeah, yeah, I always […] actually I sold it to the next tenant. So, yeah, I think that’s a sort of importable. I think as a normal guy, right, I don’t really care so much about the quality or style of my furniture. So I basically go and take whatever is the easiest, if not completely horrible, but it was like ‘that’s fine’. And so the last few places just happened to be that it was convenient to just take over the furniture from the former tenant. I: Okay. So you’ve bought furniture from them. Yeah. And then I gave it on to the next tenant. That’s like one model, that’s— and you both you buy and sell for about the same price. So it’s only basically, since it’s already old and in another couple of years, it will reduce the value too much. It’s basic. I: So was it easy to find a place to live where someone wanted to just sell their furniture? Yeah. I: Did you look for a furnished place or you didn’t? No. Furnished places are—tend to be somewhat expensive. And if you are there for more than a year, I think it’s not worth it. I: Was it the same here in Toronto? No, in Toronto I rented a place and I bought furniture. So it was just the easiest way. I: Did you buy there things little by little or just…? I just went to IKEA and bought them at once. (Paul Kim)
Paul Kim has a high-paying job as an important researcher at a medical centre in Toronto. He could have purchased more expensive furniture, if he wanted. However, it is not important for him which furniture he is putting in the house, as long as it solves his problem. In one place, he purchased the furniture from someone else and passed it along. In the other, he went to IKEA, a store known for having very affordable prices, and purchased it all at once there. Paul attributed this lack of attachment to the furniture to the fact that he is a man, but the same behaviour was observed in female global cosmopolitans. For example, Vera explains how she is not attached to things in her house. As a third culture kid she began moving very early with her parents.
136
Well also I think the thing is when you move I remember we would only get like four boxes for your room and my parents would be like this is it, so throw stuff away and both of my parents do not like to accumulate, well my mum, I’m not so sure about my dad not liking to have a lot of material things. I don’t, we don’t accumulate. I don’t accumulate a lot of things so I don’t; actually I am not like tied to objects. I find it easy to throw things away. So I don’t have much except for pictures (Vera).
In short, while consumers engage in practices of accessing, grounding, linking and maintaining uprooted the networked home, their current houses may become symbolically devoid of meanings that are traditionally associated with home. For some global cosmopolitans, therefore, their current houses are not the container of memories, extension of the self, storehouse of personal signs, provider of safety and privacy, or the site of privacy. This is reflected in the lack of furniture and other elements that are normally in the house. This is an interesting finding because it sets up a case that diverges from descriptions of previous research on the symbolic relationships between consumers and their houses. Past work has depicted how material culture (e.g. furniture in the house) symbolises the rich relationships between consumers and their houses (Epp and Price 2010). This work points to the emptiness of the houses as a result of the same logic: the lack of rich symbolic relationships between consumers and that space, as houses may be just a temporary place of dwelling.
5.5 Discussion
5.5.1 Summary of findings
This research demonstrates how global cosmopolitans manage to maintain a sense of home in conditions of global mobility. It shows that global mobility
137 destabilises consumers’ sense of home through three different but complementary processes: fragmentation, multiplication and disembedding. These disassembling processes challenge the stability of home and its ability to provide its various functions and meanings (e.g. to provide safety, comfort, familiarity, intimacy and warmth; to protects one’s privacy; to provide a sacred place; to embody family relationships, to embody individuals’ lifestyle, to reflect personal identity, to be the territory of control, to be an expression of achievement or social status). Additionally, it is shown that, to avoid the destabilising of home and to maintain the totality of its meanings and functions, consumers increase the amount of symbolic work to maintain home as a network of connected elements (i.e. physical objects, social relations, daily practices, emotions). Global cosmopolitans engage in four main practices to keep the networked home stable: a) practices related to accessing the elements of the networked home; b) practices related to grounding the elements of the networked home; c) practices related to linking the elements of the networked home; and d) practices related to keeping the networked home uprooted (see Table 2). In addition, the findings show that the networked home can have different structures, based on the number of focal points (i.e. grounding sites of one or more elements of the networked home) and their stability (temporary or stable). Accessing practices allow global cosmopolitans living in a temporary focal point to have access to focal points that are more stable or that concentrate most of the elements of the networked home, allowing them to also access the meanings and functions of networked home. Grounding practices allow global cosmopolitans to create new temporary focal points and to turn temporary focal points into more stable ones. Linking practices connect the elements of the networked home, giving them unity and thus demarcating the boundaries of the networked home. Uprooting practices are practices that allow global cosmopolitans to experience meanings and functions of home even when there
138 are no focal points, or when they are only temporary. Table 2 Practices constituting the networked home Practices constituting the networked home Accessing practices Grounding practices Linking practices Uprooting practices
Content The actions, routines and objects used to access stable focal points The actions, routines and objects that help to create or stabilise focal points The practices of circulation involving the movement of people and objects across multiple focal points Transposable home-related rituals, routines and associated objects that can be performed anywhere
Interestingly, as happens with territorial homes, the findings reveal that consumers tend to put their cherished possessions in places they consider as being safe. In territorial homes, safe places can be an actual safe, a sacred place, a private place, a hidden place, or any place with limited access or reduced risk (Belk et al. 1989; Ger and Yenicioglu 2004). However, in the networked house, this place is usually the most stable focal point in the networked home, which may be very different from where consumers live. 5.5.2 Contributions
This work contributes to the literature on globalisation of consumer culture by showing how an important socio-cultural institution (i.e. home) shifts its structure for consumers in conditions of global mobility. Specifically, it shows transnational mobility destabilises territorial notions of home for consumers by fragmenting the unity of home as signifier of diverse meanings and functions, by multiplying the number of grounding (focal) points and by disembedding its components from their original social structure. Furthermore, it shows that consumers engage in various practices to keep the benefits of home in mobile conditions. The proposed concept of the “networked home” offers a
139 way of examining the permanence of home in conditions of mobility. On the one hand, it agrees with postmodernist claims that “the experience of the consumers’ in today’s market is fragmented” (Firat 1997, 79; Firat and Venkatesh 1995), which reflects a “globalisation of fragmentation.” On the other hand, it shows that certain cultural categories (e.g. home) are able to survive fragmentation and keep their meanings in mobile conditions. In order to capture the stability in fragmentation, new research approaches, techniques and conceptualisations are needed. By following consumers’ construction of home, it is possible to see how consumers manage to stabilise home and extract its meanings even when territory is not there anymore.
This chapter also contributes to consumer research on home by providing empirical evidence of and conceptual formulation for the networked home across geographical distances. Past work has already shown that home is a dynamic network of elements that are weaved together in complex relationships. For example, the study on family identity by Epp and Price (2008) has shown that family identity is actually composed of a series of individual, relational and collective enactments that are in a dynamic and constant interplay. Similarly, Epp and Price (2010, 821) examine the “biography of a singularized household object over time as it interacts with and transforms a network composed of the focal object, family practices, spaces, and other objects.” These studies have acknowledged the networked nature of the household. However, they still consider the household as territorial. This research extends this growing body of work on networks and addresses its limitation by showing that networked homes and networked households can also exist across transnational spaces that do not require a singular point of territorialisation. Moreover, the concept of the networked home allows researchers to overcome potential limitations that the territorial thinking may impose on their analysis and
140 conclusions. The networked logic of home allows understanding of consumer actions that were not able to be explained by current theories. For example, it helps researchers to understand the reasons for Osito, the teddy bear, to circulate within the network of friends and relatives of its owner. Osito’s travels have a symbolic purpose: to help construct the networked home by linking some of its focal points. Similarly, the concept of networked home offers alternative explanations to consumer phenomena associated with movement. For example, past work on mobile consumers has affirmed “that consumers form strong and enduring object attachments that fix them to culture, place, time, and enduring identity projects” and that in conditions of mobility, they develop other kinds of relationship to possessions (i.e. liquid relationships to possessions), which are “temporary and situational; possessions are appreciated for their instrumental value and their immateriality” (Bardhi et al. 2012, n/a). This work has demonstrated that mobile consumers are not necessarily engaged in instrumental and functional relationship to objects, even when they are using these objects to keep being mobile. To maintain the networked home, there are various objects whose functions are mostly symbolic (instead of instrumental), and that are not related to territorialising home. The framing of home as a network allows researchers to see beyond the instrumentality of the object and to focus on a new (networked) symbolic dimension. Another contribution of the work is to advance the body of work that views new technologies, such as Skype and WhatsApp, as more than just communications tools. As these technologies evolve and become an integral part of everyday modern life, it is important to understand them as constitutive parts of practices that are meaningful to consumers. For example, Williams et al. (2008, 329) have explained that “contemporary communication technologies allow migrants to more easily maintain links and participate in family life from a distance.” Furthermore, Epp and Price (2008, 59) have affirmed that “technologies can play an important role in re-creating altered rituals and
141 everyday interactions across geographically dispersed family members, such as having breakfast together using Webcam-based software.” It is only when these elements are seen at work within the web of practices that they can reveal their real meanings. This work has contributed to this literature by showing that these technologies can help construct the networked home in different ways: in some cases these technologies help consumers access the networked home (e.g. Skyping family in a stable focal point abroad), link the networked home (e.g. exchanging pictures via WhatsApp) and uproot the networked home (e.g. files kept in Dropbox). This chapter suggests that home is still very important to consumers in late modernity. However, in conditions of mobility, home gains new contours. It leaves the territorial logic of the house and stretches itself over the transnational spaces consumers circulate. This networked home is a valuable construct for consumer researchers, because the various nodes (focal points) of the network tend to rely on the market and on the actions of consumers to remain connected. This study suggests that without the new technologies, intense exchange, and consumers’ actions to uproot, link and reground the various fragments of home, the networked home could not exist.
142 6. Global Cosmopolitan Identities
6.1 Introduction - globalisation and cultural identity
To recap, new relationships to space and time are being formed in late modernity. Globalisation processes are “shrinking the world” through a time-space compression (Harvey 1999) caused by increased technological and human interconnections among points that are physically distant. In a matter of hours, products and people cross the Atlantic and reach Europe. In one second, images of an earthquake in Japan or of the NY stock exchange circulate and are shown on screens throughout the world. People in different countries can “get together” and have similar experiences at the same time. In turn, mobile people such as the global cosmopolitans studied here become continually exposed to multiple cultural frameworks and social systems. However, if global cosmopolitans are continually exposed to different kinds of social systems, how can we understand their individual and collective sense of identities? Under conditions of increased mobility, culture becomes increasingly detached from territory (Hopper 2007). As a consequence, cultural identities – the sense of self derived from being from, belonging to, or wanting to belong to a cultural group – also change (Tomlinson 2003). A number of social scientists argue that globalisation, and technology in particular, is transforming traditional notions of cultural identity from stable and fixed to flexible and mobile (Bauman 1992; Clifford 1992; Turkle 1995; Urry 2000). Despite that, we hardly understand how this flexibility and mobility empirically shapes (and is shaped by) consumption practices. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to understand how global mobility affects notions of cultural identity, and how these notions affect consumption practices.
143 Cultural identities are coordinating structures in consumers’ lives, as they shape the way consumers interpret meanings of objects, consumption practices, places, and other symbolic resources. 5 An extensive body of literature in marketing has shown how national and ethnic identities represent key structuring categories in consumption (Dong and Tian 2009; Peñaloza 1994; Zhao and Belk 2008). As Canclini (1993, 13) affirms, “having an identity meant – above all – having a country, a city, an area: an entity where all that was shared by the inhabitants of a place was identical or interchangeable. Those who did not share this territory, who had neither the same objects or symbols nor the same ritual and customs, were the others – those who were different”. However, globalisation – and the global mobility of people in particular – seems to challenge the unity, stability, and territoriality of cultural identities, which affects the way these identities structure consumption. Thus, it is important to understand in which ways global mobility changes the structuring role of traditional cultural identities (i.e. national and ethnic identities). In particular, it is essential to understand how consumers engage in various practices to manage their national and ethnic identities in conditions of mobility and how multiple, flexible, and mobile cultural identities become the new organising structures in consumers’ lives. The present chapter is structured as follows. First, some key identity-related terms are defined and discussed. Second, a review of the marketing literature that discusses the various ways by which cultural identity has shaped consumption is presented. Third, research findings are presented in two different sections. In the first section, the focus is on how global cosmopolitans manage their multiple national and 5
I follow Holland’s (2001) perspective on identities as capable of providing support for agency. Drawing
from Bakhtin, Bourdieu, and Vygotsky, she argues that identity is the space of authorship. “Authorship is a matter of orchestration: of arranging the identifiable social discourses/practices that are one’s resources [...] in a time and space defined by other standpoints in activity, that is, the social field conceived as the ground of responsiveness. Human agency comes through this art of improvisation” (p.272). Cultural identities structure consumers’ actions by providing guidelines for behaviour and organising the “space of authorship” in which consumers’ practices (and improvisations) occur.
144 ethnic identities; in the second section, the focus is on how they develop new identity structures (i.e. their global cosmopolitan identity projects) based on non-territorial principles. The processes of managing identities and seeking new identity projects entail a number of consumption practices and objects, some of them quite surprising. The overall aim of the present chapter is to highlight the key contributions to an understanding of how consumers’ cultural identities change in conditions of global mobility and how these changes help us understand the collective building of fluid identities, a key process of global consumer culture and consumer life in late modernity. 6.2 Defining identity and related terms
Identity is a concept that has been used in many different ways. For present purposes, identity is a “self-referential description” of an individual (i.e. it describes “who I am”) or a collectivity (i.e. it describes “who we are”). It refers to “the myriad labels that people use to express who they are” (Reed II and Bolton 2005). Identity includes various aspects such as “core beliefs or assumptions, values, attitudes, preferences, decisional premises, gestures, habits, and rules” (Scott, Corman, and Cheney 1998, 303). Closely related to the notion of identity, identification is the process of “viewing a collective’s or role’s defining essence as self-defining” and “the perception of oneness and of belongingness to some human aggregate” (Ashforth, Harrison, and Corley 2008, 329). Thus, when a girl says “I am American”, she is saying that she thinks of herself as (cognitive identification) and feels herself to be (affective identification) a member of a group of people called Americans. In this case, “Americans” refers to a group of individuals who share features that are characteristic of the American identity. When framed through the conceptual framework of structuration theory (Giddens 1984), identity and identification are aspects of the same overall process. Although identity is continuously changing, the concept of identity is
145 used to capture a snapshot of this process, and, as such, it communicates a sense of stability. In turn, identification depicts the process itself, the process of becoming, denoting variation. In other words, using structuration theory, identity represents the structure that describes the set of beliefs, assumptions, values, attitudes, preferences, gestures, habits, and rules that individuals have or want to have; while identification represents the systems, or the processes involved in maintaining or pursuing those identities (Scott et al. 1998). Social identity theorists have discussed the importance of groups in defining ingroup and out-group categorisations (us/them), underscoring that the individual’s sense of who he/she is sometimes better defined in terms of “we” than “I”. Drawing on Tajfel’s social theory (Tajfel and Turner 1986) and Giddens’ structuration theory (Giddens 1984), Ashforth, Harrison, and Corley (2008) contend that there are a number of ways in which identification can typify an individual as a member of a group (e.g. group A). At the core of identity, the process of identification (being a member of A) includes self-definition (I am “A”), importance (I value “A”), and affect (I feel about “A”). The content of identity also includes identification with values (I care about what “A” cares about); goals (I want to be part of “A” and I want the same that “A” wants); beliefs (I believe in what “A” believes); stereotypic traits (I generally do what I believe “A” does); knowledge, skills, and abilities (I have the knowledge and skills to be “A”); and behaviours (I do what “A” does). Thus, individuals can identify with groups through one, some, or all of these different ways. According to Ashforth et al., these different aspects of identity are “the central, distinctive, and more or less enduring attributes that constitute identities […] – what it means to be A – such that identification implies an acceptance of those attributes as one’s own. The more an individual actually embodies those attributes, the more prototypical he or she is said to be” (Ashforth et al. 2008, 330). Moreover, Ashforth et al. distinguish between situated identification, which
146 is temporary, unstable and triggered by situational cues, and deep structure identification, which represents a more permanent and fundamental connection between the individual and the collective. These definitions are important for the development of a clear argument about the way global mobility shapes identities. Additionally, social identity theorists affirm that a person has not one “personal self”, but rather multiple selves that correspond to various circles of group membership (Tajfel and Turner 1979, 1986). Thus, the same individual can simultaneously be Asian, Japanese, Christian, a biker, and a consumer researcher. It is important to note that multiple identities are not always compatible. Individuals can have identity conflicts when there is “an inconsistency between the contents of two or more identities, such as a clash of values, goals, or norms” (Ashforth et al. 2008, 354). For example, a Muslim woman in France may face identity conflicts, if membership to the Muslim community requires her to wear the veil and membership to the French nation prohibits her from wearing it. To try to resolve these conflicts, individuals may engage in various strategies of negotiation (see Kleine, Kleine III, and Allen 1995, for an explanation of how this works). One type of social identity is especially relevant to this research: cultural identity, which refers to the core beliefs or assumptions, values, attitudes, preferences, gestures, habits, and rules of a cultural group or of an individual, as far as one is influenced by one's belonging to a cultural or ethnic group. Collectively, cultural identity refers to the features that define the cultural group. Individually, it refers to the sense of self derived from being from, belonging to, or wanting to belong to a specific cultural group. The most commonly known forms of cultural identity are national and ethnic identities. While national identity refers to the key characteristics defining a nation (i.e. the defining characteristic of the inhabitants of a country), ethnic identity refers to the key characteristics defining an ethnic group (i.e. a group of people that are considered to
147 have common origins). Despite differences between ethnic and national identity, these concepts often overlap; for example, “American” can refer to the nationals of the United States of America or to individuals that have come from the USA. However, when nationals of one country move to another and become a minority cultural group, their national identity is generally referred to as an ethnic identity (e.g. Mexicans in the USA).
6.3 Cultural Identity and the function of consumption practices and products
Cultural identity is relevant to consumer research as it structures consumers’ beliefs, assumptions, values, attitudes, preferences, gestures, habits, and rules. In the consumer research literature, identity is generally discussed from three perspectives: internalised characteristics, contextual characteristics, and idealised characteristics. Although these perspectives are not exclusive, each underscores different way in which possessions, products, brands, and consumption practices are structured by identity. According to the first perspective, which sees identity as a result of “internalised culture” (i.e. internalised cultural values, for cognitive psychologists, or embodied cultural practices in the more anthropological approach), individuals who grow up in a country or in an ethnic group tend to think, feel, and behave in a way that is congruent to the culturally constructed aspects of a specific national or ethnic identity. In these cases, consumers are said to have a national/ethnic identity because they express values, attitudes, and behaviour learned through processes of socialisation that tend be seen as characteristic of that group. This is the premise behind the argument that says Italians will consume in A, B, and C ways and Americans will consumer in F, G and H ways, and behind cross-cultural research that compares attitudes, preferences, and values of nationals countries, assuming that these nationals carry the “essence” of their culture
148 (see Nakata 2009, for a critique). Although, this view tends to be preferred by cognitive psychologists because of its dispositional tendencies (Triandis 1989) , it can be useful to shed light on cultural identity as a result of embodied practices and tastes (Bourdieu 1984; Holt 1998). Therefore, in this perspective, possessions, products, brands, and consumption practices are expressions of embodied cultural memberships. Following this assumption, if global cosmopolitans have characteristics that express their embodied membership to a global cosmopolitan culture, it is important to understand what these characteristics are and how they interplay with other cultural identities, such as ethnic and national identities. According to the second approach, in which identity is discussed as a set of contextual characteristics, identity is situational and relational. This means that, although identity is a label associated with the set of attributes and behaviours that defines the members of a group, it may vary in terms of which behaviours it underlines because of the other elements in the context. Identity serves to highlight differences between two or more sets of characteristics. Identity is constructed through difference (Hall 2003). According to social identity theory, this happens because part of what we are (“us”) depends on what we are not (“them”).The same group of people may be labelled as hard-working or as lazy, depending on the comparison group. Due to this situational and relational aspect of identity, the meanings of identities may also vary. Thus, being (and behaving) in an American way may mean different things (and underscore different behaviour) for people in the Canadian/American border and the Mexican/American border, since meaning associated with Americaness is derived from the contrast with the identity of other groups. Consequently, groups of behaviours associated with the various identities may also vary depending on the context. People diverge to avoid communicating undesired identities (Berger and Heath 2007) or converge to stress common characteristics and integrate. In this context, possessions,
149 products, brands, and consumption practices are markers of integration and of differentiation. If we think in terms of social identities, the question to global cosmopolitans become, how do they differentiate from the “Others” (i.e. those people and things are culturally different from them)? If they cannot use nationality as a basis for differentiation, how do they identify similarities and differences between themselves and others? If identity is relational, what is the nature of the social dimension of identity for people who are constantly shifting the boundaries of the social? Finally, in the third approach, cultural identity may refer to an ideal set of characteristics (i.e. core beliefs or assumptions, values, attitudes, preferences, gestures, habits, and rules) that consumers try to pursuit or maintain. These ideal consumer identities, known as consumers’ identity projects, are seen as undergoing continual construction. Many articles in consumer research portray the conflicts consumers face as they try to pursue (and maintain) their identity projects. These studies view identity work as structured in terms of a narrative. Key episodes in one’s life are linked together to form a story (Bruner 1991; Shankar, Elliott, and Goulding 2001; Thompson 1997). It is this story that allows people to make sense of who they are, and provides “a connected identity from past, to present, and into possible imagined futures” (Ahuvia 2005, 172). In this perspective, tensions may arise either because consumers’ try to be something they are not yet (an ideal), or because something is threatening them maintaining an identity. As an example of the first case, Thompson and Tambyah (1999) describe how expatriate professionals try to enact cosmopolitan identities that are central to their selfdevelopment, personal fulfilment, sense of life purpose, and leisure enjoyment. They describe the tensions lived by this group of people as they try to be cosmopolitan while having embodied preferences and emotional ties to home, resisting the cosmopolitan ethos. Their consumption becomes the “site of struggle where these sociocultural
150 impediments and experiential tensions became salient in their everyday lives” (p. 215). Consumption practices serve to express each of these countervailing discourses and to try to “resolve” the tension between them by enacting “contextually nuanced strategies” (p.237). In the same vein, Ahuvia (2005) describes various cases of consumers facing conflicts between two or more identity ideals. The author discusses three consumer strategies to resolve these conflicts (i.e. demarcating, compromising, synthesising). In the second case, the consumer research literature discusses cases of consumers who face conflicts due to the need to maintain their identity while facing a possible threat by a change in the environment. For example, Dong and Tian (2009, 517) show diverse ways in which contemporaneous Chinese consumers try to maintain their Chinese identity in a globalising China by using different discourses on Western brands. They demonstrate that “competing national narratives of East-West relationships promote different nationalist identity meanings of Western brands and prescribe different marketplace responses to them”. In sum, studies from this third approach focus on the identity construction effort (identity work) made by consumers to solve tensions (of becoming or maintaining who they are) created by a world of contrasting cultural discourses. In this view, possessions, products, brands, and consumption practices are resources supplied by the market and used by consumers in their identity-work processes. To apply this to the global cosmopolitan context, we need to ask: What are their identity projects? What is the identity-work they perform? And what are the tensions involved? Thompson and Tambyah (1999) provide a clue by showing that part of their tensions come from the clash of discourses on home and travel. However, to go beyond identifying the tensions, what are consumers empirically doing to solve these tensions? What practices are involved in this identity work? The marketing literature has developed a number of theories and concepts based
151 on these three approaches to identity: (a) to express embodied tastes and preferences; b) to differentiate and integrate people; and c) to signal a desired set of characteristic and behaviours. For example, a study on the embodied cultural capital of members of the Indie culture (Arsel 2011) has been based on the notion of identity as a reproduction of embodied practices and tastes. Likewise, discussions on consumer ethnocentrism (Shimp and Sharma 1987) and foreign animosity (Klein, Ettenson, and Morris 1998) are based on assumptions about the preference for products that can symbolically help consumers to manage integration or differentiation, respectively. Finally, some discussions on assimilation and acculturation (Askegaard et al. 2005; Dong and Tian 2009) are based on assumptions of the third type, which treats identity as the process of wanting to be associated, or to keep being associated, with a certain group.
6.4 Consumer migration and consumers’ ethnic and national identities
Consumers’ ethnic and national identities have been of interest for consumer researchers, especially in the realm of migrant consumers. The assimilation/acculturation literature – the group of studies that look at assimilation/acculturation patterns of migrating consumers – have investigated how cultural identities and citizenship impact consumption. These studies can be divided into three different groups according to their approach to consumer cultural identity. The first group looks at cultural identity as a fixity, an antecedent of consumption, a factor influencing consumption patterns (Deshpande, Hoyer, and Donthu 1986; O'Guinn and Belk 1989). Thus, they investigate how membership to a cultural (ethnic or national) group is related to specific consumption patterns. For example, Faber, O’Guinn, and McCarty (1987) show that ethnic affiliations to Hispanic and Anglo subcultures affect consumers’ evaluation of
152 product attributes. In general, studies in this stream have examined correlations between belonging to an ethnic group and various consumption patterns. More importantly, the assumption underlying these studies is that ethnic identity is a fixed given condition and that consumer behaviour is predicted by ethnic/national membership. The picture is more complex when individuals happen to have been socialised in two different cultures, as is the case with many people brought up in Hong Kong before 1996 (Chinese and English), because they may have characteristics of both groups. Briley, Morris, and Simonson (2005, 351) demonstrate that “bicultural individuals (i.e. individuals with two distinct sets of cultural values) shift the values they espouse depending on cues such as language”. Following a contrasting perspective, a second group of studies (Bouchet 1995; Oswald 1999) considers ethnic identities as outcomes of consumer acts (instead of antecedents of consumers acts). Bouchet states that ethnicity is best understood not as a primordial phenomenon but as an outcome of choices made by individuals in the market. In this view, the role of the market is to supply the means for postmodern consumers to express membership to multiple ethnic/national groups. Ethnic identity is, above all, a performance by consumers through the market. This model is well illustrated in Oswald’s ethnography of a Haitian family in the United States. Her framework introduced to the consumer acculturation literature the constructs of “culture swapping”, “code switching”, and “plasticity of identity,” used to construct a performative model of ethnicity among ethnic consumers. More specifically, Oswald (1999, 3) demonstrated the importance of “context-shifting or deixis for theorising about the movement of ethnic consumers between several worlds at once”. She highlighted the capacity of objects to work as indexes serving as a spatial link and a sign of membership to diverse cultural contexts, and thus shaping social relations and identities. Thus, in Oswald’s performative model, ethnic consumers construct their
153 identity by using “products to negotiate differences between home culture and host culture” (1999, 314). Through deixis, the same products can refer to different cultural contexts. For example, Oswald showed that cornmeal can have different meanings to the consumer depending on the frame of reference (home or host) used. While in one case cornmeal can be linked to something to be ashamed of, in another it can be linked to the main dish, something to be loved and cherished. Following Firat and Venkatesh (1995), Oswald (1999, 304) argued that “ethnicity can be bought, sold, and worn like a loose garment”. This line of work is aligned with the studies on the impact of postmodernity on consumption. These studies tend to be very celebratory of consumption, seeing the act of consumption as an act of creation. This view has been criticised for disregarding existential factor and embodied habits (Askegaard et al. 2005). Following the thesis’ assumption that conditions of global mobility emulate consumption in late (and post) modernity, it is expected that identity-related consumption practices of global cosmopolitans are even more performative than those of immigrants. A third stream of research brings together scholars who share a more balanced view of consumers’ cultural identity. On one hand, they recognize that consumers are able to use the market to perform membership to diverse ethnic groups, but on the other hand they show that consumers’ agency to do so is constrained by structural and contextual elements. For example, in her work with Mexican immigrants in the United States, Peñaloza (1994) discusses ethnic identity in two different ways. First, she frames ethnic identity as an antecedent – a marker of the culture of origin (i.e. a censuslike classification). Then, she demonstrates that the experience of cultural difference was very subjective (i.e. being Mexican meant and implied diverse things to each immigrant consumer). For her this was a result of consumers’ constant negotiations with
154 contextual elements and diverse acculturation agents from their culture of origin and their host culture (i.e. family, friends, media, and market institutions, including marketers). Thus, she argues, consumers are in fact constantly crossing cultural borders, and ethnic identification is a way of managing those border transitions. Also subscribing to a more balanced view, Askegaard et al. (2005) show that market-mediated identities are produced by existential negotiations of the immigrant condition, where consumers use the market to try to resolve identity conflicts caused by discursive elements representing their culture of immigration, culture of origin, and global consumer culture. Immigrant consumers can “move between ethnic identities” (p.161), and in the negotiation process they can claim their membership to their home culture, to their host culture, to both at the same time, or alternate between them, depending on the situation. Askegaard et al. criticize Oswald’s postmodern notion of ethnic performativity (i.e. ethnicity as a garment that one wears at will) because it leaves existential issues out of the equation, implying that ethnicity is only a matter of choice. Üstüner and Holt (2007) expand the knowledge of sociocultural structures of acculturation by arguing that the postmodern models of ethnicity argued by Oswald (1999) (and to some extent by Askegaard et al. (2010)) can only apply to situations where consumers have sufficient capital and market knowledge to realize their identity projects. In contexts where consumers lack socio-cultural capital, where there are ideological conflicts between minority and dominant ideologies, and where consumers are not used to a “postmodern consumer culture”, consumers do not succeed in using the market to negotiate existential differences, which results in shattered identity projects. In sum, the negotiated view approaches the issue of acculturation as a structure and agency problem where the agents (i.e. consumers) try to use the market to negotiate differences between their home and host identities. However, in this processes they are constrained by a number of structural factors (i.e. elements from both cultures), which
155 limits their action and determines the outcomes of their acculturation processes. The following section presents the findings related to this chapter. It explains how consumers engage in various practices to monitor their national and ethnic identities and how they seek multiple, flexible, and mobile cultural identity projects, which become the new organising structures of their identity-related consumption activities. As explained in the methodology chapter, this involves analysis of data from in-depth interviews with global cosmopolitans and from ethnographic research with InterNations, a community of global cosmopolitans with both an online presence and offline gatherings in many global cities. While the interviews helped the present author to understand their hopes, dreams, and characteristics they identify with, InterNations allowed the analysis to go beyond the individual level and observe how they pursue these identity projects collectively and how they perform these memberships to each other. The focus on the collective dimension of the cosmopolitan identities represents an important contribution to the understanding cosmopolitan consumers, as past work (Bardhi et al. 2012; Thompson and Tambyah 1999) has tended to rely on individual accounts only, instead of emphasising the social dimension of cultural identity.
6.5 Findings 6.5.1 Monitoring national and ethnic identities
6.5.1.1 Destabilisation of national and ethnic identity through multiplication
An important feature of global mobility is that it creates the conditions for global cosmopolitans to identify with multiple national cultures. Interestingly, through their storytelling and other practices, informants expressed membership not only to their
156 culture of origin and their current host culture, as may happen to immigrants, but also to other national/ethnic cultures. For example, Maria, a top Spanish executive who grew up in Germany and undertook her studies in the UK before living in various places due to the needs of her job, thinks of herself as being a bit Spanish, a bit German, and a bit English, because she spent long periods of time in those three countries. Cases of multiple memberships were reported by global cosmopolitans who had deeper and longer exposures to other cultures, either because they had lived in particular countries (i.e. former host cultures) or because they had experienced other cultures vicariously, via family members and circle of friends. For example, Morris defined himself as Taiwanese, Cantonese, Chinese, Japanese, British, and Canadian. Born in Hong Kong from a Christian missionary father from Taiwan and a mother from Hong Kong, he spent the first years of his life with his grandparents in Taiwan. Mandarin was his first language, and for that reason he also sees himself as Chinese. After three years, he moved back to Hong Kong to live with his parents, but he faced some problems of communication with his mother, as she spoke only Cantonese and he did not. After two years, the family of missionaries moved to Japan, where Morris spent nine years. In Japan, he attended a British School for expatriates; as a child born in Hong Kong before 1996, he was a British citizen, and it made sense for him and his family to go to a British School. Since then, Morris’ life has included long periods of stay in the USA (where he studied during high school), Canada (where he went to University), and the UK (where he joined the army as a British soldier). According to Morris, he identifies more strongly with Japan, which is neither his homeland nor his parents’ homeland. He says he is most comfortable in Japan. This is especially interesting if one considers the historical tensions between Japanese and Chinese identities that go back to war times (e.g. Morris’ Chinese grandfather was killed by Japanese in World War II). Nevertheless, the fact that he has spent most of his
157 time as a child in Japan seems to have been a key determinant of his feelings for Japan. Morris also feels he has very strong Chinese and British identities, which are also linked to places of socialisation (family and school, respectively). Although he feels connected to the USA and Canada, he does not feel very much part of these national cultures. However, if a sports team is playing against a team from Australia (a country where he has no history of extensive living or extensive exposure to local habits, norms or tastes), he supports Canada. Morris provides a typical example of what Ho (2006, 397) has called “gradations of belonging”. Having lived in many places and gone through various processes of socialisation, global cosmopolitans develop a sense of belonging to multiple cultures. However, that does not mean they have the same feelings about all of them. In the data, it is seen that these relationships varied depending on the length of socialisation, type of the experience (e.g. family, school, work), and age of socialisation. For example, the “Third Culture Kids” (Pollock and Van Reken 2009; Useem and Downie 1976) in the sample, people like Morris, who started moving around the globe from a very early age, reported more stories of multiple identifications than adult global cosmopolitans, who started moving later at working age. Donald, for instance, is a South African man who only started moving after he married. The couple went to Canada, and they are now in Australia. Despite the fact there are many things about Canada and Australia they love, they feel they identify mostly with South Africa, although even this membership does not play a big role in their everyday life. These multiple allegiances seem to affect the way global cosmopolitans structure their consumption. You can discuss certain topics competently only in the language you learned them. Computers I do in English, engines in German, and music in French. Most people think I don’t know what I’m talking about because I lack the vocabulary of the moment. What is a Schraubflansch in English? I’d have to Google that! (Markus Schulz, InterNations’ thread: ‘Re: You know you're a TCK (Third Culture Kid) when:..., posted on 18/05/2011)
158
Similarly, Agu, a South African of Indian descent, seems to categorize his behaviour according to his two main identities. He attributes being thrifty to his “Indian” side and enjoying expensive things to his South African side. I think it [being South African when consuming] depends on what I was buying. If I was buying something that’s consumable and I have all the time, and if it is a low value product, I was more African, because I grew up in South Africa, so I had those kinds of tastes. When it comes to buying expensive things, I was also going for the quality, the high value things. But sometimes the value for money approach that Indians take would come out. I would feel guilty if I didn't shop around and look for the best deal for something. I: Because? Because that’s what Indians do! I: Oh, and South Africans don’t do it? South African Indians do that, but South Africans, a little bit too, but it’s not a priority. So it’s not something that influences big, that influences my shopping in a big way, but it’s at the back of my mind sometimes when I make a purchase. So I would always tick the box at the back of my head: If I buy something, I would be, ‘did I pay too much for that, or did I get a good price?’ even though it wouldn’t heavily influence my decision making (Agu).
This association of certain behaviours and modes of thinking with particular national identities has been noticed before in consumer research. While some believe national identity structures behaviours and modes of thinking (Steenkamp, Hofstede, and Wedel 1999; Triandis 1989), others argue that the self-attribution of certain groups of behaviour and modes of thinking to a particular national identity is a consequence of post-rationalisation (Briley, Morris, and Simonson 2000; Briley et al. 2005). However, independently of the group of researchers, there is an assumption that, depending on environmental cues, consumers act according to one identity or to the other. However, here instead of an “Either… Or” behaviour, Agu is showing that these two types are in constant negotiation with one another, in a “both…and” behaviour. Agu does not stop being Indian to become South African. Instead, he sees both aspects as part of his way of processing purchases.
159
6.5.1.2 Freedom, choices and effort I: So when someone asks, like, what’s your nationality, what do you say? I say whatever makes them happy. Okay, say if it’s some North African guy who doesn’t know me at all. I look like Chinese guy, right. So I will just say I’m Chinese, so I don’t have to answer a million questions… ‘Oh, Hong Kong? Where is Hong Kong? […] I thought you were Chinese’. Yeah but if I say; ‘I’m British’, he will say ‘what? But you are Chinese, right?!’ ‘Come on, you are not white right?’ Now in Hong Kong they know this. I don’t think people even ask in Hong Kong because people in Hong Kong speak English as well. Yeah, in Hong Kong they are pretty easy, but, and a lot of Hong Kong places have multiple nationals. I will say oh yeah, I’m from Hong Kong. If they want to ask then I will say; oh yeah, I am British too but that’s not a surprise for them. I: And when you are in the UK? Then I’m British. I: And here in Canada? Here, I say I am a permanent resident (Morris).
Morris’ explanation illustrates something important about global cosmopolitans: national and ethnic identities do not seem to be very important for them as a defining feature of who they are; that is, they do tend not to cling to their national and ethnic identity and express it in every situation. Instead, it seems that it is more important to show they are flexible and that they can move among their multiple memberships, to find the most convenient identity to express in each situation. However, that does not mean national and ethnic identities are not useful to them. Global cosmopolitans use national and ethnic identities to express global cosmopolitans’ flexibility. Seeking “Flexible citizenships”(Ong 1999), or having the necessary resources to be able to choose the most beneficial identity in each situation, seem to be a common adaptation strategy among global cosmopolitans. Furthermore, Morris shows that global cosmopolitans are highly reflexive about the contextual role of their identities. Informants expressed their cultural reflexivity through three different aspects: a) they were aware that one’s own cultural identity may
160 vary and that it can even be multiple; b) they were aware that the various cultural identities are perceived differently by different people or in different contexts; and c) they were aware that the process of cultural identification can be managed. Their cultural reflexivity has important implications. First, consumers with high cultural reflexivity tend to question the taken-for-granted culturally-given markers and, instead, valorise first-hand cultural knowledge over knowledge gained from others. For example, in these two passages, Linda and Agu discuss how their mobility has affected their notion of what is good and what is bad:
I have been moving around, and my consumption has become more specific, because my taste has been exposed to different things. I've become more critical of some things. So, if you ask what’s the best sushi I’ve ever had, I am going to say it’s in São Paulo. If you ask me the best pizza I had, I am going to say it’s in South Africa, Johannesburg, not even in Italy where I’ve been. So, my sense of what good quality is has changed (Agu). I want authenticity so much more. Like, Moroccan food, for example. I’m not going to have [just] any Moroccan food; it’s got to be the Moroccan food I had in L.A [Los Angeles]. If I want Turkish food, it’s got to be as good as I had in Istanbul (Linda).
In these two cases, consumers show that they are aware of certain universal standards of quality (e.g. good pizza comes from Italy), but they put greater emphasis on their experience as better criteria in deciding what has good quality. Agu’s best sushi was not from Japan (as one would expect), but from Brazil (where he has been and has had the opportunity to taste it himself). The best Moroccan food in Linda’s opinion was not in Morocco, but in Los Angeles. And Linda’s best Turkish food was in Turkey; not because she took it for granted, but because she tasted it herself (she mentions “as I had in Istanbul”). Thus, they relied more on their first-hand experiences with various cultural contexts than these products’ country of origin attributes. This is important for identity construction and management because it means global cosmopolitan consumers
161 may highlight personal experiences over those that are taken-for-granted culturally as a means of differentiating from those who are not members of the global cosmopolitan group. Second, high cultural reflexivity and having multiple memberships to various cultures provide many informants with a sense of freedom from not having to conform to the conventions of one culture (e.g. their culture of origin). Padma, an Indonesian woman living in Hong Kong, and Benny, an Ethiopian girl who has lived in the United Kingdom and Canada, explain this feeling of freedom.
I travelled quite a bit, although I have never stayed in a foreign country for more than a couple of months. Whenever I am in a foreign country, I feel more liberated, in a sense maybe because I am free from the preconceptions on other people or other people have on me (Padma Mehta, InterNations’ thread: ‘what moves a non-expat to join InterNations?’, posted on 22/10/2011). I: So what is the feeling that comes with having lived in many different places? It’s got lots of freedom […] I feel very empowered I guess, because I have that ability to go and do certain things on my own […] When I arrived in NY, I just walked around the city all by myself, I wasn’t afraid, I wasn’t worried, I wasn’t concerned, I wasn’t worried I wouldn’t find my way or whatever, so it’s very liberating, very good! […] Where I also came from there is so much a woman can do, like go to school and go to work, but there are certain things that they don’t, for example here I can go to a bar by myself if I want to. In Ethiopia, if you do that you are considered a prostitute; it is a place where a woman wouldn’t go, even two girls cannot go to a bar themselves unless they are getting up to something else (Benny).
Benny reports being able to do activities (e.g. going to bars and travelling by herself) that would be unacceptable in the Ethiopian culture she came from. In this case, Benny’s sense of freedom is heightened by her specific trajectory: she moved from Ethiopia, a country with many restrictions on women, to the UK and Canada, countries that tend to allow more freedom in individual behaviour. Similarly, Apura and Rajiv commented on their sense of increased freedom as they moved from India to Singapore
162 and Australia:
Apura: I can see that I have changed as a person so much in these last many years since I moved to Singapore and especially to Australia where I tend to see a lot of things differently now […] Because it is more Western, its more liberal, in terms of individual freedom and that sort of thing; a type of gender equality, less influenced by community or society or religion or family or culture. I can give you a very specific example. My decision to do some research degree, I would not have ever thought of doing something like this if I would have been in India. Because there it would have been too late for me to may be stop working and go back to school to study. But I was able to take my decision because of the way systems work here in Australia, so it may be acceptable to take a break in new career and go back to school and so, yeah so. I: So why wouldn’t that be acceptable there? Apura: I guess it follows as a set trajectory in India, where, if you study to a certain age, then you are expected to work; then you are expected to get married and have children and look after the family. Rajiv: It’s not to say that you can’t do that in India, you can do that, but then people there and the social setting might not look at it favourably as to why you have to again study now after working for quite some time (Apura and Rajiv). Although Apura, Rajiv, and Benny experience the feeling of freedom from moving from cultures they regard as less liberal, the sensation of freedom was a common perception among global cosmopolitans, even when they moved among more Westernised liberal cultures. For example, Hazel was born in Scotland and James in Spain; and they have both lived in Spain, Scotland, Luxembourg, and Canada. They commented on the benefits of having lived in so many places:
Hazel: For me, the biggest thing is the cultural awareness. I remember saying once, when I was a little girl, that I wanted to experience how other people live, just accepting the fact that in the UK we live in a certain way, and it’s not really a choice. It’s just governed by society and family, and there might be other ways of doing things. I was quite young when I said that. And, I don’t know if I ever realised that I would travel so much and that I would actually get a chance to do it. But I think that’s why I find it difficult to relate to people at home: because they haven’t experienced different cultures or different ways of doing things, and they haven’t really questioned why they do things the way they do, and then it becomes difficult to build relationship[s] based on that.
163 James: It gives you that choice, so maybe you will go back and you will do this in the same way, but at least you have the choice, you have seen different things. […] I remember when I started to work in the UK. I was working with a girl that was 17 and she was like: ‘next year I am going to university’. She was from Edinburgh. I thought: ‘okay, which university are you going to? University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt or Napier?’ Those are the three universities in Edinburgh. And she was like, ‘no I am not going to study in Edinburgh. I am going to go to another city; I don’t want to stay here’. For me as Spanish, that was a shock, in Spain nobody will consider going to a different city. If there is a university in a city, that’s where they want to study. You stay with your parents and you go to university in your home town, because you have your friends there and you don’t want to go to another city. […] It’s the first time you start realising that maybe in Spain things happen in a certain way, but there are other ways to do it. While you are in the country you are from, you are not able to see that type of thing. Everybody in Spain, 90% of the people, will go to school and then just start working, or you go to university. Once you start working, the first thing you are going to do is: you are going to buy a car, because you are still living with your parents. So you buy a car because you want to go somewhere, and then you find a girlfriend and then you start saving by living with your parents until you have enough money to buy a house, and then you go (Hazel and James).
Hazel and James explained how exposure to different ways of life has made them aware of multiple ways of doing things. They underscore their gains in terms of their ability to choose among diverse perspectives and behaviours. James provides an example of a sequence of activities (including some consumption activities such as buying a car and getting an apartment) that describes the stages of a typical Spanish man leaving his parents’ house. He explains that by being exposed to different ways of living, global cosmopolitans are free to organize their activities in a different sequence (or to not execute them at all). Global mobility sets them free from “one way of doing things”. This is important for consumer research, because it shows that global mobility may expose people to other ways of consuming, and these ways can challenge the ways consumers normally buy, use, and dispose of things. The sudden discovery of alternative ways of consuming may be very liberating to many consumers. In this sense, mobility does emulate the liberatory postmodernism described by Firat and Venkatesh
164 (1995). However, when allegiances to national and ethnic cultures become a choice, selecting which one to enact may demand effort (identity-work) from consumers. The more reflexive they are about the outcomes of expressing certain allegiances over others, the more they feel the need to monitor their behaviour to express beneficial allegiances and downplay the ones that may not favour them (Giddens 1991). Despite the advantages that cultural reflexivity brings (i.e. being able to perform the most beneficial behaviour), monitoring identities requires work from consumers in choosing and evaluating the consequences of their choice, which may sometimes be an unwanted consequence, felt as stressful by consumers. For example, global cosmopolitans’ constant travelling exposes them to new cultural contexts. These new cultural contexts probably require dealing with cultural conventions that are different from those they are used to. Not knowing how to behave in a situation is a constant threat for them. For an extreme illustration, imagine what can happen when a girl wears a mini-skirt in countries where this practice is considered offensive. The risks of other actions are less visible, but they may result in marginalisation (Pollock and Van Reken 2009). Lack of knowledge of cultural rules of local contexts is amongst global cosmopolitans’ greatest fears, as it may cause problems to their integration and access to resources (e.g. behaving inappropriately may limit their access to the local social network). If global cosmopolitans automatically reproduce any of their learned behaviours (or any of their identities), without choosing the one that best fits the local context, they may risk behaving inappropriately. For this reason, global cosmopolitans are constantly exchanging information about how to behave in different contexts. At InterNations, there are many online threads about cultural misunderstandings, cultural differences among countries, and difficulties faced by expatriates:
In The Netherlands, it's quite ok to put your thumb between your index finger
165 and middle finger, there is no meaning. Here we just flip the middle finger, same as in the US. I do know that in the UK they do it differently… they use the reverse peace-sign... two fingers up, but with the inside towards you....I remember in a restaurant a German colleague of mine asked for a light. I suggested she use the candle on the table to light her cigarette, but she gasped! No! Apparently, in Germany, when you use a candle to light your cigarette.... a sailor dies at sea. I never heard of this, and this is already a difference between two neighbouring countries! (Alice Gunter, InterNations’ thread: ‘Re: Misunderstanding other cultures’, posted on 21/10/2008) I have experienced this first hand. In Malaysia, meeting with clients, all the women present were wearing head-scarves. The introductions/handshakes began, and some did and some didn’t ... it was a bit uncomfortable, I have to admit. Simply because you can't help feeling you've done something inappropriate when someone rejects your gesture of a handshake. But I accept that the uncomfortableness (if that’s a word), is self-inflicted (Jean Ledoux, InterNations’ thread: ‘Re: Misunderstanding other cultures’, posted on 21/10/2008) Ok, this is from my experience. When in Jerusalem, shop for a good deal in the Arab market. The shop keepers are very friendly and expect you to bargain. In the Jewish part, I had two Jewish shopkeepers get mad at me when I suggested a lower price. He he. One of the funniest things that I remember from the trip was when I was buying a belly dancing outfit. I collect national costumes, the shop keeper decided to give me a lesson. So he put on a skirt, took a cane and started dancing...you had to see the faces of our guide and my husband when they came into the store. All of us, including the shop keeper, were laughing like crazy (Simone Duvivier, InterNations’ thread: ‘Re: Misunderstanding other cultures’, posted on 26/11/2008)
By exchanging personal stories, global cosmopolitans learn about the different practices, costumes, and meanings in various countries. They learn when to bargain and when not to bargain. They learn what they should wear and in which occasions; they learn which behaviours are appropriate and which are not. These themes are also a common topic in InterNations’ offline discussions at the gatherings. Every member of InterNations has at least a handful of stories that they can tell about experiencing “culture shock” (Ward, Bochner, and Furnham 2001) or difficult moments they faced for lack of understanding the culture rules of a new context. Through storytelling and forum exchanges, global cosmopolitans build an important knowledge pool about cultural conventions, which helps them to minimize the risk of experiencing future
166 uncomfortable situations caused by inappropriate behaviour. In turn, if they express a membership that is beneficial to them (e.g. Morris can behave like a Japanese when he is in Japan), they take advantage of their multiple memberships, making them more instrumental.
6.5.1.3 Monitoring national and ethnic identities
For consumers, this monitoring represents understanding that some consumption practices may signal (purposefully or not) membership to some cultural groups and exclusion from other cultural groups (i.e. process of social identification). For instance, by having the habit of eating cheese in the end of every meal, consumers signal they may be French. They also signal they are not likely to be a typical Chinese. The more they are aware of the consequences of their behaviour in terms of signalling identity, the more they try to monitor their behaviour, to control the signals they emit. For example, Linda, a Chinese-British citizen who lives in Canada, uses her capabilities of expressing allegiance to the three cultures (i.e. performance of embodied knowledge, practices, and tastes) to take advantage of social situations in which showing belongingness to one or the other is more desirable. She uses language, gesture, and ways of dressing to provide these cues to others. She told stories about situations when she favoured her Canadianess over her Chinese side (when she was looking for a job in Canada), and situations when she favoured her Chinese side (when she was working for a Malaysian advertising company with many Chinese clients). Her deep knowledge of the three cultures helps her to perform the chosen identity effectively. Likewise, Cathy (a Chinese woman who moved from China to Finland and Sweden, moved back to China, and went to Canada) said that, when she went back to China, her Chinese friends did not accept certain behaviours she had developed, such as going to bars by herself and kissing guys.
167 By dressing up like her expat friends (i.e. in different style from her Chinese friends), she signalled to them that she was an “expat” now, and they stopped picking on her for breaking Chinese conventions. In that sense, consumption practices can become resources to help consumers achieve their momentary goals of differentiation and integration. Understanding stereotypes and cultural heuristics is a particularly useful tool for global cosmopolitans in monitoring their identities, because these identities form the basis for many cultural market heuristics (Peñaloza and Gilly 1999). Stereotypes are generalisations people make about the characteristics of all members of a group, based on an essentialised image about what people in that group are like. Cultural market heuristics are rules to distinguish when it is appropriate for market actors to act. For example, cultural heuristics may dictate that Spanish should be a preferred language or that the cashier should address the man, and not the wife, in a couple. Thus, cultural heuristics often rely on stereotypes to create a short cut for decisions. Understanding commonly held assumptions about national/ethnic groups is useful to global cosmopolitans in three ways. First, when consumers face a new cultural context, understanding stereotypical behaviour provides them with a rough notion of the cultural conventions of the new place. Although stereotypes may not be precise and are often too rigid, they are, in general, in tune with cultural norms. They help global cosmopolitans monitor their cultural identities by providing a model of behaviour and for decision-making (i.e. cultural heuristics), which minimizes the chances of inappropriate behaviour. For example, June explains how drinking beer socially is different among the Irish and the Germans:
In Ireland, people just pay rounds, so you go out and you pay a round for everyone, and then the next person pays a round for everyone. Whereas in Germany everyone pretty much pays for themselves [sic], and if you don’t know how things are done, then sometimes other people find you awkward. And you
168 just have to learn how not to be awkward and how not be strange and how to fit in just these patterns of everyday life (June).
Second, when consciously trying to express cultural identities, global cosmopolitans can use stereotypes to facilitate communication with people from the out-group (non-members of that cultural group), as they may mark identity more effectively than non-stereotypical behaviour (Shih, Pittinsky, and Ambady 1999). Third, global cosmopolitans may feel more integrated in the local culture if they engage in behaviour they consider as typical of one culture. For example, Donald, a South-African guy who has lived in Canada and Australia, explained that to feel he is blending in with Australian culture and that he is becoming more Australian, he eats Tim Tams (brand of chocolate biscuit characteristic of Australia), goes to AFL (Australian Football League) games, and eats kangaroo meat (although most Australians do not eat kangaroo meat, the product belongs to the stereotypical image of the country; and so, by eating it, Donald feels he is becoming more integrated with the “Australian culture”). Similarly, Agu, a business consultant who has lived in many countries, explained that he would try first the “things that are important” to Canadians:
So I don’t know if it makes sense, but if I move to Canada, the first thing I want to find out is what’s important to Canadians. It’s maple syrup, it’s a bit cliché, but that would be one example. So, I would buy that and try it and see what’s good about it (Agu).
Thus, typecasting (i.e. stereotyping) is very important as an identitymanagement tool that helps to signal integration and differentiation to others (e.g. Linda) and to enhance self-feelings of integration (as it happens with Donald and Agu). This insight helps to explain one intriguing observation from the ethnographic work with global cosmopolitans: although they are very well travelled and have first-hand
169 experiences from many cultures (to the point that they know these cultures cannot be reduced to a prototypical set of characteristics), stereotyping was a commonly-observed practice among global cosmopolitans. In the light of the present findings, the abundant use of stereotyping is explained by its function as an identity-management tool, which has nothing to do with lack of cultural knowledge about a specific country. This is also supported by evidence collected from members during InterNations gatherings. Members (including Agu, from the previous quote) seemed to be much more careful with assumptions and generalisations when they were in small groups, talking to people whose nationalities were being discussed. In these situations (i.e. talking to “experts” in that membership), stereotyping can backfire by signalling lack of knowledge, which can exclude them from being an insider (i.e. someone that is a member of that cultural group).
6.5.2 Flexible and fluid identities: the global cosmopolitan identity project
6.5.2.1 Global cosmopolitans as a different group of people
I always tell people that I’m a British-Kenyan-Singaporean-Canadian, that’s how I define myself. I’m actually a person that has a global outlook (Angel). I'm truly a child of the world! Born of a mother who’s Swedish and Finnish and a father whose heritage is Polish and Italian, I grew up in England and have just migrated to Sydney, Australia. I've worked all over Europe, go back to the Finnish island where my grandfather is from every summer, and have friends from all over the world (Tessa, InterNations - Member online profile). While national and ethnic identities are present in the everyday life of informants (as demonstrated in the previous session and observed in the ethnographic
170 work), they do not express informants’ identity projects (i.e. ideal cultural identities linked to being a member of an imagined community) (Anderson 2006). Instead, their identity projects and their identity-work are centred on being/becoming “global cosmopolitans”. For informants of this research, expressions of national identities are associated with situated identification, which is temporary, unstable, and triggered by situational cues, while “global cosmopolitan” identities are associated with deep structure identification (Ashforth et al. 2008), which represents more permanent and fundamental desired relationships between the individual and the imagined (i.e. constructed) collectivity. Although global cosmopolitan identity is related to a set of characteristics that define the group and its members (a theme developed in the next section), it is the feeling of being part of the same collectivity (“us”) and of not being part of other collectivities (“them”) that reveals most clearly its existence. For example, informants’ interviews were loaded with comments about “them”, the people who were not global cosmopolitans. It was very clear to informants that they had a perspective about life that was very different from that of “the others”, the ones who don’t move globally: [People back home] find it difficult to relate to me as well. They are just like ‘why?’, ‘why are you going there?’, ‘what are you doing?’, you know [...] I can’t understand why one would want to be in one place. My brother doesn’t want to move, his girlfriend moved to London and he was just very adamant: ‘I am not going to London’. [...] So he doesn’t even want to go to London and I want to go everywhere. So, that’s difficult [...] Every time I go home my brother is like ‘settle down, Collette, just settle down, just stay in one place. Why do you have to keep going?’ And I am like ‘don’t you want to see, you know, something new or do something different?’, ‘no, this is where I am from and this is fine and this is - I like it here and I am fine’. And I am like, ‘okay, yeah, this is fine, but I want to see something else’ (Collette). I have got friends also who are just like my childhood friends […] I still very much value them and they’re wonderful, wonderful people. But for them it’s very difficult to understand my lifestyle sometimes. They admire it, they actually sometimes, you can say that, they wish they would have done something similar, but they don’t understand it. I think they glamorize it a little bit as well, and it’s not glamorous. It really isn’t, but for them when I move yet
171 again to another country or work in yet another country, or they get yet another letter from a different place, they sometimes make comments like: ‘I don’t know how you do it’ and ‘don’t you get unsettled?’, and ‘aren’t you lonely?’, and all these sort of questions. And for them it’s very difficult sometimes to understand that there are lots of people like me (Maria).
There is a big, clear divide. I think there are lots of different ways I think about this, but the one clear divide is friends who understand that [life], who understand this international friendship thing, you know that -- they know they will be going places, it’s not that I don’t want to keep in touch with them, but I just can’t, okay. Sometimes the amount of contact [is reduced], there are no computers around, and I can’t afford the phone bills, et cetera, et cetera, right? Or I’m too busy, right? It’s not that about the friend, but for whatever reasons. These are friends who I know they are going to be my friends regardless. So, whenever I connect with them again, we just start off from wherever we last left off and then it goes from there, right? There are friends who understand that, and then there are friends who don’t understand that, and it’s much harder to keep the friends who don’t understand that. I: So where are those friends that don’t understand that? Okay, much more likely to be friends from monocultures, much more likely to be friends that I have grown up in one place, rather than many places. So, can you get this? (Morris). Maria, Collette, and Morris provide good illustrations of the clear difference global cosmopolitans perceive between themselves and the people who do not move globally. These differences are perceived in terms of “beliefs or assumptions, values, attitudes, preferences, decisional premises, gestures, habits, and rules” (Scott et al. 1998, 303) related to being globally mobile. Thus, global cosmopolitans engage in various practices that help them not only to construct a self-narrative, but also to differentiate themselves from “the others”, the ones who don’t move globally.
6.5.2.2 Self-definition through five key characteristics
Past research on consumer cosmopolitanism (Cleveland, Laroche, and Papadopoulos 2009; Thompson and Tambyah 1999) has used predetermined definitions
172 of cosmopolitanism, which were derived from conceptual works in the social sciences (Hannerz 1990). However, this practice has generated confusion because each author adopted different definitions for the concept or decided to focus on different aspects of cosmopolitanism, which were not always compatible. To avoid these problems, and to create the conditions for a more grounded discussion, I opted for a bottom-up (inductive) approach to find out the key characteristics of the global cosmopolitans in this study. Using InterNations as a microcosm of the imagined community of ‘global cosmopolitans’ in the world, I examined their online profiles and analysed how they discursively claimed their membership to the community. Every member of InterNations has to fill out a profile when they sign up as a member. One of the first things they must do is to explain why they are global minds (i.e. make a statement about the reasons they feel they belong to the community). After analysing more than 100 profiles from people living in diverse countries, it became clear which were the key aspects used by them to define themselves as part of this community of global minds. Using axial coding, I reduced the 100 profiles to 35 profiles (one third of the initial sample). Appendix E contains the table with these 35 representative profiles from the website. The table was further reduced to five key characteristics (and 12 sub-characteristics), which correspond to the key self-defining aspects of global cosmopolitans. These self-defining aspects represent the most valorised notions (idealised characteristics) for global cosmopolitans. Table 3 summarises and groups these notions into five non-exclusive categories: having multicultural experiences, having multicultural knowledge and skills, having a transnational network, having cosmopolitan dispositions, and displaying transnational mobility. These five categories represent ways through which one can claim membership to the global cosmopolitan community. Usually, each person used more than one way to claim membership. The
173 next sections explain how each of these five valorised notions is expressed via consumption practices and objects.
174 Table 3 - Self-definition through five key characteristics
Passports to a global cosmopolitan
Examples of Empirical Manifestations
identity 1.Multicultural Life Experiences (ancestry)
Having a multicultural background
(family and household)
Sharing house with multicultural family
(education)
Studying in international schools, exchange programs
(work)
Having worked in many different places, working for a multinational, working with people from different cultures, having business interests and partnerships in many countries
(residence) 2.Multicultural knowledge and skills
Having lived in many different countries Being able to speak multiple languages, knowing how to behaving in different cultural context
3. Transnational network (relationships)
Having friends and relatives in many different countries
4. Transnational mobility (being mobile)
Constantly travelling, commuting between hemispheres, travelling around the globe
5. Cosmopolitan Dispositions (engagement with the Other) (taste and preferred activities)
Enjoying travelling, engaging in new adventures, experiencing new things, learning about different cultures, meeting people from different places and cultures, listening to stories from different parts of the world, living in global cities, helping people in other areas of the world.
(attitudes)
Being open towards others, respecting others, understanding difference, being non-judgmental, caring for other people in other parts of the world, being able to see things through other people’s eyes.
175 (beliefs)
Believing that people are the same despite their differences, underlying human connection, disregarding of difference, sharing views with other people in other parts of the world, committing to people and society.
(feelings)
Feeling a member of multiple cultures, feeling homeless, feeling global, and feeling like a global citizen.
6.5.2.3 Storytelling and the five key characteristics
Storytelling, a key activity during InterNations’ gatherings, is the main form of identity construction for global cosmopolitans. Through their narratives about places they have lived in, things they have done, challenges they have had to overcome, and victories they have won, global cosmopolitans are able to express who they are and who they want to be (Ahuvia 2005). The data in the present study indicate that global cosmopolitan narratives are centred on displaying the five key characteristics: multicultural experiences, multicultural knowledge and skills, a transnational network, cosmopolitan dispositions, and transnational mobility. Personal stories that are able to link consumers with these characteristics are valorised by the group and can even generate some symbolic capital. For example, at InterNations, individuals that are able to show evidence (e.g. stories) of having lived in multiple cultural contexts (a valorised notion) are highly regarded at by other global cosmopolitans. At InterNations, sharing stories also helps the group to forge a collective identity. During the gatherings, members tell personal stories and they hear personal stories (e.g. stories of expatriate experiences). When members get together online, they also tell stories and hear stories. Even the way they organize their online profiles (e.g. choosing what to tell and not to
176 tell others, marking the places they have lived) also tells a story. These stories circulate among members and help create a sense of an imagined community to which they belong (observe how the letter in Appendix G stimulates the production of stories and exchange of memories, and observe how these stories become integrated with other elements of global consumer culture, such as valorised objects and brands). Moreover, the exchange of stories is a sense-making process. Schank (1990, 29) explains that “stories digest one’s experiences [...] the experiences that we do remember form the set of stories that constitute our view of the world and characterize our beliefs. In some sense we may not even know what our own view of the world is until we are reminded of and tell stories that illustrate our opinion on some aspect of the world”. Therefore, the centrality of narratives should not be underestimated in this community. Consumption practices and objects help their identity-work by serving as symbolic resources for building identity narratives (Murray 1997; Thompson and Tambyah 1999). Consumers use the symbolic meanings of products, services, and brands to express their global cosmopolitan ideals and construct global cosmopolitan narratives. By exchanging their narratives, they are also producing, evaluating, and validating a cosmopolitan way of life. The following subsections offer examples of how consumers use those practices and objects to express each aspect of their global cosmopolitan identities.
6.5.2.4 Consumption practices and the five characteristics
a) Expressing multicultural life (and past) experiences via consumption practices and objects
177 Consumption practices and objects are effective in the construction of identity work when they are used to display multicultural ancestry (e.g. having a multicultural background), family and household (e.g. having a multicultural marriage, in-laws, halfbrothers), education (e.g. studying in international schools and exchange programs), work (e.g. having international careers and experiencing multicultural workplaces), or residence (e.g. living in many different countries). Global cosmopolitans value objects and practices that can help them express their multicultural experiences. Objects can be a direct expression of multicultural experiences (e.g. an album displaying photographs taken on a trip around the world) or they can be used as a resource for practices that express multicultural experiences (e.g. a souvenir from an exotic land, aiding the practice of assembling exotic objects to signal multicultural experiences). While, in the first case, the objects themselves must “be read” as multicultural, in the latter case, objects can “be read” as stereotypical representations of one culture. In the latter case, stereotypes help the construction of multicultural symbols because these stereotypes make these symbols a more effective semiotic resource to display multicultural experiences, when in association with other stereotypical representation of other cultures (e.g. a collection of elements, each representing one culture). In this latter case, it is the practices (e.g. assembling the objects together) that must be “read” as multicultural. Agu, for example, collects flags or objects that contain flags of places where he has been. He explains: “I try to collect things that remind me of the countries I’ve been. Not only collect flags, I would say. Like, in Brazil I bought ‘a flag’, a beach towel flag that I hang up”. Although each flag is a stereotypical representation of a country he has lived, having a collection of flags expresses multicultural residence.
178 b) Expressing multicultural knowledge and skills via consumption practices and objects
Second, many claim their global cosmopolitan identity on the basis of their multicultural skills (e.g. speaking multiple languages, possessing knowledge of cultural norms of many places, having cultural translation skills, understanding what is most appropriate behaviour in each culture). For example, in this passage Linda exhibits her multicultural knowledge and skills through a list of consumption practices associated with the knowledge of what is best in each country:
I think when you are well travelled, you know, it’s not good enough to go to a place in Chicago or in Toronto or Montreal for certain things, because now your market is the world. I’ll give you an example like wine, right? If you’re truly a wine connoisseur you are not okay with just French wines or you are not okay with just Californian wines, because you know there is a grape called Malbec that you can only get in Argentina. So if you want that, you need to have Argentinean wine. I know if you want Shiraz, you have option of South Africa or Australia. So, now you are not shopping in one region, or you’re restricted to Burgundy or whatever, you now have the world as your market. So I can tell you, having travelled the world and shopped to a certain extent, I know where I’m going to get the value or the style that I like. So for me I know, I’m looking for clothes that show that I am feminine, I want clothes that show that I am sexy. So what does that mean? That means most styles that are American or Canadian will not be within my taste. So I think clothes that are that style are in Europe, especially Spain or in Brazil. So therefore I know if I want something that looks a certain way I need to find a Brazil cut, or I want to go to Brazil to buy certain things and I want to go to Spain to buy certain things. If I want value for money and I want to get suits, I know I want to get them in Hong Kong, because I know I am not going to get the same price for a suit here, I can get a great suit for US$100, and I can get for $100 - $200 four suits; we cannot do that in Canada. And the beauty things from the girl’s style point of view is you never wanted to have the same clothes that another women has, while when you have a purse from Buenos Ayres and a scarf from Argentina, a pair of jeans from, I don’t know, Chicago, and a hat from Macao and suit in Hong Kong, it’s unlikely someone else is going to have the same thing. Very unlikely! (Linda). There are many things to observe in Linda’s explanation as it illustrates well, in
179 the consumption domain, some of the points discussed earlier in this chapter. First, when Linda says “now your market is the world” and “you know you have the world as your market”, she exemplifies the feelings of freedom that global cosmopolitans have, their expanded consumption field (i.e. enlarged evoked set comprising products and brands from around the world), and their cultural reflexivity (i.e. awareness of these new possibilities). For global cosmopolitans, the world is a cultural supermarket (Mathews 2002), and knowing how to shop for identity is central to surviving the demands for flexibility of the marketplace (Halter 2000). Second, when Linda says “it is not good enough to…” and “you are not okay with just…”, she is demonstrating the restlessness felt by global cosmopolitans as they try to monitor the enlarged and multiple consumption objects and practices that come into play in their new condition. Third, she demonstrates that to succeed in this new condition, one needs to master some skills associated with understanding what each place has to offer. Through her skilled usage of her knowledge about product and places, and through her storytelling, Linda creates a differential for herself. As she emphasised, it is very improbable that she will find someone else dressing in the same manner as herself. Thus, wearing garments from different parts of the world helps to show how much knowledge she has about what is of good value around the world. Interestingly, it would probably take another global cosmopolitan to “read” her clothes properly, that is, to realize that she dresses up using the most appropriate/best elements from different parts of the world. Thus, Linda’s global cosmopolitan competencies function as a “cosmopolitan capital” (Weenink 2008, 1092), as they represent forms of knowledge, skills, and education (Bourdieu 1986) that help Linda to conquer privileged positions and a higher status among her cosmopolitan peers. c) Displaying transnational network via consumption practices and objects
180 I am American by birth and have lived in Mexico, Australia, France, and now England. I have met some magnificent people in all three countries (England is a work in progress - lol). I can proudly say that I have lifetime friends in each country. Like many others here, I too keep in touch via Facebook, Skype, and email (Rita Morales, InterNations’ thread: ‘How to make real friends as an expat?’, posted on 23/03/2011) I have been extremely fortunate to have made real and amazing friends in every country I've lived in. And having Facebook and Skype allows all of us to continue to keep in touch and even plan reunions (which by the way, I consider extremely important to maintaining those friendships after you’ve departed for other pastures). (Violeta Calli, InterNations’ thread: ‘How to make real friends as an expat?’, posted on 17/03/2011) Global cosmopolitans also construct their identity through consumption practices, objects, and narratives that involves having friends and relatives spread all over the world (e.g. having a global network of relationships). Social networking programs like Facebook are more than communication tools for them. They help them display their international network. They tell a narrative of transnational relationships. Thus, when organisers of the InterNations website realised that global cosmopolitans value the display of a global network of friends, they adopted techniques to enhance this aspect. Through their profile page, each member knows how many friends they have in each country and which nationalities these friends bear. The page also tells members (through the display of country flags) how many nationalities their social network includes (see Figure 2). At InterNations’ gatherings, members receive a paper label to stick on their clothes containing their names and their country of origin. These help enhance the general feeling that gatherings are a truly inter-national gathering.
181 Figure 2- Flag Gallery
d) Displaying transnational mobility via consumption practices and objects
Global cosmopolitans can claim their identity through displaying geographical mobility across multiple countries. Consumption practices such as travelling and packing help consumers display their international mobility. Consumption objects that are emblematic of these practices, such as cards of mileage plans, travel tickets, and universal adapters, can help to show transnational mobility. Storytelling that includes these practices and objects also help to display transnational mobility and, consequently, claim the global cosmopolitan citizenship. In this next posting, a member describes her routines for smart travelling. By doing so, she is not only transmitting knowledge. She is also claiming herself as a member that has travelled internationally and who knows how to use these gadgets properly. I usually travel light for holiday by bringing old clothing to “wear and leave behind”, so have luggage space if I decided to buy anything... and I usually buy something! I bring a dress that can be made formal with a nice scarf or pashmina shawl and accessories. I put most of my things in Ziploc bags, easy to pack and find things. Plus large Ziploc bags can be used for dirty laundry and small ones for keeping currencies (especial coins!) you don't need. I travel light since I need to lug my own luggage at some point during a trip. I use a cabin size luggage
182 that is expandable and can withstand rough ground or rough handling by baggage staffs. I tie two different colour ribbons on my luggage handle, easier to tell it apart from others. I stop bringing laptop on holiday and use my 80GB iPod touch instead; it’s a lot lighter and smaller. :-) I have my contacts and emergency numbers on my phone and iPod touch. I use iPod touch to listen to music or audio books, watch movies, review my travel itinerary or flight details, play games when I am bored, check and download email wirelessly. I was in South America recently for five weeks and there was free wireless access in most hotels, bus stations and airports. For bag, I like sling bag from Kipling; it’s waterproof and has lots of compartments and separate pockets for phone, pens, etc. I also like one of the Kipling purses which have three compartments, good for separating different currencies. When purchasing skin care products in Asia, one get free travel size samples, very useful for travel. Baby oil is great to have as it can remove makeup and double up as moisturizer for your body. Besides cash and credit cards, other things I can’t do without are: - photocopies of passport, travel and travel insurance documents - world travel adapter, ear phone adapter for plane and charges for all gadgets - camera with extra memory stick(s) and some batteries as backup - 3G camera phone with international roaming for keeping in touch via SMS, emergency call and as a backup camera - pashmina shawl and black sweater, if travelling to a cool/cold place, a trench coat with removable lining and hood - good walking shoes and 2 pairs of trekking sock, nice slipper for use in hotel or to the beach & black ballet flat for causal or formal night out - ear plug, wet tissues, travel wash, sunglasses, sun screen, swim suit, hat, disposable rain coat - Atwarer Carey Light & Dry travel first aid kit, Swiss army knife, small touch light, camping fork/spoon and a pair of chopstick - prescribed medicines from my GP, lozenges and cough drops - citronella splash as insect repellent or a wake-me-up splash, mint oil for headache & clearing stuffy nose- green tea in tea bags, some instant soup packages and muesli bars (Irene Ming, InterNations’ thread: ‘Last minute travel check....’, posted on 18/12/2008).
Like Irene, many global cosmopolitans exchange information about travelling transnationally. This information is not only useful practically, but it also helps them to build their individual and collective identity as global cosmopolitans. Through their voices, one can grasp the various ways in which transnational mobility is appreciated by the group. Many objects (e.g. world travel adapter, ear phone adapter for planes, and chargers for all gadgets) and brands (e.g. Kipling, Atwarer Carey, Ziploc) are mentioned
183 in association with their capacity to facilitate a transnational life and the development of global cosmopolitan identities and competencies.
e) Displaying cosmopolitan dispositions via consumption practices and objects
Cosmopolitan dispositions are associated with willingness to engage with “the Others”, those people and things culturally different from “us”. The desire to engage with the Others may include any attitude, belief, feeling, preference, or behaviour that expresses that “you are different, but I am interested in you”:
My first international experience was when I was two years old and flying to the Philippines. I saw a Caucasian man with very hairy arms and said: ‘Mom! There's a gorilla on this airplane!’. When we got to the Philippines, the family next door were Australians. Our moms thought it would be a fine idea to put us in a playpen together while they played Bridge, so, two weeks later, Bruce (the Australian boy) was speaking Japanese and I was speaking English (Yukimi Yasuda, InterNations’ thread: ‘First International Experience?’, posted 20/04/2008)
Yukimi’s story reveals a typical case of engagement with the Other: the recognition of difference (i.e. the emblematic gorilla) followed by an interaction with the goal of overcoming these differences (i.e. speaking each others’ languages). By narrating this story, Yukimi shows other members of InterNations that she is willing to engage with the Other and that this attitude helps her in the construction of a cosmopolitan identity. Thus, behaviours such as seeking adventures in other countries, seeking new experiences, enjoying learning, and experiencing different cultures are seen as central to the construction of their identities. Unlike tourists, who may see the Others without participating/interacting/being changed by them (Hannerz 1990), global cosmopolitans have the desire to engage with and experience the Other. This is clearly
184 felt when comparing the data from InterNations and the data from the interviews. While some interviewees sometimes mentioned the lack of empathy for the host culture (very infrequent among informants), this does not happen at InterNations gatherings or in the online forums. Lack of cultural empathy is seen as a problem, and it is severely criticised by members. The expat who lacks appreciation for other cultures is marginalised among InterNations’ members. The social norm and ethos of the group seems to cultivate the ideal of empathy towards those who are culturally different.
Most around the world are not as fortunate as us (IN members) and have not travelled or experienced first-hand what it is to be from other countries, religious, or cultural backgrounds. It’s a terrible shame, and the source of much of what is “wrong” with the world today. People fear what they do not know. (Jean Ledoux, InterNations’ thread: ‘Misunderstanding other cultures’, posted 21/10/2008)
Well, Jean you are absolutely right. Not so many people can have the chance to know “real” people from other countries and cultures... and we are lucky here in IN that we not only know real people but we get to know the best of the great minds of each country... and to become connected in a friendly atmosphere like this one (despite some heated discussions here and there :-) ) at the end we come here to broaden our horizons.. right? (Abdul Hakam, InterNations’ thread: ‘Misunderstanding other cultures’, posted 21/10/2008) Anything related to religion, politics, socio-economic issues should be considered a sensitive topic and asked with courtesy and basic understanding of the subject matter. If you really need to know, but show respect, you may end up having an informative conversation. I recommend doing own research beforehand. (Hilda Thompson, InterNations’ thread: ‘Re: What Questions Shouldn’t be asked by an Expat?’, posted 27/10/2011)
These three postings reproduce a practice that is very commonly observed at InterNations. Postings (online) and comments (gatherings) reinforce the need to respect diversity and the view that InterNations’ members are ‘special’ because they are able to see beyond cultural boundaries.
185 In addition, global cosmopolitans tend to share a vision that all human beings are basically the same. For them, the “others” are paradoxically different (culturally) and similar (as human beings). They understand that, underneath the differences (e.g. seeming like a Gorilla), there are key similarities (e.g. two people capable of understanding each other). This “ equality in diversity” is a key feature global cosmopolitanism and is the ‘raison d’être’ of InterNations, as it is a community that seeks to unite on equal grounds people coming from different places in the world. During the gatherings and interviews, it was common to hear them saying and writing sentences like “we are all humans”, “we are citizens of the global village”, or “we are global citizens”, reaffirming the sameness underneath the cultural differences. Consumption objects, practices, and narratives that can represent engagement with the Other and the sameness in difference are highly regarded by global cosmopolitans. Thus, cultural objects such as films (e.g. “Avatar”), brands (e.g. “United Colors of Benetton”), and songs (e.g. Lady Gaga’s “Born this way”) reinforce the cosmopolitan ideal regarding the engagement with the Other and the idea of equality in diversity. Similarly, consumer practices communicate these cosmopolitan dispositions through activities, tastes, and preferences that express willingness to engage with that which is culturally different. For example, Angel’s openness to other cultures allows her to have an appreciation for engaging with diversity in relation to people and to products: I think that living in Singapore made me who I am today, like it made me somebody who is very open minded, and I embrace other cultures. I love to learn other languages. I don’t have any issues of eating food from other countries or anything else, because there are people - and I have met them here too - who won’t eat food like Sushi or something because they are never exposed to it as children, or they were never encouraged to try something new. And I think that that way [by encouraging us to try new things] my parents really gave us a lot of openness, and I guess, they were a lot more liberal that way: you can go and experience something and learn from it, it was great (Angel). The cosmopolitan valorisation of the engagement with the Other can also be
186 expressed through storytelling, that is, through the ways narratives weave elements together, showing an openness to appreciate elements that are normally considered strange. For example, at one of InterNations’ online forums, they discuss various breakfast-related practices among different cultures:
Here in Tokyo many coffee shops offer a reasonably priced “breakfast set”: a hard-boiled egg, very thick piece of toast, small tossed salad, and coffee. Tossed salad for breakfast? It seems very strange to an American at first, but over time it grows on you. The traditional Japanese breakfast is, of course, rice, grilled fish, and miso soup. On a recent visit to Malaysia we tried the traditional nasi lemak for breakfast: white rice cooked in coconut milk, with a veg. curry and condiments like hard-boiled eggs, sliced cucumbers, sambal, fried anchovies, and peanuts. It was really delicious, though perhaps not something I’d eat every day. (Meggie Wood, InterNations’ thread: ‘What will you be eating for breakfast tomorrow?’, posted on 03/09/2008).
Underlying the descriptive information of difference, there is an assumption of equivalence, that all can be regarded as breakfast, and if one engages with difference for enough time, one may learn to appreciate it (i.e. “it grows on you”). The willingness to engage with the culturally different has been detected by Thompson and Tambyah (1999, 226) in their study about expatriates in Singapore. They noted that “confrontations with cultural differences enhance their own sense of being flexible, cosmopolitan travellers” and that “these adaptations to cultural difference affirm their cosmopolitan flexibility” (p.227). However, the authors do not discuss the assumptions of equivalence. This omission may have to do with the fact that Thomson and Tambyah compare cosmopolitans with locals, highlighting the difference between them. Instead, in the present study, heterogeneity and equivalence are defining characteristics of who the participants are. The particularity of the present study is that it shows that a sense of equality (‘we are all humans’) tends to underscore the process of engagement with the Other. Global cosmopolitans are constantly building bridges across cultural differences
187 not only with locals of various regions but also among the members of their cosmopolitan world. Global cosmopolitans are always engaging with different Others. However, living among the different Others and the recognition of sameness in difference are two sides of the same coin. The two together provide a sense of community to global cosmopolitans. They recognize each other for their capacity to overcome difference and to assume that, underneath the cultural differences, they are the same people. In turn, the real differences are not among those of different cultures, but between those who can engage with the Other (e.g. global cosmopolitans) and those who cannot. Global cosmopolitans see clear differences between them and people who cannot or do not want to engage with the Others, regardless of their culture of origin. Since their consumption plays an important role in integration and differentiation, global cosmopolitans develop consumption practices that are markedly different from those that are not from the same global cosmopolitan community. This is clear in the way Cathy differentiates herself from other people from China. I don’t really hang out with [other Chinese]; I mean I’m not like a lot of the Chinese living in Toronto. They live here but they still stick to their own community, they live in China town, they live in Richmond Hill, Scarborough, Markham, I mean they surround themselves with Chinese, living close to Chinese grocery stores and close to the Chinese community and they speak Chinese every day. I don’t know, […] it’s my choice. I mean, I don’t think I consciously made that choice not to live there but I don’t spend a lot of time with the Chinese community here. I mean, […] I have Chinese friends, they can live in Scarborough but I also have other friends […] it just seems that maybe the friends I end up with, even the Chinese friends who end up hanging out with me are more like me than the more traditional, conservative type of Chinese who live in Scarborough, and never come out.[…]They don’t change a thing, they stay there, just there, they are very comfortable staying within the Chinese community. They read Chinese newspapers and watch Chinese news and follow, yeah, like follow to the minute of details, what’s happening in China.[…] I check Chinese news sometimes, definitely not on a daily basis. My front page [in my computer] is the “Toronto Star”, and I read “The Globe and Mail” [Canadian national newspapers] and some more newspapers, I want to know what’s going on here, around me, I’m interested, I mean, like I want to try, I try to keep up with what’s going on in China too because my family are still there.
188 […] I do see the difference [between me and the Others], they seem to keep more of the Chineseness in them and then maybe also the fact that I was married to a non-Chinese person and I had a few years of that relationship… maybe also that changed me more than just the simple fact that I lived in a foreign country, so all that probably also has something to do with who I am now (Cathy).
6.5.2.5 Uprooting identity practices
Uprooting identity practices play an important role in helping the expression of global cosmopolitan identities. Instead of marking flexibility or multiplicity of cultural identities, uprooting practices work to erase cultural symbols so other cultural identity practices can be performed. For example, uprooting practices are common in theatre presentations. When actors who have tattoos need to play roles that are incompatible with tattoos (e.g. the role of a conservative old lady from the eighteen hundreds), they need to erase (i.e. cover with base) those tattoos before putting on the persona and the outfits of their characters. These practices help them neutralize personal attributes that could otherwise interfere with their performance or with the external signals that their performance emits. Similarly, global cosmopolitans may use uprooting identity practices to minimise unwanted aspects of their cultural identity so they can engage in the performance of other identities. The immigrant literature has many cases showing immigrants trying to neutralize their accents so they can fit better in the host society, and the marketing literature has shown how speaking the standard accent of the host can help sales (DeShields and de los Santos 2000) It is interesting to observe uprooting identity practices as they happen at InterNations’ gatherings. One striking features of all gatherings has to do with how the members dress in a similar manner, independently of which part of the globe the event happens. InterNations does not offer any guidance or dress code that would force people to wear one type of clothes over another; however, intriguingly, members of
189 InterNations naturally gravitate towards similar patterns. The analysis of the photos taken from communities all over the world and uploaded to the website reveals that these outfits are very similar to each other (Appendix F shows photos from nine different InterNations gatherings around the world, all taken in the same month of the same year). Everyone dresses either in Western smart casual or business styles. Men may wear a blazer, a sports jacket, or a pullover, with a collared or polo shirt, and dress trousers. Ties and suits are sometime worn if they come directly from work. Smart casual footwear includes shoes and loafers. Women tend to wear skirts (long or short) or slacks, sometimes accompanied by a fashionable belt, a blouse or turtleneck, a vest, a jacket, or a sweater coordinated to the outfit, hosiery or socks with flats (leather, suede, or fabric), boots or mid-heel shoes. Jeans and sneakers are seen, but only occasionally. Independently of the country and city where the gatherings happen, there is very little variation on how people dress up. It is very rare to see someone wearing something different, such as a typical outfit of that host country. This is especially interesting when one thinks that in some countries the street clothes can be quite different from the Western smart casual. Wearing Western professional and smart casual clothes serves three uprooting purposes. First, it creates the ‘blank canvas’ effect, which helps members to construct their multicultural storytelling. Since clothes do not point to a specific place or culture, these clothes make it easier for them to use their narratives to create temporary anchors to diverse places. It is important to highlight that the ‘blank canvas’ effect works only with the cultural dimension, as the professional attire tells little about which national or ethnic culture one belongs. Second, in other dimensions, such as social status, the professional and smart attire can reveal many things about those who wear them. The professional and smart attires help them to show they belong to the middle and upper middle sectors of the global managerial class (Sklair 2001). Third, similar to any
190 uniform, the professional and smart attire help create a sense of collectivity, of belonging to the same group of people. In his work on Star Trek fans, Kozinets (2001) discusses how important uniforms and outfits are for signalling membership and helping in the process of identification to a cultural group. Similarly, the professional and casual outfit of the InterNations members helps to create a sense of collectivity. However, unlike Star Trek outfits, which are not worn in other situations, the professional outfit is also their work clothes. This reinforces the point argued earlier, that global cosmopolitans are at work and performing even when networking and bonding.
6.6 Discussion
6.6.1 Summary
The above findings demonstrated that global mobility shifts the basis of consumers’ cultural identification from territorially-based cultural identities (e.g. national and ethnic) to more flexible cultural identities, based on non-territorial imagined communities (e.g. global cosmopolitans). The findings have shown that global cosmopolitans may develop multiple memberships to national and ethnic cultures. These memberships may have different “gradations” (Ho 2006), depending on consumers’ length of stay in each country, type of the experience (e.g. family, school, work), and age of acculturation. Multiple memberships may shape the way consumers think about consumption, as they associate different consumption practices to different national and ethnic identities (e.g. “My Indian side does X, while my French side does Y”). Furthermore, the research has shown that multiple identities are used to express consumers’ flexibility, a valorised notion for global cosmopolitans.
191 In addition, the findings have demonstrated that global cosmopolitans have high cultural reflexivity, which makes them question the taken-for-granted knowledge about products and their country of origin, such as ‘the best Sushi comes from Japan”. Instead, global cosmopolitans privilege their own personal experience over preconceived cultural notions. Moreover, multiple identities associated with high cultural reflexivity provide a sense of freedom (from one’s culture) to global cosmopolitans, which is a valorised aspect of their mobile life. At the same time, high cultural reflexivity, associated with multiple identities, create the need to constantly monitor the expression of cultural identities (i.e. to control their behaviour to signal or not to signal membership to a cultural group), in order to choose the most beneficial identity for a specific goal or situation and to avoid the risk of behaving inappropriately. This monitoring demands effort from consumers; thus, it can be felt as stressful by some. The use of stereotypes and cultural heuristics, commonly observed practices among global cosmopolitans, may help the monitoring of cultural identities by providing clear signals of membership (i.e. signals that can be easily recognised) to a specific cultural group. Table 2- Global cosmopolitan practices
Managing national and ethnic identities
Globalising practices
192 Expressing beneficial allegiances
Uprooting practices
Downplaying undesirable allegiances
Alternating the display of allegiances to national and ethnic cultures (interchanging
Understanding stereotypes and using
juxtaposition)
cultural heuristics Using arrangements to create pastiche Sharing information about cultural norms
effect of being multicultural (simultaneous juxtaposition)
Challenging taken-for-granted cultural practices and objects
Individual storytelling
Collective storytelling
Understanding, sharing, evaluating, and validating a cosmopolitan way of life
Furthermore, the research has demonstrated that global cosmopolitans see themselves as a separate group of people, different from those who are not globally mobile. The findings point to storytelling as a central form of identity construction for global cosmopolitan. Their narratives are centred on displaying five key characteristics that global cosmopolitans use to define themselves: multicultural experiences, multicultural knowledge and skills, a transnational network, cosmopolitan dispositions, and transnational mobility. Consumption practices and objects play an important role in expressing these key characteristics and constructing these narratives. Table 4 divides these practices into two groups: those associated with the
193 management of multiple national and ethnic identities, and those associated with displaying allegiance to a global cosmopolitan community, which, in the present work, are called globalising practices.
6.6.2 Contributions
6.6.2.1 The role of national and ethnic identities as symbols in the construction of a global identity
This work contributes to studies about globalisation of consumer culture by explaining the role of national and ethnic identities in the construction of global cosmopolitan identities. It is important to notice that symbols associated with specific cultures and nationalities are abundant in consumers’ storytelling. Past work has emphasised the role of national and ethnic products as a way of anchoring identity in places and as a way of signalling memberships to territorially-defined communities (Askegaard et al. 2005; Dong and Tian 2009; Klein et al. 1998; Zhao and Belk 2008). However, as seen in informants’ quotes, national and ethnic symbols are not used by global cosmopolitans to create or maintain an enduring relationship to a national culture. They are used as semiotic resources in the creation of a global cosmopolitan narrative. These narratives create global cosmopolitan identities, through the composite manner they weave together multiple cultural (e.g. national and ethnic) references into a single story. Thus, the global cosmopolitan identity is not constructed in opposition to national identities, but through a narrative that combines and juxtaposes, in a contrasting way, various national identities. In other words, consumers use the capability of objects to symbolize places and cultures not to create enduring attachment with specific countries or to build a national identity, but as a symbolic
194 resource in the construction of the global cosmopolitan ideal. Specifically, global cosmopolitan narratives produce a sense of multicultural bricolage through two different, but complementary, practices of juxtaposition: simultaneous juxtaposition and interchanging juxtaposition. Simultaneous juxtaposition refers to the simultaneous display of diverse ethnic and national symbols (i.e. objects and practices that symbolizes different cultures). For instance, when Linda wears an outfit involving elements from different countries at the same time, she is engaging in simultaneous juxtaposition. Her composed outfit tells a global cosmopolitan story. In turn, interchanging juxtaposition refers to situations when consumers must alternate between expressing their various national and ethnic affiliations in order to produce the juxtaposition effect, characteristic of global cosmopolitan assemblages. When global cosmopolitans express their national and ethnic identities (using cultural heuristics if necessary), they must not to express the same identity for a long time. If consumers identify with one national identity for too long, they risk being recognised as a member of that single cultural group, and consequently, not being associated with the global cosmopolitan group. Therefore, they must alternate their allegiances, to show their flexibility. For example, to create the alternating juxtaposition effect with national and ethnic symbols, global cosmopolitans must alternate the ethnicity of the restaurants they eat (e.g. Thai on a Friday, Italian on a Saturday, and French on a Sunday). The alternation constructs a global cosmopolitan story that is later shared with other global cosmopolitans. The notion of flexible citizenship is useful to shed light on how consumers develop strategies to manage life in conditions of mobility and change. Anthropologist Aihwa Ong (1993) coined the term flexible citizenship to describe the opportunistic search for citizenship abroad that facilitate strategies of flexible accumulation of capital. She affirms that “flexible strategies have been devised not to collaborate in the bio-
195 political agenda of any nation-state, but to convert political constraints in one field into economic opportunities in another, to turn displacement into advantageous positioning in a range of local contexts” (Ong 1999, 770). Therefore, flexible citizenship means the capability of using key elements of one or more cultures in order to thrive in another culture, and it is a skill that globally mobile consumers develop in order to take advantage of their multiple cultural identities. For global cosmopolitans, flexible citizenship means they are not only alternating their allegiances, but that they are choosing the most beneficial at each moment. In sum, in the global cosmopolitan context, ethnic and national products (i.e. products that symbolize one ethnic group or a country) are not used to construct ethnocentric behaviour (Sharma, Shimp, and Shin 1995); nevertheless, they are important for cosmopolitans as resources in the constructions and maintenance of their multicultural narratives, the expression of their flexibility, and “omnivore” (Cheyne and Binder 2010) tastes. 6.6.2.2 Global mobility and multiple, flexible identities
The present study also contributes to a new stream of literature that investigates the ways by which global mobility and deterritorialisation of culture shape consumption practices and objects. A noteworthy study by Bardhi, Eckhardt, and Arnould (2012) argues that nomadic consumers “lack identification with home country or country of residence”. They find a “diminished role for nationality and possessions in identity work”. They also underscore that nomadic consumers develop a different kind of relationship to possessions (i.e. a liquid relationship), which is characterised by instrumentality. Under this logic, “possessions and practices are strategic resources in managing mobility”. The present study extends the work on the fluidity and instrumentality of identities by showing that, consistent with it, global cosmopolitans’
196 identity projects are not linked to one specific national or ethnic identity. However, unlike as previous work suggests, the present study shows that this does not mean that national and ethnic identities are less relevant to consumers’ identity construction. The present study demonstrates that consumption objects, as national and ethnic symbols, may still be very much present in the global consumers’ expression of identity and in their identity work. The present study shows that the logic of instrumentality is also applied to ethnic and national identities (i.e. global cosmopolitans use their national and ethnic identities to construct their global cosmopolitan identities). Instead of being used to enhance identification to a single place, national and ethnic consumption symbols (e.g. products, brands, or places associated with specific cultures) are used to enhance the fluidity and globality of cultural identities. Through narratives of mobility and of multicultural belongingness, global cosmopolitans are able to transform national and ethnic identities into resources for identity work. Thus, following Tomlinson (2003, 270), the present findings demonstrate that globalisation, “far from destroying cultural identities, has been perhaps one of the most significant forces in creating and proliferating cultural identities”. However, the nature of these identities are changing from unitary, stable, and fixed to multiple, flexible, and mobile. 6.6.2.3 Grounding global cosmopolitanism
This work offers new insights in the area of consumer cosmopolitanism studies. Past work has discussed the relationship between cosmopolitanism and diverse consumer behaviours (Cannon and Yaprak 2002; Cleveland et al. 2009; Özsomer and Altaras 2008); however, the broad and sometimes fuzzy conceptualisations of cosmopolitanism point to the need for more grounded concepts (Cleveland and Laroche 2007; Cleveland et al. 2009; Holt 1998; Riefler and Diamantopoulos 2009; Shankarmahesh 2006; Thompson and Tambyah 1999).
197 One of the contributions of the current study is to help fix conceptualisation problems by offering a more grounded description of the cosmopolitan identity, one that has emerged from the self-definitions and observations of a community of global cosmopolitans. By observing global cosmopolitans in interaction, it became clear how the five valorised notions were used to structure consumption practices and the use of objects. Specifically, the emerging dimensions included transnational mobility as an important aspect of differentiation. Additionally, it became clear how global cosmopolitans regard themselves as different from non-cosmopolitans, which are not necessarily locals, but the people that are not capable of displaying the five characteristics in their consumption objects and practices: multicultural experiences, multicultural knowledge and skills, transnational networks, cosmopolitan dispositions, and transnational mobility. In addition, the present study extends Thompson and Tambyah (1999)’s investigation on expatriates and cosmopolitanism, which attempts to describe “experiences such as the emotional work involved in establishing new social networks, the stress of learning how to be a consumer in the new locale, and the small pleasures of established routines as well as familiar surroundings and products” (p. 221). Similar to their research, the current study also discusses the tensions related to negotiating identity and managing differences. However, unlike Thompson and Tambyah (1999), this study does not focus on how global cosmopolitans adapt to the local, or on the tensions between travelling or dwelling, but on the ways cosmopolitans manage multiple cultural identities. Specifically, it shows the role of ethnic and national products and practices as symbolic resources for constructing the cosmopolitan narratives. The findings underscore the role of stereotypes and cultural heuristics in helping the monitoring of cultural identities required for the enactment of cosmopolitan identities. The current study shows that, besides providing resources for the construction
198 of narratives, consumption objects and practices can directly express cosmopolitan identities by narrating a story about multicultural experiences (e.g. flag gallery and photo albums), multicultural knowledge and skills (e.g. dressing with garments from different parts of the world), transnational networks (e.g. possessing a phone directory of people from all over the world), cosmopolitan dispositions (e.g. collecting souvenirs from exotic places), and transnational mobility (e.g. being a platinum member of a mileage plan). Furthermore, it contributes to the cosmopolitan literature by showing that, underneath the “consumption of differences”, global cosmopolitans see “equality in diversity”. In their imagined communities, cultural difference is an intrinsic taken-forgranted characteristic of people who are, nevertheless, similar (i.e. “we are all human beings”). According to their “Cosmopolitan Vision” (Beck 2006), the kaleidoscope of symbolic actions and objects only has meaning because – and not despite – of its assemblage of multicoloured equivalent glasses. However, not everyone is part of their imagined community. The outsiders are not those of different cultures, but those who cannot engage with difference and cannot see value in diversity. For marketing scholars, this aspect is enlightening, for it shows that, in globalising multicultural spaces, where cosmopolitans tend to dwell (e.g. global cities), it is not national culture that structures consumption, but cosmopolitan skills and dispositions. In these contexts, segmentation strategies should focus on delineating those boundaries that really matter, those that reveal structural differences among consumers, such as the capacity to engage with the Other, the capacity to be globally mobile, or the capacity to express multicultural experiences. The present study suggests that in cosmopolitan spaces, such as that of InterNations, these variables are much more revealing in terms of meaningful differences than those related to country of origin and ethnic groups (traditional,
199 possibly over-worked, bases of segmentation). Thus, knowing how consumers perform in these dimensions may reveal more of their consumption patterns than their culture of origin does. On the other hand, and this is the challenging part, cosmopolitan diversity is often represented through the assemblage of national and ethnic symbols. This means that products and brands with a strong ethnic/national symbolism may still be of interest for cosmopolitan consumers, not as an expression of who they are, but as resources in the construction of a narrative about who they want to be (their global cosmopolitan identity projects). The difference between ethnic products being an expression of who they are and being a resource that helps in the expression of who they are has implications to marketing communication. This is because it is very different to communicate symbolic ethnicity of a product as an essence of the consumer (e.g. “you need product x, because you are x”; or “you should drink Corona because that’s what Mexicans like”) and to show how it can be used, skilfully, to construct temporary allegiances and build permanent global cosmopolitan identity-projects (“this is how you use product X, in conjunction with Y,Z, to become A”; or “you should drink Corona, because when put together with other drinks, such as Absolut Vodka and Champagne Cristal, the composition makes you belong to the global cosmopolitan imagined community”).
6.6.2.4 The relevance of imagined communities and social imaginaries
The present chapter contributes to understanding the role of imagined communities and the social imaginary in global consumer culture. Global cosmopolitans not only imagine their world individually, but also, and most importantly, collectively. These acts of “imagination can be theorised as an expression of consumer agency” (Chronis, Arnould, and Hampton 2012a, 2), because they are contributing to create
200 consumer behaviour that is part of the global cosmopolitan social imaginary. Anderson (2006) explains that people that are not sharing the same territory can be social through forming and belonging to imagined communities. Similar to Anderson, the informants in this research are part of a largely intangible yet real group of individuals who, despite their distance, share similar characteristics. However, unlike the subjects from Anderson’s work, who imagine their national identities via print capitalism, global cosmopolitans co-create their global identities collectively through the sharing of narratives, during their online and offline interactions. As reflexive subjects, they analyse and evaluate the symbolic result of their own actions, slowly constructing a pool of shared stories, images, ethos, social norms, and practice, which become part of the global cosmopolitan social imaginary. Some practices, which are here called globalising practices, help them to belong to the global cosmopolitan group. This is the case with all the practices associated with the five global cosmopolitan characteristics described here (e.g. simultaneous and interchanging juxtaposing). These same practices help them to differentiate themselves from “others”, who do not enjoy travelling and meeting other cultures and do not appreciate the value of mobility. Joy and Sherry (2003) highlight the relevance of embodiment in understanding imagination. For them, consumers grasp the world directly through their multiple senses and by “imaginary modes of embodiment” (Chronis et al. 2012a). This means that not only global cosmopolitan practices contribute to the formation of a global cosmopolitan imaginary, but the global cosmopolitan imaginary also becomes embodied in the various practices consumers perform. This is consistent with Steger’s idea about the interaction between practices and imaginary. For Steger (2009, 13), “Bourdieu notes that the social imaginary sets the pre-reflexive framework for our daily routines and social repertoires. Structured by social dynamics that produce them while at the same time also structuring those forces, social imaginaries are products of history that
201 ‘generate individual and collective practices—more history—in accordance with the schemes generated by history”. This is why understanding the social imaginary of global cosmopolitans and its related practices is so important. It provides consumer research with the tools not only to observe what they are doing (practices) but to understand why they are doing it (social imaginary that sets the background for their actions). By using a bottom-up approach, describing and classifying self-perceptions of global cosmopolitans and related practices, this chapter increases understanding of global cosmopolitan behaviour.
202 7. Conclusion
The three preceding chapters provide enough evidence to allow me to answer the main research question of this thesis, that is, “How does the global mobility of consumers affect their consumption practices?” More specifically, it allows me to answer two particular sub-questions: “How does the global mobility of consumers affect their notions of time, space and identity?” and “How do these shifts in their notions of time, space and identity affect their consumption practices?” First, I present a summary of the findings and discussion of the three empirical chapters, then I discuss some limitations of the work and finally I draw out some implications of this thesis. 7.1 Summary
Figure 3 - How mobility affects consumption practices
To recap (see Figure 3), the specific literature discussed in the three preceding chapters has shown that key cultural categories, such as “time”, “home” and “cultural
203 identity,” provide meanings to different activities in people’s lives, including a number of consumption-related practices and objects. These cultural categories work as stabilising/coordinating structures, because they help organise diverse objects, practices, symbols, places and relationships into meaningful bundles. For example, in relation to time, past work has shown how Thanksgiving (an example of a consumer ritual associated with cyclical time) can serve as a basis for the coordination of a number of activities related to this ritualised meal, from buying the ingredients to dividing the tasks among family members and finally getting together to eat (Arnould and Wallendorf 1994). To provide another example, in relation to home, past work has shown that objects and possessions can gain specific meanings once they are in the realm of home. A table, as a homey object, may acquire specific meanings that can only be understood in the context of home, where it is also linked to other homey elements in a complex web of meanings (Epp and Price 2010; McCracken 2005). To provide a third example, in relation to cultural identity, past work has shown how identification to a culture may provide meaning to a number of activities that members of that culture perform. For example, Dong and Tian (2009) have shown how identification to Chinese national identity can shape the way Chinese people ascribe meanings to Western brands. In these three examples, Thanksgiving, the house that hosts the table and other objects, and Chinese identity act as stabilising/coordinating structures of consumption activities, because through them diverse activities become related and acquire meaning. Thus, in these examples, a turkey, a table and a Western brand gain particular meanings to consumers when they are understood as components in the construction of a particular time (i.e., Thanksgiving), place (i.e., that particular home) and cultural identity (i.e., Chinese identity). These cultural categories stabilise/coordinate activities because they presuppose a certain order and a certain arrangement. When we think of Thanksgiving, we can imagine a set of practices that should be performed, an arrangement of objects
204 that should be part of it, and the sequence they should happen in, so it can be called Thanksgiving instead of Christmas. Additionally, these cultural categories (i.e., these coordinating structures) are so ingrained in everyday activity that they tend to be taken-for-granted in marketing theory. In other words, although marketing theory frequently acknowledges the role of time, home and cultural identity as key categories for understanding consumers, it rarely questions the nature of these categories. For example, theories on consumer ethnocentrism tend to work on the assumption that consumers will consider people from other countries as “cultural dissimilar” (Shimp and Sharma 1987, 280). It does not consider that the cultural dissimilar may lie elsewhere, far from countries’ boundaries or far from a territorial logic. Similarly, theories on consumers’ home rarely consider the fact that home may be dissociated from the house where someone lives, or that someone may have more than one home. In the same way, theories that relate time and consumption tend to consider time as an objective variable (instead of a cultural construction), or to focus on individual perceptions of time (i.e., timestyles), or in variations of time perceptions among cultures (defined by countries’ geographic boundaries). Marketing theory tends to overlook the fact that time itself can be produced by new patterns of consumer activity, such as the ones developed in conditions of mobility (e.g., mobility cycles shaping decisions of products). The findings of this research show that the mobility of global cosmopolitans destabilises these coordinating structures (i.e., time, home and cultural identity), rendering them problematic. These structures, which are taken for granted by nonmobile consumers, emerge as a problem, because consumers cannot reproduce related practices in the same way (e.g., the fragmentation of home in mobility does not allow consumers to develop home-related practices in the same way they do when they have lived in a house for their whole life). Moreover, this study shows that destabilisation
205 may occur via three complementary processes. First, global mobility may multiply coordinating structures. Instead of one home, global cosmopolitans may have multiple homes. Instead of one cultural identity (usually the national identity), global cosmopolitans may have multiple cultural identities. Instead of one temporal framework, global cosmopolitans may live according to various temporal frameworks, simultaneously. Second, global mobility may fragment the meaning of these coordinating structures. Fragmentation is associated with a destabilisation of the meanings that are customarily associated with a certain cultural category of space, time or identity. This means that in conditions of mobility, coordinating structures may not be able to perform the stabilising/coordinating functions they used to perform for them before they became mobile. Consumers may only have access to fragments of the original meanings. Thus, one of the places considered as “home” for global cosmopolitans may be a place of privacy and safety, but not a place where the family is (some of the homey functions are lacking). Similarly, time-related rituals (e.g., Christmas) may lose some of their meanings when global cosmopolitans are away from their family and close friends. Likewise, national identities may become less capable of explaining the consumer behaviour of transnational mobile individuals. Third, global mobility may disembed consumer activities from the bundle in which they are normally conceived. Thus, two consumer activities such as ice-skating and eating turkey that are linked together by a time-related category (i.e., Christmas holidays) may become dissociated if a global cosmopolitan from the northern hemisphere moved to the southern hemisphere, where ice-skating will not be associated with Christmas holidays. Consequently, as global mobility fragments meanings, multiplies coordinating structures (time, space and identity) and disassembles consumer activities, global cosmopolitans engage in various practices to keep their actions meaningful, coordinated and stable. These actions may sometimes seem liberating (or so it appears from the in-
206 depth interviews and observations of conversations among consumers at InterNations), providing options for what was once a taken-for-granted behaviour. However, being reflexive and agentic about how to behave and which practices to enact requires effort. For example, I observed that consumers who have more than one focal point for home must engage in various practices to access, ground and link the fragmented focal points for home. Consumption practices and objects play key roles in keeping these points grounded and connected. Similarly, consumers may spend a lot of time managing different temporal frameworks, which increases the effort of synchronisation, scheduling and allocation of time-loaded resources. Various activities—such as shopping, storing, using and disposing of objects—may also require extra coordinating efforts when global cosmopolitans have more than one temporal framework to simultaneously support their actions. Fortunately, global mobility seems to be able to provide new stabilising/coordinating structures for place (e.g., networked homes), identity (e.g., global cosmopolitan identities) and time (e.g., mobility cycles and a relationship to the future and past that stems from the present). These new stabilising/coordinating structures organise consumer activities in a way that is different from the way it occurs with less mobile consumers (i.e., the consumers normally discussed in the consumer research literature). Thus, networked homes may perform similar “homey” functions of the traditional home (a household with a family living in that house for a long time), but because they are grounded in many focal points and because they may exist even when they are not grounded, this has implications for the kind of consumption activities that are associated with the networked home (e.g., “Skyping” may become part of home, whereas ordinarily it merely may be seen as an enabling communication technology). Similarly, mobility cycles are associated with certain consumption practices that differ from practices associated with other cycles [e.g., the traditional family life cycle—where the house is expected to reflect the
207 progression of the family in the life cycle (Wilkes 1995)]. Furthermore, flexible identities (such as the global cosmopolitan identity) are based on criteria that do not follow geographical boundaries, although markers of nationality may be used as semiotic resources to compose a multicultural identity. In sum, the three previous chapters demonstrate that global mobility is a key force of globalisation, which works by destabilising cultural categories that coordinate consumer activities. In order to maintain their meanings, consumers either perform reassembling/coordinating practices, or they structure their activities according to a new mobility-based logic. Table 5 summarises the key findings of the thesis.
208 Table 3- Summary of findings
Stabilising structures Temporal frameworks (chapter 4)
Global mobility destabilises structures Multiplication of temporal frameworks demands effort and synchronisation. Fragmentation of the meanings of time-related activities may cause discomfort.
Home (chapter 5)
Cultural identity (chapter 6)
Disembedding of time-structure consumer activities may also require coordinating efforts from consumers. Traditional notion of home becomes problematic for consumers as its meanings become fragmented, its focal points are spread through distant points, and its related activities disassembled. Multiplication of cultural identities creates the need to choose. The centrality of territorial identities decreases because national and ethnic identities become a semiotic resource (an emptied sign of belonging) instead of an expression of “deep” loyalty to the nation. National and ethnic identities cease to be a strong shaper of identity.
Consumers’ managing practices
New mobility-related structures
• Zoning (grouping activities per timezone or culture) • Projecting themselves in the future • Assembling time-keeping objects together • Developing time-management routines • Developing portable routines • Using temporal boundary objects
• Temporal boundary objects • Embodied mobility rhythms • Cycles of global mobility • Re-constructed global past • Future orientation
• • • •
• Networked homes, with their stable and temporary focal points
Accessing home Grounding home Linking home Uprooting home
Managing national and ethnic identities: • Expressing beneficial allegiances • Downplaying undesirable allegiances • Understanding stereotypes and using cultural heuristics • Sharing information about cultural norms Globalising practices: • Uprooting practices • Alternating the display of allegiances to national and ethnic cultures (interchanging juxtaposition) • Using arrangements to create pastiche effect of being multicultural (simultaneous juxtaposition) Challenging taken-for-granted cultural practices and objects • Individual storytelling • Collective storytelling • Understanding, sharing, evaluating and validating cosmopolitan way of life
• Multicultural, flexible, mobile identities • Imagined communities of global cosmopolitans • Social imaginary of global cosmopolitans (as part of a mobility culture)
209 7.2 Research Limitations and Extensions
InterNations data should be interpreted with caution. Members of InterNations are exceptionally self-aware (due to their high reflexivity), self-selected (only persons who see themselves as global cosmopolitans look for a group like that) and conscious of the way they wish to be seen. These factors result in a community of performance where comments are intentionality made for impression management, that is, a conscious or unconscious process in which people attempt to influence the perceptions of other people about a person, object or event (Leary and Kowalski 1990). Thus, their narratives are filtered by their idea of how they think they should be and behave. Although it is a limitation of the data, the performance of identity at InterNations is not necessarily detrimental to the research findings, as the performative aspects highlight features of the social imaginary of global cosmopolitans that may not be so obvious when they are not performing (e.g., showing off their multicultural past experiences). Nevertheless, the other data set (i.e., in-depth interviews with global cosmopolitans) helped to partially overcome this limitation by allowing investigation of other aspects of their behaviour. Although they were also performing to some extent in the interviews, the intimate context of the interview and some of the questions enabled probing of less discussed issues. The other drawback with interviews is that they included only one or two people (the couple). Future research may engage with global cosmopolitan families for longer periods, or purposefully look for instances when they might not be performing their global cosmopolitan identity. Noticeable too is the overall positive tone of informants’ accounts of their global mobility. Most of the time, the consequences of mobility are reinforced and celebrated by the informants, not leaving much room for moaning, complaining or regretting. The positive tone is a consequence of three different factors: a limitation in the methods, the
210 conceptual framework and choice of research questions, and the global cosmopolitan imaginary. First, the limitation in the methods (as explained previously) has to do with the reflexivity and performativity of the self at InterNations and the interviews. In the performance of global cosmopolitan identities, mobility is idealised and any residual positive feelings attached to immobility may be suppressed (e.g., the feeling of deep attachment to a local community and a meaningful place). Second, this research was intended to contribute to understanding the imaginaries and practices associated with being a global cosmopolitan. Thompson and Tambyah (1999) have already shown that dwelling discourses (discourse of roots) are present in cosmopolitan lives, and that these “negative” discourses are in dynamic tension with the predominant cosmopolitan travelling discourses. If this study focussed on global cosmopolitans who want to have roots despite their mobility, it would only replicate Thompson and Tambyah’s theoretical findings. To go beyond their findings and extend their research, it was important to show how those people who embraced the cosmopolitan discourse managed to find stability in their lives. For example, one of the issues under investigation was “Given mobility is part of your life, how do you manage to construct home?” The question has a “positive tone” to it, as it focuses on construction and stability. Thus, instead of investigating the difficulties of creating a rooted home (which would not add much theoretically as there is plenty written about that); I focussed on cases where people have managed to create a sense of home while being mobile (rather than despite being mobile). Even in doing so, problems surfaced, as is the case in the section on the “empty house,” which is not only empty of objects, but also of people. Future research could go deeper into exploring the material and spiritual emptiness in their lives. It could also include the accounts of informants who stayed back; for example, relatives and friends who see signs of absence, regret and solitude amongst those who are comparatively mobile.
211 The third reason for the positive tone in the accounts is the fact that the global cosmopolitan imaginary, as a typical construction of the second modernity (Giddens 1991), has characteristics of an enterprise culture (Du Gay 1991). In the enterprise culture, structural problems become tasks that consumers must perform (Du Gay 1996). Thus, it is not so much that members of InterNations do not talk about the difficulties of being mobile, but they frame these difficulties in terms of personal challenges (tasks) that need to be overcome. According to their ethos, failing to overcome the challenges of mobility is considered a failure of the self, something to be ashamed of; mobility is never to be blamed (it is a given in their life). Facing these challenges successfully is a token of membership to the global cosmopolitan community. Accordingly, in many ways, the positive accounts reveal a lot about global cosmopolitan ethos and social imaginaries. Nonetheless, future research could use methods such as Garfinkel’s (1994) ethnomethodology to show how communities of global cosmopolitans are able to react to members who defy this ethos by, for example, blaming mobility for the problems in their lives. Finally, this research also limited the scope of the three chosen structuring cultural categories (time, space and identity). Although they are the key pillars of cultural analysis, for matters of practicality, this study focussed on certain notions of time (e.g., future, past, and cycles), on home as a category of place/space, and on cultural identity as a category of identity. Limiting the scope to certain categories helped with the interviews and the fieldwork analysis. However, the findings of this research encourage further exploration of how global mobility changes our relationship to time, space and identity in other instances. For example, the relationship to places one encounters when travelling may change in conditions of global mobility. Augé (1995) has argued that airports, supermarkets and highways are “non-places”, because they are places of transience that do not hold enough significance to be seen as places.
212 Given the findings of this research, it is possible that, in the networked world of global cosmopolitans, these non-places are indeed places, full of meaning and stability. Studying global cosmopolitan place-making practices in these contexts suggests interesting extensions. For example, Bengtsson et al. (2010) show how global brands like McDonald’s and Starbucks may create a sense of home abroad. Future research could examine whether airports and other “non-places” can also promote a sense of home abroad, or whether these “non-places” are part of other place-making practices. Additionally, future research could look at other ways of conceptualising the relationship between global mobility and space, time and identity by, for example, concentrating on the multicultural encounters, movements and rhythms of global cosmopolitans who only move across global cities (global cityscapes). Global cities are known to exercise pulling and pushing forces on migrating populations (Sassen 2001), so to examine them as being linked through a network of mobile people, which presupposes particular imaginations and forms of consumption, could also be theoretically fruitful.
7.3 Contributions and Implications
Contributions are divided into two groups: contributions to understanding consumption in late modernity and contributions to understanding global consumer culture. Each section starts with a paragraph delineating the key contributions; remaining paragraphs in each section discuss implications.
7.3.1 Consumption in late modernity
Working under the assumption that mobility is a key process of flexible
213 capitalism (Urry 2006), this research empirically demonstrates and details the process by which global mobility destabilises and re-structures consumers’ activities. Specifically, the findings of this research show that (1) the global mobility of consumers affects their notions of time, space and identity through processes of fragmentation of meaning, disembedding of consumption activities and multiplication of coordinating structures. The empirical findings also demonstrates that (2) consumers respond to these processes by increasing their workload to manage and stabilise their lives. More importantly, the research shows evidence that (3) global mobility also enables other notions of time, space and identity and that (4) these notions bring about new structures that function as new sources of stability in consumers’ lives. The following paragraphs detail the implications of each of these points.
7.3.1.1 The destabilising (or stabilising?) power of mobility
In the Introduction, I argue that global mobility can contribute to our understanding of consumer life in the age of late modernity, because mobility simulates many aspects of this phase of flexible capitalism. The findings provide evidence for this claim by showing that mobility is associated with various aspects of late modernity: disembedding of consumer activities, high self-reflexivity, fragmentation of life experiences and juxtaposition of opposites (Bauman 2000; Beck et al. 1994; Featherstone 1995; Firat 1997; Firat and Venkatesh 1995; Giddens 1991). More specifically, this research uses evidence from three different analytic categories (space, time and identity) to empirically demonstrate how mobility destabilises consumers’ lives, leading to fragmentation of meanings, multiplication of coordinating structures and disembedding of social activities. In addition, reflexivity and juxtaposition of opposites were discussed as part of the findings in Chapter Six. I showed that
214 consumers’ self-reflexivity is necessary for the monitoring of national and ethnic identities and that juxtaposition of opposites works as a stabilising identity practice that aims at counterbalancing the effects of fragmentation, multiplication and disembedding by enabling global cosmopolitan identities. Another principle of second modernity, individualisation, is also present as a background principle in the three substantive chapters, especially because geographical mobility literally separates and isolates people. Individualisation—a consequence of social changes in late modernity, in which individuals are increasingly required to construct their own lives (Bauman 2000; Giddens 1991)—is highlighted as a key feature of the responses of consumers to fragmentation, disembedding and multiplication. The burden of managing the structural changes caused by mobility is carried by individual consumers who have their workload increased. This comes across most clearly in the chapter about cultural identity. Consumers with multiple cultural identities need to engage in extra identity work to coordinate the performances of their various national identities, in order to express the one that is the most beneficial for them in a particular situation. When identity becomes a choice, it increases consumers’ identity work. On top of that, mobile consumers have to show they are good at blending the elements in a skilful way to show they deserve to belong to the group of global cosmopolitans. In many ways, consumers are forced to perform the stabilising and coordinating functions that can be taken for granted in situations of non-mobility. This reveals the paradox of second modernity: free choice for the individual to reassemble activities in time, space and identity becomes a burden. Bauman (2000) explains that the individualisation characteristic of our times “consists of transforming human identity from a ‘given’ into a ‘task’ and charging the actors with the responsibility for performing that task and for the consequences (also the side effects of their performance)” (p. 32). In our times of liquid modernity, the paradox then seems to be:
215 “in the land of individual freedom of choice, the option to escape individualisation and to refuse to participate in the individualising game is emphatically not in the agenda” (p. 34). Freedom to choose is compulsory. Thus, under discourses that glamorise mobility, travel and freedom, I observed effort, a lot of effort. These findings reinforce the idea that mobility foreshadows situations in which the principles of modernity are even more radical. If we agree with theorists from diverse fields (Augé 1995; Beck 2006; Giddens 1990; Harvey 1999) who affirm that we are in a phase of increasing radicalisation of the principles of modernity, then the findings of these studies suggest that by studying consumer life in highly mobile contexts (such as global cosmopolitans), one may also catch glimpses of where second modernity is taking us. More importantly, it allows us to see beyond fragmentation, disembedding, individualisation and erosion of certain institutions. The empirical findings show that these “destructive” processes are only one side of the equation. On the other side, there are new structures being produced out of fragmentation (e.g., other spaces, other temporal frameworks, other forms of identity). Much has been written about the globalisation of fragmentation and the other maladies of second modernity affecting consumption (Firat 1997; Firat and Dholakia 1998). This study suggests that it might be time for consumer researchers to also concentrate on the new formations and structures that replace the crumbling ones. It encourages researchers to focus on the sources of stability in these changing scenarios.
7.3.1.2 New structures of mobility
The findings support the idea that mobility produces new structures (i.e., new temporal frameworks, new places and spaces, new identities). There are three central issues for consumers regarding these new structures: stability, networks and
216 embodiment of mobility structures. First, new structures seem to be able to re-install stability in people’s lives. I have shown how destabilisation of home, temporal frameworks and cultural identity can be problematic for consumers. In this sense, global cosmopolitan consumers are very modern, in the way they expect progress and stability in their lives. The new structures of home, time and cultural identity emerge because they are able to provide new sources of comfort for consumers and to create constants in consumers’ lives. For example, it is comforting for global cosmopolitans to know that the stages of mobility (arrival, stay and departure) are repeated over and over through mobility cycles. It is also comforting for them to know they belong to a group of people with similar characteristics and mobile backgrounds, despite their various national backgrounds or their hosting society. Second, I show that in many cases the new structures created by mobility take the shape of networks. In this work, networks are assemblages of concrete elements, practices, social relations, emotions and meanings that are linked together by imagined relationships. This is consistent with (Castells 1996, 469) who argues that “networks constitute the new social morphology of our societies, and the diffusion of networking logic substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in processes of production, experience, power, and culture.” It is also in line with Delanty (2006, 32) who says that “mobilities are not just flows but networked relations and are globally organised in new kinds of spaces and temporal processes.” Similarly, it is also consistent with Urry (2003) who argues that mobile lives unfold through networks and global assemblages. This work extends Castells’, Delanty’s and Urry’s frameworks by showing how mobility leads to networked structures in consumers’ lives. Specifically, it shows that mobility seems to act as an accelerating force in this process, speeding up the transition from more traditional structures into more networked structures. For example, the findings reveal that global cosmopolitans maintain the functions and stability
217 traditionally offered by the situated home through the maintenance of networked homes that can span multiple territories, or even be deterritorialised. Through a number of practices (linking, accessing, grounding, uprooting) concrete and symbolic components of the networked home are integrated. The existence of the networked home shows that the notion of home still exists and is important for global cosmopolitans; however, it does not follow the same principles of territoriality or proximity that the traditional notion of home entails. These networks allow life to exist in conditions of mobility. Additionally, these networks provide meanings to global cosmopolitans’ lives. A network is not just an assemblage of elements. It involves particular meanings that are associated not with one component of the assemblage, but with its totality. Thus, for Donald, the networked home is meaningful because it makes sense in its totality. Each component of the networked home is incapable of substituting the functions and symbolism of all the elements of the networked home. Similarly, each component of the global cosmopolitan identity (e.g., individual national identities) cannot substitute the multicultural meaning that the assemblage expresses. This is consistent with Ong and Collier’s (2004, 12) idea of assemblages, which is “the product of multiple determinations that are not reducible to a single logic.” As a consequence, if we do not understand these spatial and temporal assemblages and how mobile people identify with them, we cannot fully understand their behaviour. It is important to understand their behaviour as part of a larger effort to seek stability via networks. For example, from a utilitarian point of view, it would be difficult to explain why consumers may keep their furniture in paid storage for years if they have no real intention of ever using this furniture again. From the point of view of the networked home, the furniture is symbolically demarcating the boundaries of the networked home, fixing one of its focal points in a site that may serve a stabilising purpose for consumers. Similarly, it would be difficult to use extant theory to explain
218 why Osito, the teddy bear (a cherished possession), moves around, among Heidi’s friends. However, under the light of the networked home, its role becomes clearly part of the linking practices that maintain the components of the networked home together. Focusing on assemblages and networks is important because they provide a theoretical explanation for paradoxical findings in this research. For example, past consumer research affirms that the possession and use of national and ethnic symbols by consumers are signs of their allegiance to a specific national cultural or a specific ethnic group (Askegaard et al. 2005; Mehta and Belk 1991; Peñaloza 1994). By contrast, this study suggests that the use and possession of national and ethnic symbols may also be used as resources in the construction of other cultural identities. Specifically, the findings suggest that certain cultural identities (e.g., global cosmopolitan identity) presuppose the skilful assemblage of national and ethnic symbols into meaningful new arrangements. Further, these arrangements also explain why global cosmopolitans, although well-travelled, and thus possessing some knowledge of heterogeneity within other cultures, constantly rely on stereotypes and cultural heuristics to temporarily express their national and ethnic identities. Stereotypes are a particularly useful tool when composing assemblages, because they enhance the contrasts within the network, facilitating the display of diversity. Furthermore, understanding cosmopolitan identity as the identification with a meaningful network of contrasting signs (juxtaposition of opposites organised as assemblages) sheds light into Linda’s behaviour of wearing and combining clothes from different countries of origin. Past consumer research on cosmopolitans may explain this behaviour as an attempt by Linda to differentiate herself from locals (Holt 1998), or an attempt to consume the “Other”, or to be flexible (Thompson and Tambyah 1999). This study emphasises that, beyond these factors, Linda’s behaviour has an important role in increasing her social status among other global cosmopolitans. The choice she makes in
219 the composition of her outfits encapsulates the knowledge she has about resources in different geographies and about how to combine them in arrangements. Her behaviour displays skills that are deeply valorised by global cosmopolitans. Thus, her behaviour encodes more an attempt to stand out among her peers, than to differentiate herself from locals. In sum, networks allow us to understand behaviour that could not be understood before, or that was understood partially because the focus was on the object. Comprehending the new structures in terms of consumer embodiment is also important. Consumers living in conditions of mobility embody these structural characteristics, reproducing a “mobility” habitus through practices that are associated with being mobile (Sandra provides an excellent illustration of this when she describes how she “developed” travelling practices over the years to match her travelling routines). This embodiment of mobility structures clarifies the nature of some consumer behaviours that could not be properly explained by previous theories. For example, without understanding the influence of mobility cycles on global cosmopolitans, it becomes difficult to explain why Paul Kim, a rich successful doctor buys his furniture at IKEA (a store known for its inexpensive short-lived goods), or why many other upper middle class informants would live in ‘empty’ apartments. Very recent research has begun to explain these behaviours as a type of liquid relationship to possessions, which are based only on use-value and instrumentality (Bardhi et al. 2012). Extending such work, this research shows that this liquid relationship to possessions occurs as a consequence of the embodiment of mobility cycles. It suggests that global cosmopolitans learn to consider (consciously or unconsciously) the future consequences of their purchase (especially the moment of disposal), which may prevent them from developing deeper attachments to possessions. This work suggests that it might not be so much the case of a new kind of relationship to possessions being developed (i.e., a liquid relationship to possessions), but the fact that the mobility cycles may make it hard
220 for consumers to develop other (deeper/symbolic) types of relationships to possessions. In other words, global cosmopolitans may be less attached to possessions, not so much because they value detachment, but because they have embodied the future consequences of their mobility (through exposure to mobility cycles), which prevents them from attaching and accumulating. This difference has important implications. For example, consider brand A, which sells clothes to global cosmopolitans. If they believe global cosmopolitans can only develop liquid relationships to their clothes, there is not much they can do to advertise their products, besides emphasising their situational and use-value. However, if they believe the only reason global cosmopolitans are not developing deeper attachments to their clothes is because of mobility cycles (i.e., eventual disposal of the item when moving), they can enhance attachment if they can find a way of removing their clothes from the threats of the mobility cycles (e.g., emphasising its portability or re-sale value). Moreover, mobility cycles can also shed light on the relationship between mobile consumers and objects. Mobility cycles may regulate the desirability of goods. When the desirability of objects becomes conditioned by the mobility stage that the consumer is presently in (e.g., furniture is needed in the settlement phase, but not in the departure stage) this heightens the object’s use-value when it is most needed, but at the same time lowers its value when it is not needed. Bardhi found that mobile consumers’ relationship to possessions is one of increased situational and use-value. I extend that by suggesting that there is a dialectical relationship between objects and mobile consumers. Whether or not use-value is relied upon or not depends on the mobility cycle stage the consumer is in.
221 7.3.2 Global consumer culture
This research contributes to the literature on global consumer culture by highlighting the centrality of global mobility in understanding the cultural consequences of globalisation. The focus on mobility (1) expands the conceptual and methodological options needed to overcome the limitations of “methodological nationalism,” a common assumption in consumer research studies of global consumer culture. The focus on mobility also (2) contributes to the studies that view global consumer culture as a set of dynamic processes. Additionally, the findings of this study highlights (3) the productive power of mobile imaginations as social practices and the structuring role of the global cosmopolitan social imaginary. In particular, it shows how the social imaginary provides the background for new structures of time, space and identity that shape consumption practices. Moreover, the findings show (4) how these new structures are made possible via the marketplace in arrangements of tangible and intangible elements. The findings also show (5) how objects gain new meanings associated with their role in networks. The following paragraphs will detail the implications of each of these points.
7.3.2.1 Challenging methodological nationalism
By developing a new methodological approach to consumer research (i.e., mixing global ethnography and the Extended Case Method) that uses mobile populations (mobile individuals and community of mobiles) as its unit of analysis, this work contributes to studies that show the limitations and pitfalls of methodological nationalism (Craig and Douglas 2006). Methodological nationalism is a term coined by Martins (1974) and later used by Smith (2004) and other social scientists. It refers to the “assumption that the nation/state/society is the natural social and political form of the modern world” (Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2002, 301). Apparently, 200 years of living
222 under the logic of nation-states have blinded many scholars to other possible ways of approaching problems in the social sciences. In essence, critics of methodological nationalism argue that it makes certain historical trends and forms of identity completely invisible (Chernilo 2006). By following a group of mobile consumers, and registering the transformations of the notions of home, time and identity, this work contributes to exposing the limitations of models that take “national discourses, agendas, loyalties and histories for granted, without problematising them or making them an object of an analysis in its own right” (Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2002, 304). In marketing theory, it is a common practice to assume that a country has one national culture and to use national culture as the unit of analysis for examining culture (Craig and Douglas 2006).These studies tend to take national identities for granted and to overlook other types of cultural identities (Nakata 2009; Steenkamp 2001). An analysis of global cosmopolitan identities directly challenges methodological nationalism, as it uses methods that favour “methodological cosmopolitanism” (Beck and Sznaider 2006, 4), a perspective that rejects the “national organisation as a structural principle for societal and political action.” The boundaries of this study were created by patterns of mobility, instead of patterns of territoriality (nation-states).
7.3.2.2 Mobility as a central process in global consumer culture
Understanding mobility as a central process in globalisation enables a more dynamic perspective on global consumer culture. This work contributes to the group of studies that sees global consumer culture as a set of dynamic processes that are a consequence of cultural globalisation (Cayla and Eckhardt 2008; Kjeldgaard and Askegaard 2006; Thompson and Arsel 2004). For example, Cayla and Eckhardt show how brands (and brand managers) help build transnational imagined worlds. Kjeldgaard
223 and Askegaard explain how youthscapes become “structures of common difference” in global consumer culture. Thompson and Arsel explain how new branded global spaces (e.g., Starbucks brandscape) provide the locus and the discourse through which opposing cultural discourses, consumption practices and symbolic identifications are articulated. Similarly, this study points to the centrality of mobility and its associated imaginaries to the understanding of new forms and structures that emerge in global consumer culture.
This study also extends the work on movement, migration and acculturation (Askegaard et al. 2005; Oswald 1999; Peñaloza 1994). Past work on consumer movement has tended to look at the movement of people as processes of emigration and immigration, which expresses a territorial way of thinking by which migrants either leave a territory or enter a territory. As a result, studies on immigration have tended to examine consumption practices related to leaving and entering a country, that is, the practices associated with consumer assimilation and acculturation. In contrast, this study focuses on mobility as a condition experienced by consumers. When consumers are examined as living in conditions of mobility, living in various places represents only stages in their mobile lives. The focus on mobility in a world where objects and people are constantly crossing borders allows for new cultural forms and processes to be observed. For example, this study showed that mobility acts as a double-edged sword that destabilises some cultural categories, while enabling others. 7.3.2.3 Imaginations of mobility cultures
This work highlights the symbolic dimension of mobility and the productive role of imagination in global consumer culture. A few researchers have discussed the role of imagination in consumer research (Chronis, Arnould, and Hampton 2012b; Kozinets et
224 al. 2002; Martin 2004; Peñaloza 2001b, 2001a) and a few have started looking at the role of travel and mobility (Bardhi et al. 2012; Thompson and Tambyah 1999; Veresiu and Giesler 2011). However, this study highlights the importance of understanding the imagination and social imaginary associated with mobility as a way of understanding the production of meaning in global consumer culture. For Cresswell (2006), mobility is movement imbued with meaning. Without its symbolic dimension, mobility would be just movement. Thus, Appadurai (1996) has urged scholars to look at global consumer culture from the perspective of the imaginaries they engender. Appadurai has made some important connections between the creation of modern social imaginaries and the global circulation of people, ideas, capital, technologies and images: The image, the imagined, the imaginary… are all terms that direct us to something critical and new in global cultural processes: the imagination as a social practice. No longer mere fantasy (opium for the masses whose real work is elsewhere), no longer simple escape (from a world defined principally by more concrete purposes and structures), no longer elite pastime (thus not relevant to the lives of ordinary people) and no longer mere contemplation (irrelevant for new forms of desire and subjectivity), the imagination has become an organised field of social practices, a form of work (in the sense of both labour and culturally organised practice), and a form of negotiation between sites of agency (individuals) and globally defined fields of possibility. (1996, 31)
The findings of this research expand on Appadurai’s view by showing how imagination can be a central process in understanding consumption practices in global consumer culture. In particular, this study shows how imagination associated with being mobile can shape and provide meaning to a number of consumption practices. The findings also respond to Benjamin Lee’s suggestion that more empirical research should be done to understand the culture and imaginations around mobility. Lee (2002, 237)
225 argued that “circulation [mobility] is more than the movement of people, ideas, and commodities from one society to another it is also a cultural process with its own types of abstraction and constraint that are produced by the nature of the circulating forms and the imagined communities that interpret and use them.” Thus, when trying to understand how the mobility of global cosmopolitans shapes their consumption practices, I am also helping to define, map and understand the processes of imagination and the social imaginary created by their mobile lifestyle. As the substantive chapters have demonstrated, without understanding these processes and the world in which global cosmopolitans live, it becomes harder to interpret the meaning they ascribe to consumption acts.
7.3.2.4 Individual and collective storytelling
As observed in the findings, networks are the result of temporal and spatial arrangements. These arrangements can be expressed through consumers’ narratives (oral, written, visual) that organise the temporal and spatial elements into assemblages with meaning. Storytelling plays a major role at the InterNations’ gatherings, because it is through storytelling that the various spatial and temporal elements are linked to gain meaning. When members of InterNations tell stories about the places they have lived, things they have done and objects they possess, they are weaving these elements together to discursively construct and communicate spatial and temporal arrangements. When informants explain how they use technologies (such as Skype, WhatsApp and Facebook) to keep the elements of their network connected, they are also recreating spatial and temporal arrangements. When informants describe how they shop and maintain possessions across various territories they are also assembling the elements of their networked life into spatial and temporal arrangements. What is important to
226 observe here is that the arrangement—the way the elements of the network are organised—is as central to the network as the elements themselves. This is why the narrative and the composition are so important for global cosmopolitans: they convey the temporal and spatial arrangements. Additionally, global cosmopolitans develop a sense of who they are based on these arrangements. Their identification occurs with the network (the arrangement itself) and not with the individual elements of the arrangement. Thus, for example, skilled global cosmopolitans are the ones who can show they belong to various national cultures. They are admired among their peers for their ability to alternate between multiple national allegiances, not for the individual allegiances they display. The flag gallery on the InterNations’ profile is a good illustration of these arrangements. It does not matter much what specific flags one has in the flag gallery. Having lots of flags is a symbol of global cosmopolitanism, independently of the individual flags. Similarly, having many clocks on the wall pointing to diverse temporal frameworks also tells a story of global cosmopolitanism. Each temporal framework is not important, but the arrangement is, because it tells a global cosmopolitan story.
7.3.2.5 Market mediation, object signification and cultural production
Consumer practices and the new mobility structures (networks, arrangements, cycles) are mediated by elements of the marketplace. For example, the networked home is only possible because the marketplace supplies technologies of communication, transportation, exchange and distribution that allow consumers to re-build their homes. A number of people believe their “dropbox” (a virtual storage place offered by the market) is the safest place to keep their files and photos. Without mediation from the
227 marketplace, the networked home would not be possible. Similarly, the use of temporal boundary objects (such as Google Calendars) is facilitated by technology offered by the market. Moreover, the existence of a community of global cosmopolitans worldwide is only feasible because these people can count on a virtual platform that helps the network to become visible. However, the marketplace is not only providing the means of communication and relationship building. In many ways, it also helps to make tangible the social imaginaries of global cosmopolitans. InterNations’ flag galleries, global images, forums and debates are provided partially in response to members’ demands. The website has recently launched a new feature, which includes a city and a country guide based on the demands and needs of members. In the past, some members have reported trips they made relying only on the advice given by other global cosmopolitans. Because global cosmopolitans belong to the middle, upper middle and upper global classes and have access to economic resources that fuel the capitalist system, they are valuable consumers in the marketplace. For that reason, they have their desires and imaginations materialised by markets. This is important, because their imaginations are not only restructuring their lives, but they are materialising in consumer goods (mobile technologies such as smartphones and tablets are the quintessential examples of how the marketplace has produced items for these consumers). Lash and Lury (2007, 182) have described this process as a “structural coupling between the virtual objects of the global culture industry and our social imaginary.” They highlight the productive force of the social imaginary of consumers when coupled with marketplace offerings. If mobility is producing new forms of imaginations and new social imaginaries (as this study showed in dimensions of time, space and identity), then mobility is key to understanding the production of signs and objects in global consumer culture. Bardhi et al. (2012) have shown that mobile people may develop relationships to
228 possessions that are instrumental, situational and intangible. I show that these relationships, far from being just instrumental, perform an important symbolic function in the constitution of other kinds of objects (the ones associated with the new structures). However, these relationships can only be observed when one shifts the theoretical lens from possession as tangible objects that belong to us, to possessions as fluid assemblages of tangible objects, intangible objects, practices and relationships (e.g., networked places and temporal boundary objects). Marketplace goods undergo a process of re-signification (Certeau 1984; Elliott 1999) under mobility. Therefore, digitalised pictures exchanged via WhatsApp, mailed and transported gifts, and a teddy bear become valuable because they are linking tools for building and maintaining the networked home. The practices of drinking and eating with fellow expats may be valuable for their ability to create a shared past, which provides stability for global cosmopolitans. Undergoing difficult experiences in other countries (e.g., eating scorpions in China) may be a tool for a cosmopolitan identity construction. This challenges models of meaning and production of value that state that cultural meanings are contained in the goods themselves (McCracken 1988a), because their meaning may change depending on their function in the network. Here, I show that in conditions of mobility, goods are re-signified and put to work for consumers’ homemaking, time-coordinating and identity-constructing purposes. As Firat (1999, 293) has affirmed “the ‘production’ of (value and valuables) occurs in consumption.” Firat pushes the argument of production in consumption even further by stating that “this [re]signification of consumption as production would require that we articulate the products at different moments of production without privileging only some as valuable—all have different values. This means that value has to be re-conceptualised as having multiple, not singularly economic, content(s)” (p. 293). The current work seems to support Firat’s view by showing that consumers produce value when they use
229 these marketplace objects to create and maintain networks. The re-signification of objects in the network also leads to a change in their value for consumers. In addition, these findings extend the meaning-making model of Peñaloza (2000, 2001a), which shows that meanings are co-produced by several marketplace actors and diverse levels of interaction. This research shows the importance of cultural categories in structuring the way these interactions happen. In Peñaloza’s context (i.e., trade shows), cultural categories of time, space and identity are embedded in the local context and thus they are not highlighted as key structuring categories (i.e., they are taken for granted in the context). However, in conditions of mobility, where contexts are fluid and deterritorialised, locality is no longer the provider of a common framework for cultural categories to be based on. New structures of time, space and identity replace the structuring/stabilising/coordinating function of the locale. These new structuring categories are being produced (imagined) by consumers and integrated into the global cosmopolitan social imaginary. More importantly, these new structuring categories (the ones used by global cosmopolitans such as the mobility cycles and networked home) are being collectively produced in non-local (deterritorialised) contexts by consumers’ global cosmopolitan imaginations and various re-made tangible locales (think of how global cosmopolitans arrange their new houses to conform to their imagined idea of dwelling).
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230 mobility of consumers unlocks.
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Appendices
257
Appendix A - Ethics
Approval No 09666
PARTICIPANT INFORMATION STATEMENT AND CONSENT FORM
Investigating the consumption of Transnational Mobile Professionals –
You are invited to participate in a study on Transnational Mobile Professionals. The purpose of this study is to investigate consumption patterns of transnational mobile professionals. You were selected as a possible participant in this study because of your experience of living and working in more than one country or because of your experience of working with TMPs.
If you decide to participate, we might need to conduct three in-depth interviews during the course of a year. Each interview is completely voluntary, and takes approximately one hour. The interview will take place preferably at your home, but it can also happen in the place of your choice. In it I will ask you about your professional and educational background, your experience in living in different countries and your experiences as a consumer. This research is part of a doctoral thesis.
Any information that is obtained in connection with this study and that can be identified with you will remain confidential and will be disclosed only with your permission, except as required by law. If you give your consent, the interview will be digitally recorded, as that will allow the researcher to concentrate more on the interview itself. The digital file will be kept confidential. If, for any reasons, you do not wish to be taperecorded, hand-written notes only may be taken.
259
If you give us your permission to be interviewed by signing this document, we plan to discuss the contents of this interview in academic and professional conferences and to publish such results in academic publications. In any publication, unless we get your permission, information will be provided in such a way that you cannot be identified. In July 2012, at the completion of the study, a summary of research findings will be available to you if you request by email to
[email protected]
Complaints may be directed to the Ethics Secretariat, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052 Australia (phone: 9385 4234, fax 9385 6648, email
[email protected]). Any complaint you make will be investigated promptly and you will be informed out the outcome.
Your decision whether or not to participate will not prejudice your future relations with the University of New South Wales. If you decide to participate, you are free to withdraw your consent and to discontinue participation at any time without prejudice. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us. If you have any additional questions later, feel free to get in touch with me by email
[email protected] or with Dr. Julien Cayla
[email protected] and we will be happy to answer them.
You will be given a copy of this form to keep.
260
PARTICIPANT INFORMATION STATEMENT AND CONSENT FORM (continued) Investigating the consumption of Transnational Mobile Professionals –
You are making a decision whether or not to participate. Your signature indicates that, having read the information provided above, you have decided to participate.
…………………………………………………… Signature of Research Participant
.……………………………………………………. Signature of Witness
…………………………………………………… (Please PRINT name)
.……………………………………………………. (Please PRINT name)
.……………………………………………………. Date
261
Method of interview (tick one): □ Digitally record and take notes of the interview □ Take notes of the interview only Your signature indicates that, having read the information provided above, you have agreed to participate using one of the methods above.
…………………………………………………… Signature of Research Participant
.……………………………………………………. Signature of Witness
…………………………………………………… (Please PRINT name)
.……………………………………………………. (Please PRINT name)
.……………………………………………………. Date Mr. Bernardo Figueiredo – Project Leader Australian School of Business School of Marketing Room 3005 Quadrangle Building, Level 3 University of New South Wales New South Wales Sydney 2052 Phone: +61 2 93852638
262
REVOCATION OF CONSENT Investigating the consumption of Transnational Mobile Professionals
I hereby wish to WITHDRAW my consent to participate in the research proposal described above and understand that such withdrawal WILL NOT jeopardise any treatment or my relationship with The University of New South Wales.
.……………………………………………………. Signature
…………………………………………………… Please PRINT Name
The section for Revocation of Consent should be forwarded to
Mr. Bernardo Figueiredo Australian School of Business School of Marketing Room 3005 Quadrangle Building, Level 3 University of New South Wales New South Wales Sydney 2052 Phone: +61 2 93852638
Date
263
264
Appendix B – Fact Sheet and Interview Guide
265
Fact Sheet :
Please, complete the following survey as precisely as you can. Let me know if you have any problems. Thank you!
Name: ____________________________________________
Age: ______________________________________________
Education Level: ______________
Current Occupation: _______________
Profession (if different from above): ______________________
Country of origin (birth): _____________________
Nationalities and Permanent Residencies: _____________________
Country of current residency: ________________
Countries of past residencies (and time spent in each country):
_________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Ethnic background: _____________________________ Civil Status: □ Single □ Married □ De-facto □ Divorced □ Single Parent □ Widowed □ Other
266
Age of spouse/ de-facto: ____________
Education Level of spouse / de -facto: ______________
Current Occupation of spouse/ de-facto: _______________
Profession (if different from above): ______________ Do you have kids? □Yes □ No If yes, how many kids do you have? _____________________
What is your first language? ______________________________
What other languages do you speak?
Approximate Household Annual income (1.000 AUD): □ 0 – 50
□ 50 – 75
□75-100
□ 100-125
□ 125-150
□150-157
□175-200
□200-250
□ 250 -300
□+300
267
Interview Guide
Guide for the Interview with Global Cosmopolitans Technique: The long interview (McCracken 1988)
I would like to hear about your experience of having lived and worked in many countries. How was it? And what was the motivation to go to each place? There is no right or wrong answer. Feel free to start from any point you wish and proceed from there. I will ask you questions only to clarify the parts that are not clear.
Other questions might be made to clarify issues and to help the consumers in points where the interview has come to a halt. The questions below are intended to aid the interviewer and are not part of a fixed structure. The objective of the interview is to have the respondent describe his life trajectory and his life as a transnational mobile professional.
Examples of possible complementary questions:
Introductory Questions and background information •
Can you please tell me a little bit about yourself, your educational background for example?
•
Can you briefly describe the nature of your current job?
•
Can you tell me about your professional experiences before coming to Australia? What have you done before that?
•
In which countries have you lived?
•
Tell me a little about your family?
•
What nationality do you carry?
•
Do you travel a lot?
•
Do you have any hobbies?
268
Homeland
Where were you born? Did you also grow up there? How often do you visit X these days? What takes you there? In which ways is this place part of your life? In which ways have it influenced your life (key decisions, mind-set) ? What images come to your mind when you think of X ? What are some things you carry or possess that might remind you of that place? What did you study? Where?
Identity and mobility •
What are the major challenges about living in different countries?
•
What advices would you give to someone that wants to live and work in different countries? What should the person know?
•
How have your experiences about living in different countries shaped you life?
•
if you take a moment and reflect back on your relationship to these places you have lived and to your mobility, can you think of some ways that your relationship to these places has changed because of the fact you have lived in different countries?
•
How does your experience, activities, and life at home has changed because of you mobility?
•
How do you define yourself?
•
How does the fact you’ve lived in different countries affect your identity? –
•
Now that you have lived in more than three countries, what have you learned about moving to a new country? What do you do differently now than you did before?
Globalisation •
How do you see globalisation? How does it affect you?
269
• Do you see yourself as a cosmopolitan? What does that mean to you? •
Do you see yourself as a global citizen? What does that mean to you?
•
(if it does not work, how do you see yourself?)
•
IN which situations you feel you are being more X? What kinds of activities make you feel more X?
•
Are there certain objects that make you feel more X?
•
Are there certain things/objects that make you feel more like X?
•
How do you feel when you are being a X?
•
Can you detect other X like you? How?
•
What objects help you express your X?
•
How does being a X change your consumption?
Future projects •
Where do you see yourself living in the future?
•
What are you plans for the future?
•
What are your biggest dreams?
Home and nationality
- Where do you feel at home? - Where do you call home? - What has made X a home for you? What do you do to feel at home when you arrive at another place?
- How does home should look like? - What is home for you? Can you tell me what home means to you? What images come to you mind when you think about home? - What is your nationality(ies)? Are you a citizen of X ? - How do you feel about the fact that you are (nationality)? A citizen of X ? - How do you feel about the fact that people recognize you as (nationality)? - When do you feel X?
270
- Do you feel you belong to any ethnic group? Which ones? What does that mean to you?
Time
-
If you had to divide your experiences in each country into phases, how would you divide it?
-
Why?
-
What would be the characteristic of each phase?
-
How do you feel about having a life here at the same time you are connected to family or friends in [country X]?
-
-How long did it take for you to call home?
Relationships •
An interesting issue for me is to know more about the way you think about relationships and the influence that your life experience in many countries has had in the nature of your social relationships. Can you talk in general about the meaning of relationships to you?
•
Can you think of ways in which your social relationships changed because of your mobile lifestyle?
•
Can you describe your relationship with your family? How does your relationship with family changes when you move?
•
What do you do to meet new people and make new social relationships when you move to another country? How is that process to you? How did you meet new people in Australia?
•
In the other places you have lived, what kind of people did you socialize with? Did you meet more locals or other foreigners?
•
Do you socialize with local people? When?
•
If you had to map out your important friendships and communities, how will that look like? Where are they located and who are they?
•
Do you participate in any social group or activity?
271
• Do you belong to any professional organisation? Are they national, international, global? Can you describe them for me?
Possessions •
What are you favourite possessions? What do they mean to you?
•
When did you acquire them? How often do you use them?
•
When you first moved to X and you went shopping, how did you know what to buy? How did you learn about that?
•
Was it different than other countries you lived? What was similar?
•
How do you think that the fact you’ve lived in different countries affect the way you buy? What has changed?
•
Which possessions give you a sense of being a global citizen? How is that so?
•
Which possessions have you carried everywhere you have lived? How did you do that?
•
Which possessions you would like to have carried?
•
Which possessions you would not carry to a new country?
•
What do you do with X when you move countries?
•
Which possessions do you think are essential for one to feel as a global citizen?
•
- What did you bring to Australia when you moved here? If many, what were the most important products you brought with you when you moved to Australia? What would happen if you lost them?
•
- Have any of these things been moving around with you? Which one? In which ways are they important to you?
First country of residency What can you tell me about your life at X? Do you keep any connections with that place? In which ways and to what extend is this place important to you?
272
In which ways is this place part of your life? In which ways have it influenced your life (key decisions, mind-set) ? What images come to your mind when you think of X ? What are some things you carry or possess that might remind you of that place?
Repeat questions to other countries of past residency…
Current country of residency
- How did you come to Australia [or Canada]? - How long have you been living in Australia [or Canada]? - How is life in Australia [or Canada]? - How is your typical day here? - What do you do in your spare time? - How is it different from other places you have lived? - How is it similar to other places you have lived? - How many meals do you have per day? Do you take your meals in the same way you did in the other countries you lived?
Consumption habits :
Objects associate with your lifestyle?
How do you see yourself consuming different from other people?
House objects
Entertainment •
Do you go out with you workmates? What do you do?
•
Is it the same in the other places you’ve lived?
273
• What is your favourite activity? Media influence •
Do you watch TV? Which channels? Is it different than in other places? What habits have remained the same?
•
Do you try to keep yourself updated? How do you do that? Magazines? News?
•
What else do you read?
Eating •
What do you eat for breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?
•
What does your family eat for breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?
•
Is the family together during the meals?
•
Which is your main meal?
•
How was (main meal) when you were in [country 1]?
•
How was it when you were in [country 2] ? Is it different from here?
Brands – associate with your lifestyle •
What are the three most important brands to you?
•
How is [brand 1,2,3] important to you? In which ways?
•
How have [brand 1,2,3] become important to you?
•
How attached are you to that brand?
•
Were they part of your life before moving to Australia? Since when?
Appendix C – Sample Profile
Table 4 – Interviewees - Key Information
Pseudon ym Agu Aida
Civil Age status 28 single 28 single
Education level Bachelor's Masters High School
Household Inc. AUD $ 100-125 50-75
Current Occupation Management consultant Portfolio Analyst
Country of Origin Nationalities South Africa South African Germany Mauritanian, Canadian (PR)
75-100
E-bay dealer
USA
Albert
62 married
Angel Apura Benny
Bachelor's Masters Bachelor's
100-125 175-200 50-75
Project manager Psychiatrist Project co-ordinator
England India Ethiopia
Masters
N/A
Journalist
India
Indian, Australia (PR)
Bachelor's
150-175
Journalist
England
Cathy Chen Li Claire
36 single 38 married 38 single de31 facto de40 facto Divorce 36 d 30 single 32 single
American (Australia PR) British, Singaporean (PR), Canadian Indian, Australia (PR) Ethiopian, Canadian
Masters Masters Masters
75-100 75-100 N/A
Project Manager Technical Sales Manager Supply chain manager
Collette Cybele Diva
29 single 43 married 30 de-
Bachelor's Bachelor's Doctoral
0-50 N/A 50-75
Event assistant Housewife Professor
China China Germany Scotland UK India Sri Lanka
British, Australian Chinese, Finland (PR), Canada (PR) Chinese, Australian (PR) German, Australian
Carla Cate
British Indian, Dutch (PR) Australian, Canadian (PR)
275
Donald Donna Eron
facto 31 married 33 single 32 married
Masters Bachelor's Masters
N/A 75-100 50-75
Chartered accountant Bank Employee University Professor
Hazel Irvin James Jenny
29 36 35 36
Masters Masters Bachelor's Bachelor's
100-125 N/A 100-125 N/A
Masters High School Doctoral Doctoral doctoral Bachelor's
June Kelly Khaled
married married married single de28 facto
South African, Canadian (PR) German Chinese, Canadian (PR)
Even manager Project officer IT Developer Marketing manager
South Africa Germany Hong Kong Scotland UK Indonesia Spain Canada
50-75
Communication Advisor
Germany
75-100 150-175
UK Afghanistan
50-75 150-175 175-200
Phlebotomist University Lecturer Environmental Technology Engineer University Lecturer Advertising
German Australian, British, American (PR) Afghan, Canadian
Nigeria Korean Hong Kong
Nigerian, Canadian Korean, Canadian British, Canadian
Masters Masters
N/A 0-50
Diplomat Manager Health Industry
Switzerland Albania
Marketing Director Field Service Manager Simultaneous interpreter and dive instructor Biochemist
Spain Brazil
Ecuadorian Albanian, Canadian (PR) Spanish, German, Australian (PR) Brazilian, Canadian (PR)
Hong Kong Germany
British, Canadian (PR) Germany
Luca Manuela
54 married 38 married de38 facto 35 married 42 Single divorce 55 d 33 single
Maria Mario
34 single 41 married
Masters Bachelor's
N/A 150-175
Morris Paul
28 single 36 single
Bachelor's PhD
N/A 100-125
Kova Lara Linda
British Indonesian, Australian (PR) Spanish Canadian
276
Kim Radha Rajiv
35 Single 39 married
Masters Masters
50-75 175-200
Communications and marketing manager Manager
Roberta Sandra
27 single 39 married de44 facto de30 facto
Masters Doctoral
0-50 75-100
Marketing assistant Applied Sociologist
USA Canada
Indian and Canadian Indian, Australia (PR) American, Argentinean, Australian (PR) Canadian
Masters
175-200
HR Trainer
England
British, Australian
Masters
N/A
PhD student Finances
India
27 single divorce 38 d
Masters
0-50
Research Assistant
Colombia
Bachelor's
N/A
Job Developer
Peru
American, Australian Swiss, Australia, Italian, Argentinean (PR), Colombian Peruvian, Egyptian, Canadian (PR)
Sarah Simon Vera Velma
India India
277
Table 5– Interviewees - Additional Information
Pseudony m Agu Aida Albert
Past residencies South African (27y), Brazil (1y) Germany (7y), USA (15y), Mauritania (3y), UK (6m), France (6m) Australia (12), USA (50)
Angel Apura
Kenya (12y), Singapore (10y) Singapore (2y), India (33y)
Indian Indian
Benny Carla Cate
Ethiopia (21y), UK (4y) India (27 y) US (2 y) UK (22 y) Singapore (2 y) Hong Kong (7 y)
Black Indian Caucasian
Cathy Chen Li Claire Collette Cybele
China (27), Finland (5), Canada (4) China (25y), Mauritius (6m), Madagascar (2y) France, UK, Slovakia Czech Republic (6m), Mexico (1y), Japan (2 y), Spain (4m) New York (2y), Amsterdam (2y), Sydney (4y) USA (2,5y), Ireland (6m) Canada (9m), USA (1Y), Australia (17), Vanuatu (2y), UAE (1y) Canada (3 y) South Africa (27 y) Luxembourg (3.5y), Chile (7m), Singapore (2m), Indonesia (6m)
none Chinese none White British Indian
First language English Fulani and French English Marwari (Rajasthani) Malayalam Amharic (Ethiopian) English English Chinese (mandarin) Chinese German English English
Indian White
English English
none Afrikaans
European
German
English, Spanish, French
Diva Donald Donna
Declared ethnic background East Indian Black - African European
Other languages Afrikaans, Portuguese English French English, French, Spanish, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati English, Hindi English Hindi none English, Finnish, Japanese English English, French, Spanish Spanish Hindi Dutch
278
Chinese None Chinese Indonesian Mediterranean (White) Caucasian Caucasian English
Chinese (Cantonese) English
Chinese (Mandarin), English Spanish and French
Indonesian
English English and French English English French Persian, English, Urdu, Arabic Hausa, Thai, German English English
Eron Hazel
Hong Kong (27y), US (3y), Qatar (1 year), Canada (1 year) Spain (1y), Luxembourg (5y), England (1y), Scotland (22y)
Irvin
Indonesia (26y) USA (4y) Singapore (4y)
James Jenny June Kelly
Spain (25y), UK (5 y), Spain (1y), Luxembourg (3y) Ireland (2.5y) UK (6m) Germany (25y), England (1y) Australia(14) , USA (32), UK (8)
Khaled
Qatar (2), UAE (5), Pakistan (3), Canada (20), Afghanistan (6) South Asian
Spanish English German English Pashto (Afghani)
Kova Lara
Thailand (4y), Nigeria (23y), Canada (3y) Qatar (2), UAE (5), Pakistan (3), Canada (5), Korea (20)
Yoruba Korean
Linda
Hong Kong (20y), US (4y), Canada (13y), Spain (1y)
African Korean Eurasian, Chinese, English
Luca Manuela
USA, Brasil, Costa Rica, Argentina, Honduras, Germany Albania (29), USA (3), Canada (1y)
None Albanian
Chinese Spanish, English Albanian
Maria Mario
India (6m), Germany (18y), Switzerland (1y), US (3mnths), UK (12 y), Hong Kong (3m) US(11y), Brazil (27y), France (1y)
None Latin
Spanish Portuguese
Morris Paul Kim
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, US, Canada, UK, Iraq, Malta US (10y), Germany (24y), Canada (1y)
none Korean
Mandarin German
English , Spanish Portuguese, French, German English German, English, French, Italian ,Portuguese, Japanese English English, Japanese, Cantonese, Arabic English, Korean
279
Radha Rajiv Roberta Sandra Sarah Simon Vera Velma
India (22), Canada (5), USA (5) , Switzerland (1.5) India (35y) Australia (4y) Greece (1,5m), Argentina (11y), USA (16 y) Canada (39y), Ukraine (0.5y) UK (30 y) Singapore (6 y) Hong Kong (6 m, Malaysia (6 m), Fiji (6 m) India (27 y) US (2 y) Colombia (3y), Mexico (3), USA (4), UK (4), Argentina (4), Switzerland (8), China (6m), Australia (1) Peru (25y), Canada (1), US (5y), Austria (3m), Egypt (6y)
Indian Indian none none
English Malayalam Spanish English
Caucasian Indian
English English English and Spanish Spanish
Italian Latin
Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, French, Spanish English, Hindi English, Italian Russian, French Indonesian Hindi French English, Arabic, German
280
Appendix D – Conceptions of Time and Consumer Behaviour
Three different terms are used in the main text. Conception of time is a general term that refers to the different ways societies perceive and account for the passage of time. They include clock time, events, genesis, cyclical time, life cycle, and the relationship between Past, Present and Future. In addition, timestyles, a recurrent term in the marketing literature about time, refer to the customary ways in which consumers use time as a basis for their actions. The term has been used to micro segment consumers according to their attitudes and orientations in relation to time (e.g. monochronic vs. Polychronic or spontaneous vs. planned). And temporal frameworks refer to broader ways of understanding time that are used linked to the way social time is perceived by communities and societies.
Because time is as intangible factor and because clock time tends to be the predominant way of representing time in our lives, it is sometimes difficult for readers to imagine other ways of theoretically conceptualising time. Therefore, aiming for clarity, I present below some common conception of time. Besides presenting their definitions I also provide examples that demonstrate how these conceptions of time help coordinate consumers’ lives (Table 8): . Clock Time: as the name says, this is the time as measured by the clock. In most Western societies, this is the time used to coordinate everyday life. Modernity, industrialism and capitalism incorporated the time of the clock as the universal system of time (Hassan and Purser 2007). It depicts the continuum of time “as linear, objective, divided into quantifiable
281
units such that the units are homogeneous, uniform, regular” (Ancona, Okhuysen, and Perlow 2001, 514). Clock time coordinates a number of activities in consumers’ life. For example, it regulates the beginning of work activities, the timetables for use of public transportation, school hours, shops’ closing and opening time, airplanes, TV program schedules. In fact, most of public life is regulated by clock time. Time keeping through clock time is so significant to the operation of modern societies that it is coordinated at an international level thought systems such as the atomic clocks (International Atomic Time).
Table 6- Conceptions of time
Conceptions of
Examples of consumer activities that may be coordinated by the
Time
different conceptions of time.
Clock time
Opening and closing of shops, schedules of public transportation, time of flights, TV programs
Events
Activities that develop around the arrival of a cruise ship, the preparation for a cyclone, the consequences of the global financial crisis
Genesis
Shopping for wine and furniture according to the year of production, activities around the inauguration of shops, the launching of a new brand in the market
Cyclical time
Realisation of meals, holidays, social gatherings on a periodic basis.
Life Cycles
Activities related to weddings, graduation ceremonies, buying a new car or a new house.
Past-Present-Future
Decisions about saving or investing, acquiring insurance and health
(PPF) relationships
covers and bank loans.
282
Event time: this is time as measured by key events. This type of time is often used in recollecting past memories or in timelines, when key events in a person, group, and country’s life are used to mark the passage of time. Events are common markers in individual narratives, but also they are very much used by communities to create a shared notion of time. As a shared notion of time, events help coordinate other social activities and behaviours. For example, instead of saying that someone got married in 1989, one could say that the wedding happened around the fall of the Berlin Wall. The recent earthquakes in New Zealand have been commonly used by the press and local people to refer to activities than happened around the time of the earthquake. Likewise, a group of consumers may refer to the purchases they made when they undertook a trip to Bali or during a specific cruise in the Caribbean (Ancona et al. 2001). Thus, events act as essential coordinators in the perception of time, of social activities and behaviours.
Genesis: This refers to a single point in time, the point of origin. Genesis marks the beginning of a social activity. The temporal component of genesis sets the moment of origin and it is a common type of time in religious and in historical texts (Eliade 1963; Lucas 2005). It is also a part of consumption, as it regulates consumers’ idea of origin, beginning, and tradition, which are key to the purchase and evaluation of various products and services, such as some types of home decor, art, or wine (Johnson, Ringham, and Jurd 1991; Prochnow and Prochnow 2006). Genesis coordinates activities when they are synchronised around their time of origin. The concept of vintage, for example, translates a formal point which unites all bottles of wine from the same producer in the same year.
283
Cyclical Time: Cyclical time involves events happening periodically in regular intervals of time (Ancona et al. 2001). Cyclical time has been associated with natural time, the time we had before time became a resource, before clock time (Thompson 1967). However, one can see cyclical time everywhere: days of the week, moon calendar, birthday celebrations, and summer holidays. Cyclical time is very important to understanding consumer behaviour as it regulates a lot of consumer activities and decisions. For example, consumers organize their lives in terms of different days of the week. Many consumers have a specific time for meals during weekdays. Some of them have a different, but regular, time for meals at weekends. For some, Sunday is the day to have dinner with the extended family and Saturday may be a day to go shopping. In addition, consumption is shaped by different rituals that are based on cyclical time: Christmas, Thanks-Giving, School Holidays, Mardi-Gras, just to name a few (Metcalf and Harboe 2006).
Life cycle: It refers to the stages of life an individual or group goes through during the span of a life time such as birth, growth, maturity, decline and death. As a special case of cyclical time, life cycles are only cyclical because they tend to repeat themselves in subsequent generations. During the lifetime of one individual, it signals different stages which are usually thought of being different and associated with different behaviours. Lifecycle organizes social activities because different activities are associated with each life stage. For example, in many cultures, married life is associated with individuals moving out of their parents’ house or their flatmates’ houses into a residence that is shared by the couple. There are some rituals that mark the passage from one stage to the other (i.e. rites of passage). These rituals, such as weddings, are particularly important to consumer behaviour because they may involve a number of consumption activities from everyone involved, such as travelling, buying gifts, feeding, dressing up, and grooming. Furthermore, the marketing literature discusses how
284
family life-cycle affects consumers’ expenditures (Wagner and Hanna 1983). The family life cycle, marking transition in the family situation, is formed by several stages of specific family needs such as bachelor stage, newly married couples, full nest with younger kids, full nest with older kids, empty nests (no kids living in the family home), and solitary survivors (Wells and Gubar 1966). Many studies have related the consumption of food, durables, housing and vacations with family life-cycles (Wagner and Hanna 1983; Wilkes 1995). The reasoning behind these studies is that consumers “move” from one cycle to another and that the needs of each stage are quite different (Gilly and Enis 1982).
The past, present and future (PPF) relationships: this refers to how individuals understand the role of past, present and future. More than individual differences, the relationship between past, present and future tend to be shared among individuals belonging to the same cultural groups. For example, Western societies tend to view the PPF as linear, like an arrow that always goes from left to right. Other societies such as the indigenous peoples of Australia may have different conception of past and future, which does not follow linearity and causality. Some individuals and some cultures also favour one time over the other. For example, previous research has characterised Spanish-Americans as putting more emphasis on the present than Anglo-Americans, who would put more emphasis on the future (Usunier and Valette-Florence 2007). The PPF relationship coordinates consumption activities because they represent the framework through which behaviour creates meaning. For example, if individuals have a strong future orientation and believe in linear time they may engage in various planning activities, which are seen as an investment in the future. However, if a group of individuals have a strong present orientation, short-term goal orientation or believe future might bring unpleasant surprises, they may prefer to limit their decisions to securing financial stability (Henry 2005). And yet, others who consider that the future is not linear in relation to
285
the present may use credit card instalments and contract debts to afford a hedonic ever-inthe-present life.
Other types of time: there are other types of socially constructed time that are important to coordinating consumer behaviour such as the categories of work/leisure time (Feldman and Hornik 1981), sacred/profane time (Belk et al. 1989), special/ordinary time (Ger and Kravets 2009), monochronic/polychronic time (Usunier and Valette-Florence 2007), and personal /environmental time (Bergadaà 1990).
286
Appendix E – Self-defining sentences at InterNations Profiles
Table 9- What makes me a Global Mind
Sample from Website – Profiles – Explaining why they are global minds Member Gender Countries Summary of Example of how InterNations members lived key aspects of completed the box entitled “What makes the quote me a global mind” 1 F Singapore, Living in many “I've lived on 3 continents and have had the Kenya and places, opportunity to learn about so many cultures, Canada learning about through interactions with people I've met many places through travel, school and work.” and interacting with people from these different places 2 M Honduras, Living in many “I have lived in several countries and it London, countries, opened my mind to other languages and US, profession, cultures. I am a journalist and writer with a Denmark having very liberal mind who loves intellectual and Canada relationships in discussions. I have family and friends in many countries more than four countries. 3
M
Algeria, Spain and Tahiti
Diverse origins, living abroad, feeling shared humanity.
“French, Spanish and Argentinean origins. I grew up in Tahiti and spent all my childhood abroad. I've always had the feeling that beyond their cultural and individual differences, all human beings share the same essence...”
4
M
Peru, Sydney
Living in other countries, travelling in many countries, working with multinationals, having multicultural ancestry, love for travelling meeting new people and cooking (activities).
“Having lived in South America and now in Australia for 11 years. Having travelled around Europe, the US, Australia & NZ, and South America. Working, and having worked in the past, with multinationals. My insatiable love for travelling, meeting new people, cultures, cuisine. Having Italian, Spanish, French and Peruvian ancestry.”
287
5
M
Germany, Australia, Switzerland, France
6
F
Italy, US, UK, France
F
Italy, Australia, UK, South Africa
M
Canada, UK, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands and Australia
8
Travelled the world, living in many countries, understanding of multiple cultures and environments, personal characteristics of openness and positive attitude Preferences (like experiencing many cultures, learning new languages Personal characteristics ( by personal characteristics open mind, by preferences (liking new adventures, liking people, liking travelling) By preference (travel and work in different cultures), by skills (speak several languages), by professional focus
“Having travelled the world, lived in several countries, understanding of and respect for different cultures & environments, open for everything new and most importantly a positive attitude to life wherever you are, as challenging as that might be from time to time.”
“experiencing many cultures, learning new languages”
“Having an open mind, liking new adventures, cultures, people and travelling.”
“Love of travel and work in different cultures, speak several languages, professional focus on "getting people working better together"
288
9
F
Australia, UK, Sweden
11
M
NZ, Australia, UK, UAE
12
F
Italy, France, China, Tunisia, Senegal, Morocco
13
M
14
F
India, Australia, Bahrain Russia, Australia
Ancestry (multicultural), places where they have lived (many cultures), places they have worked (multicultures / multinationals) , where family and friends are (all over the world) Working with different people, understanding we are all humans, family composition
“I'm truly a child of the world! Born of a mother who's Swedish and Finnish and a father whose heritage is Polish and Italian, I grew up in England and have just migrated to Sydney, Australia. I've worked all over Europe, go back to the Finnish island where my grandfather is from every summer and have friends from all over the world.”
“On a daily basis I work with different people; English, Indian, South African, Emirati, Mauritian, Lebanese, Egyptian, Australian, German... I understanding that beneath our cultural and religious robes, all are human, all are equal in our endeavour to find purpose in life, to learn how to make a meaningful contribution in our lives and make choices that will create happiness for ourselves and those around us. And my wife is Egyptian!” Places where “Lived in several countries, speaking they lived, different languages, working in a language skills, multinational company, love to travel” working in multinational company, love to travel Family is “Children are settled in USA and Australia. spread Wife lives in India and self migrated to Australia after retirement from GulfAir.” Language “Speaking several languages, lived in skills, living in different countries, working in multinational different company, love to learn about different countries, cultures.” working in many different places, learning about different cultures
289
15
F
US, Singapore, Germany, Australia
Ancestry, Places lived,
16
F
Germany, Greece, Botswana and Malawi
17
M
18
F
Spain, Denmark and US Italy, UK, US, Switzerland
Feels a global citizen, enjoys meeting people from all over the world Understanding and tolerance of difference Working with people from all over the world. Believe on outcomes and disregard of differences.
19
F
20
F
21
US, Latvia, India, Panama, Denmark South Africa and US
Expat family and career in logistics
F
China, Vietnam and India
22
F
23
M
Norway and Australia France, Israel, UK, US, Germany
Languages, constant travel, working in different countries movement
Ancestry, Life history, friends spread all over the world, feeling global.
Languages, work (having business with), commitment to people and society
“I'm Chinese American, my spouse is German. We met in Singapore during a study abroad semester. Together we've lived in 5 cities including Singapore, LA, Munich, Boston, and now Sydney.” “I feel like a global citizen with a global mind. I enjoy meeting people from all over the world, different ages, backgrounds, cultures, traditions and, most of all, stories” “The understanding and appreciation of tolerance and cultural relativity.” “As executive coach and leadership trainer who has worked with hundreds of executives from all over the world I have come to believe expats can play a very important role in bridging cultures. I observed time and time again when people truly connect they start to relate beyond cultures and recognize the importance of working together focusing on common outcomes and disregarding differences.” “Expat spouse of international businessman raising children and is also an international logistics professional.” “Having lived and worked as a journalist and a teacher/coach in different countries, and having had a Polish father, a Scots granny and a South African mother, and with friends dotted around the world, I guess I just feel global.” “Speaking several languages, and also trying to constantly travel and if possible, to work in different countries. I want to know as much as possible in one lifetime, about various cultures and lifestyles.” “I am globetrotter- commuting between the southern and northern hemispheres” “I speak English and French, and have notions of German and Arabic. I have business interests in the Philippines. Support a number of charities and am committed to People and Society”
290
24 25
M F
26
M
27
F
28
M
London Italy, German, France, US, Belgium Canada, India, Italy and UK
Brazil, Bahamas, Switzerland, Canada, Monaco
Partnerships Curious mind, eager to learn new ways meet new people Open mind and no prejudice or pre-judgement. Disregard for differences,
Being an expat, enjoy travelling around the globe, learning something new about countries and cultures, friends all over the world, small world US, Canada, Working in France, many different Japan countries, touring, creating global organisations, care for other places in the world
“Business partners in 20+ countries.” “A curious mind, always eager to learn new ways and to meet new people and cultures”
“Very very open mind and I don’t have preconceived notion on anything. I don’t impose my judgment neither do I awkwardly probe people. I strongly believe in what Bill Clinton says "that people are the same irrespective of the differences". And I am a LEO too..hehe. In a nutshell I try to form lifelong friendship. “ “When I was one year old, I became an ‘expat’ for the first time and I have been one for almost three quarters of my life. Travelling around the globe is what makes me happy. I am always interested in learning something new about other countries and cultures. My friends are all over the world, which by the way I find very small indeed :) “
“travelled and worked in 40-50 countries around the world with touring live entertainment shows - Now, we find ourselves putting together an international group of specialists in agriculture, logistics and nutrition that will teach orphans, refugees, and people with little how to grow their own nutritious diet, versus waiting for a someone to just feed them for a day - looking for like minded people who wish to help beta sites are in Ethiopia, India, and Uganda if anyone wants to help, you know where to find me.”
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29
F
Italy, UK
30
M
Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, Dominican Republic, Germany
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F
32
M
Chad, Germany, Mexico, France, Madagascar , Nigeria, Nicaragua, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Chile, United States India, UAE, Lebanon, Turkey, Ireland, Spain, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, UK, Egypt
Openness, “I strive to be open to global culture - to feeling of continue to learn from peoples of all nations global on a daily basis - to enjoy the similarities and community, we the differences that we all bring to our global are all citizens community - I wish to impart this mindset to of the world those around me, be they colleagues, clients or friends and above all I wish to teach my own children that we are all citizens of the world, wherever we have come from, wherever we are now, and wherever our journey in life may take us in the future.” Ancestry, “I am a Third Culture Kid (TCK) with biography parents from two nationalities who met in a (including foreign country, and then later took me to school), grow up and go to international schools in interested in four countries. Since then I have always been foreign places, thinking globally and have been always living in global interested in foreign places. I love NYC as it cities is a melting pot of cultures.” Biography, “I grew up in East Africa in both ex French care about and British colonies and continued my expat other areas of experience as an adult in Northern and the world. Central America. I m always interested in collaborating with other global nomads (or TCKs who grew up outside of home culture) and IN is a good medium for such connections. I am also very involved in an association that distributes solar flashlights to children and schools in areas without electricity.”
Ability to understand people from other cultures and seeing through their eyes, having a two way perspective
“The ability to understand a person not by the colour of their skin, geographic location, or political view, but through their culture, seeing through their eyes and hopefully helping me to always have a two way perspective on things!!!!!!”
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33
F
US, Brazil, France and Italy
34
M
Germany, Japan, US, France
35
F
US, North Korea, Vietnam, Germany, Belgium France Switzerland Germany United Kingdom
Denying roots, language skills, share views with people from various parts of the world Believes football is a world game, unintelligible phone calls,
Thinks differently. Made of many parts. Globally minded.
“I was born and raised in one country and became an adult in another. I'm from no place in particular. I speak a few languages and I share views with people from various parts of the world.”
“I believe vehemently that football is played with a round, spotted ball - Half of my phone calls are unintelligible to those around me - I struggle to answer the question "where are you from?" - My phone has a few taxi company's numbers from most big cities in the world - I like singing ‘We all live in a Yellow Submarine’ in French.” “My international exposure has dramatically changed my way of thinking. I am now a citizen of the world, no longer Brazilian, European or American. I am made of many parts and I hope to continue this wonderful journey... the world is out there, and I still have a lot to see.”
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Appendix f – How do members dress for InterNations’ gatherings? The photographs below represent InterNations’ Gatherings that occurred in nine different countries in December 2011 (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, South Africa, UAE, and the USA). The faces have been erased to keep them anonymous.
Pictures reveal great similarities in outfits across the globe. In fact, it is interesting to observe how they are not place specific. They could have been from any InterNations’ gathering.
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InterNations December 2011 – Toronto
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InterNations December 2011 – Shanghai
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InterNations December 2011 – Sydney
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InterNations December 2011 – Dubai
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InterNations December 2011 – Chicago
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InterNations December 2011 – Johannesburg
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InterNations December 2011 – Munich
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InterNations December 2011 – Sao Paulo
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InterNations December 2011 – Paris
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Appendix G – Constructing a global past at InterNations
In October 2010, InterNations and CNN joined efforts to create the “InterNations history vote”, which asked for members to participate and share their personal memories about 30 global events. After an impressive response 4000 narratives, members voted for the best stories. The “winners” (authors of the most voted narratives) received prizes that are highly valued among global cosmopolitans (flight voucher, Ipod, and travel kit).
The following document is a letter of acknowledgement and thanks sent by the organising team sent to all InterNation members:
“Dear Participants of the InterNations History Vote, The InterNations History Vote, in cooperation with our Global Partner CNN, has now come to an end, and we would like to thank you again for your enthusiasm and dedication. Altogether we received over 10,000 votes and 4,000 personal memories from thousands of members coming from more than 140 different countries around the world. Thank you all for making this unparalleled voting initiative such a great success! Many of you have shared their memories of the news events which personally affected you and expressed a great interest in your fellow members’ memories as well. Here, at the InterNations head office, we enjoyed seeing all your memories and stories come in, even though they were occasionally heart-breaking to read. We were both delighted and astonished by the wide range of participants, the spotlight on their biographies, and their different points of view. The InterNations History Vote has showed us how diverse our global community really is and how these 30 global events had an impact on all of us in some way. Now, without further ado, we would like to introduce you to the three winners of our InterNations History Vote:
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1. Place: With a rating of 128, Natalia’s memory of the Collapse of the Soviet Union proved to be the most popular one. Congratulations and a 1.000 EUR flexible flight ticket voucher go to Natalia from Romania who works as a journalist in our Berlin Community! "When the Soviet Union collapsed, I was at home in Bucharest, learning for the admission exams to university. I mean, I was in my home country Romania, where it was impossible to travel abroad, even to neighbouring Communist countries like Hungary. Trapped like a mouse in the mousetrap. Entirely cut off from the rest of the world. I had been so indoctrinated from childhood that, for me, having a single party system was completely normal. However, I knew that living abroad should be better. It was hardly possible to be worse. There, food stores would not be empty. You could buy flour, oil, and sugar without ration cards. You could have light and water without interruptions. In addition, television programmes would be running for more than two hours a day. You would be free to speak what you think without being afraid that you’d end up in jail and your parents unemployed. Being 18 at the time, I do remember everything. Young people in the streets on a cold winter night. Ceausescu telling us, in his last speech, that he had decided to give us 100 g more soya salami on our food ration cards if we ceased to demonstrate against him. My father going up and down the street with glass bottles filled with hot tea and soup my mother had prepared. “After drinking the hot tea, they can throw the empty bottles at the army,” he said. Bottles against bullets. Was this a bad joke? No, just the cruel reality. The bullet in the armchair in our living room and the ones collected from our balcony were also real. Five years later, with my university diploma in the pocket, I got a DAAD scholarship and went to Kiel, Northern Germany. For one year, I ate bananas every day. It was like Christmas the whole year long! I have to tell you that in Romania, you could buy bananas only on Christmas, if you were lucky enough to catch the supply truck. But this is another story. From another world. The collapse of the Soviet Union changed my life entirely. Without this historic event, Romania would have remained one of the worst dictatorships in the world. Myself, I would maybe have been shot trying to cross the Danube by swimming to liberty. That was the plan. Nobody could keep me trapped in a cage." ---------------------2. Place: With a rating of 116, comes Helena’s memories of the beginning of the Second Gulf War are our first runner-up. A big thank you and the Apple iPod nano thus go to Helena who originally comes from Canada and works as a staff writer in Cairo.
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"My family is Iraqi, and every Iraqi knows, all too well, the tragedy and chaos inflicted on our people by Saddam Hussein. But when it was announced that the US was about to invade Iraq again, just as the country was finally beginning to recover from years of sanctions and the bombing of essential infrastructure during the Gulf War, nothing but outrage, frustration, injustice, and helplessness flooded over us all. We knew that Saddam couldn't have anything to do with 9/11 nor did he possess any weapons of mass destruction - his power was simply too crippled and he didn't have the resources. And if Iraqis living outside the country knew this basic fact, how was it that Colin Powell, Secretary of State, didn't? What do poor, injured, diseased Iraqis have anything to do with Osama and Afghanistan? (…) The unjust war and rampant racism that ensued was the first time that I questioned the good in this world, leaving me vastly more cynical about the powers that be and their motivations (…). Is this the way of the future?" ---------------------3. Place: Last but not least, with a rating of 71, Elnura’s childhood memories of the Bosnian War come in third. Elnura grew up in Tuszla/Bosnia and now lives in Vienna where she works as senior auditor. We hope she’ll enjoy the CNN travel kit on one of her next journeys! "I was only 11 years old when the war in my country started. It was a beautiful day in May 1992. I still remember all the details - although it has been nearly 20 years now. It was supposed to be the last day of the school year, the beginning of our summer holidays. For me and my friends, it ended not on the backseats of our parents’ cars, headings towards the Adriatic coast, but in the cellar of our houses, where we listened, for the first time in our lives, to the sound of real gunfire. Life as we knew it was destroyed that day. Many dear friends and relatives were lost during those horrible years, families were separated, and four long years of uncertainty, brutality and total violence followed. Today, these years are behind us – thank God. Although they have forever changed me - changed all of us – they also taught me maybe one of the greatest lessons in life: Happiness lies in those simple things we take for granted. Such as: the ability to walk outside on a beautiful summer day without the fear of being killed by some bomb or a sharpshooter; (…) to see the daylight and to know that, when you wake up the next morning, you will not hear the grenades or sirens announcing the bombings... There is no reason in this world that can ever justify the incredible amount of pain, sorrow and destruction - physical and mental - that a war inflicts on people. It takes so little to be happy,
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but it takes a lifetime to heal the wounds that hate, nationalism and bloodshed leave behind. Respect and tolerance!" Congratulations again to the three winners. We will contact them individually via email as well. We really hope you found our InterNations History Vote as fascinating as we did, even if your memory was not among the top three. You can view the complete ratings and our Editor’s Choice from all the memories on our website. Thanks again for taking the time to participate! Best regards Your InterNations Team”
