Migrant and mainstream perspectives on buying national

An Australian case study

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12698270
AutoresFarida Fozdar (0000-0003-3463-7299, The University of Western Australia, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume21
Fascículo3
Páginas539-558
Data de publicação2018-11-15
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Consumer Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1469-5405 • E-ISSN: 1741-2900
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1469540518806960
OpenAlexW2901065334
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas39

In a globalising world, people might be expected to be less nationalistic about their personal consumption decisions. Yet support for Trump-style protectionism and ‘buy national’ campaigns appears to be spreading. How do people talk about such purchasing decisions? Applying thematic content analysis and discourse analysis to qualitative data from 27 focus groups (n = 223) conducted across Australia, this article explores the key features of discussions about ‘buying Australian’, comparing migrant/ethnic minority responses with non-migrant/mainstream responses. Perhaps surprisingly, migrants adopt the taken-for-granted imperative that nationalist consumption is good for the national economy, and articulate this choice as a demonstration of loyalty and reciprocity to their adopted country. Perhaps counter to expectations, mainstream participants are far more ambivalent in the ways they express this nationalist imperative. While nationalist consumption remains the bottom line as the appropriate purchasing orientation, their position as charter group enables them to offer more critical arguments about the authenticity of the ‘Australian-made’ logo and the quality and price of goods. For both, however, the taken-for-granted default position is that consumer nationalism is ‘the right thing to do’. Buying national is thus an instance of what Billig identified as ‘banal nationalism’, where the nation-state, as opposed to other collectives such as ‘workers’ or ‘global citizens’, is reproduced as the appropriate category for identification and collective responsibility

Consumption (sociology · Mainstream · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Thematic analysis · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Migration, Refugees, and Integration