Burgers, coffee or bureks? A bottom-up perspective on everyday identity consumption, nationalism, and geographies of belonging in contemporary Serbia

The last days of the Yugoslav Federation and the nationalist decade that followed brought to the fore negative categorizations and ‘ancient’ geographies of belonging. Since 2012, the ruling elite have sought to contain nationalism and to rebuild the image of a modern nation using consumption as a po...

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Main Author: Laurent Tournois
Format: Article
Language:ces
Published: Charles University 2024-04-01
Series:Acta Politologica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://acpo.vedeckecasopisy.cz/publicFiles/002766.pdf
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author Laurent Tournois
author_facet Laurent Tournois
author_sort Laurent Tournois
collection DOAJ
description The last days of the Yugoslav Federation and the nationalist decade that followed brought to the fore negative categorizations and ‘ancient’ geographies of belonging. Since 2012, the ruling elite have sought to contain nationalism and to rebuild the image of a modern nation using consumption as a political tool by bridging (again) East and West. This contention is grounded in two entangled theoretical perspectives on consumption and national identity building. Adopting a historical narrative scheme, the original material collected in this study from 45 semi-structured customer and problem-centered expert interviews and extensive ethnographic fieldwork contributes to contextualizing and problematizing consumption routines towards McDonald’s restaurants, Simit Sarayi, and Starbucks coffee shops. This paper highlights that, daily, individuals have developed their own interpretative space within which to operate, exhibit their identity, and express to whom their affinity goes, leading to cultural paradoxes in certain situations.
format Article
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institution Kabale University
issn 1804-1302
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publishDate 2024-04-01
publisher Charles University
record_format Article
series Acta Politologica
spelling doaj-art-c2138b6a455b4916a9ad1b85355949de2025-01-06T10:16:02ZcesCharles UniversityActa Politologica1804-13021803-82202024-04-011614167https://doi.org/10.14712/1803-8220/33_2022Burgers, coffee or bureks? A bottom-up perspective on everyday identity consumption, nationalism, and geographies of belonging in contemporary SerbiaLaurent Tournois0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8804-0159Independent researcherThe last days of the Yugoslav Federation and the nationalist decade that followed brought to the fore negative categorizations and ‘ancient’ geographies of belonging. Since 2012, the ruling elite have sought to contain nationalism and to rebuild the image of a modern nation using consumption as a political tool by bridging (again) East and West. This contention is grounded in two entangled theoretical perspectives on consumption and national identity building. Adopting a historical narrative scheme, the original material collected in this study from 45 semi-structured customer and problem-centered expert interviews and extensive ethnographic fieldwork contributes to contextualizing and problematizing consumption routines towards McDonald’s restaurants, Simit Sarayi, and Starbucks coffee shops. This paper highlights that, daily, individuals have developed their own interpretative space within which to operate, exhibit their identity, and express to whom their affinity goes, leading to cultural paradoxes in certain situations.https://acpo.vedeckecasopisy.cz/publicFiles/002766.pdfidentity buildingconsumptionnationalismbottom-up perspectiveserbia
spellingShingle Laurent Tournois
Burgers, coffee or bureks? A bottom-up perspective on everyday identity consumption, nationalism, and geographies of belonging in contemporary Serbia
Acta Politologica
identity building
consumption
nationalism
bottom-up perspective
serbia
title Burgers, coffee or bureks? A bottom-up perspective on everyday identity consumption, nationalism, and geographies of belonging in contemporary Serbia
title_full Burgers, coffee or bureks? A bottom-up perspective on everyday identity consumption, nationalism, and geographies of belonging in contemporary Serbia
title_fullStr Burgers, coffee or bureks? A bottom-up perspective on everyday identity consumption, nationalism, and geographies of belonging in contemporary Serbia
title_full_unstemmed Burgers, coffee or bureks? A bottom-up perspective on everyday identity consumption, nationalism, and geographies of belonging in contemporary Serbia
title_short Burgers, coffee or bureks? A bottom-up perspective on everyday identity consumption, nationalism, and geographies of belonging in contemporary Serbia
title_sort burgers coffee or bureks a bottom up perspective on everyday identity consumption nationalism and geographies of belonging in contemporary serbia
topic identity building
consumption
nationalism
bottom-up perspective
serbia
url https://acpo.vedeckecasopisy.cz/publicFiles/002766.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT laurenttournois burgerscoffeeorbureksabottomupperspectiveoneverydayidentityconsumptionnationalismandgeographiesofbelongingincontemporaryserbia