Abstract
This chapter explores the question of how people articulate (and challenge) the notion of ‘buying national’, and the extent to which they express a preference for cosmopolitan consumption. Using data from 26 focus groups (n = 223) with migrant and non-migrant Australians, it employs a discursive dilemmatic analytical approach to ask whether, when justifying their purchasing decisions, people use an ethics of care for co-nationals or demonstrate a more cosmopolitan orientation. With protectionist rhetoric becoming a commonplace in the political arena (Trump, Brexit), how the general population engages with the relationship between the economy, nationalism, and cosmopolitanism is crucial to understanding processes of globalisation. While recognising issues around parochialism, cost, quality, duty to others, working conditions, and the environment, ultimately the bottom line in discussions was an imperative to ‘look after our own’ by buying national. However, there was some evidence of cosmopolitan thinking among a few participants, who saw the focus on supporting the national economy, at the expense of others, as selfish. The chapter concludes that the nationalist impulse to protect one’s own is ubiquitous, and that this reinforces the nation-state as the relevant category for an ethics of sharing.
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Notes
- 1.
The little work that does exist on consumer cosmopolitanism focusses on designing quantitative measurement scales , using simple statements such as ‘I hate foreign products and brands’, ‘My country should not have trade agreements with foreign countries’, and ‘Foreign products should be eliminated from the country’ (Altlnas et al., 2013, p. 147; see also Cleveland, Laroche, & Papadopoulos, 2009). These presume antipathy towards an out-group (xenophobia), and so may not pick up moderate consumer ethnocentrism and cosmopolitanism. Generally, it has been found that cosmopolitanism has a direct effect on foreign purchase behaviour—the more cosmopolitan one is, the more likely to purchase overseas-made products (Parts & Vida, 2013).
- 2.
Anthony Appiah (2010) argues that both nationalist and cosmopolitan ethics can coexist, such that an obligation to co-nationals does not preclude a sense of responsibility to ‘strangers’, those outside the nation-state. Thus, nationalist cosmopolitan is not a contradiction in terms (see also Brett & Moran, 2011).
- 3.
This is despite evidence that such advertising has no economic benefit (Fenwick & Wright, 2000).
- 4.
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship scheme, under Grant FT 100100432. I would also like to acknowledge the research assistants who facilitated the focus groups, and Brian Spittles who assisted with data management.
- 5.
An Australian brand whose identity is based on producing Australian-made products.
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Fozdar, F. (2018). Buying the Nation and Beyond: Discursive Dilemmas in Debates around Cosmopolitan Consumption. In: Emontspool, J., Woodward, I. (eds) Cosmopolitanism, Markets, and Consumption. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64179-9_10
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