Background: Globalisation is changing the world and our daily lives are governed by products and images originating from other countries and other cultures. Globalisation influences consumer culture and different authors have argued for the emergence of global consumer culture. However, previous literature de-emphasizes what consumer beliefs about the global consumer culture are and how people who believe that they are global try to construct themselves as global in terms of consumption. What are their motives of being global and what kind of needs and wants do they cover by being global consumers? Purpose: To explore and illustrate how consumers try to construct their global selves through consumption. Method: An abductive, qualitative research approach with a combination of exploratory and descriptive research design was chosen. Primary data collection through semi-structured in-depth interviews was conducted among 15 respondents who tried to construct their global selves through consumption. These consumers were selected through a non-probability sampling and interviews took place in Jönköping, Sweden. Conclusion: Consumers try to construct their global selves in a variety of ways, the most common ones are through travelling and engaging in cultural experiences, consuming products from specific countries for certain reasons, and by observing the market as one whole global market, thus not limiting themselves into the boundaries of specific countries, regions or continents. This consumption is then grounded on myths and beliefs that they have accumulated about global consumer culture while gaining experience in different parts of the world. These myths and beliefs are however based on their perceptions towards global consumer culture, not objective reality per se.

Este trabalho tem o propósito de compreender uma atividade de consumo pelas lentes da globalização. Em específico, volta-se às práticas de alimentação doméstica e à maneira como esta reage a processos globalizadores. O foco pretendido decorre da crença de que é pertinente se falar a respeito de comida a partir do domínio discursivo do “global”, assumindo-se que muitas das mudanças que ocorrem nas práticas de alimentação estão de alguma forma relacionadas aos movimentos da globalização. Conforme destacam Ger e Belk (1996, p. 295), “a dialética entre globalização e localização não pode ser compreendida a menos que se conheça a forma como o local experimenta essa dialética”, ou seja, a maneira como as forças globais e locais são sentidas no dia-a-dia das pessoas. Para tanto, optou-se por uma perspectiva microssociológica a partir do estudo de oito famílias pelo período de nove meses. O método empregado seguiu a tradição interpretativa da pesquisa do consumidor (i.e. THOMPSON et al., 1989; ARNOULD, 1998) e é inspirado tanto na etnografia quanto na fenomenologia. Diversos procedimentos de coleta e produção de dados foram aplicados, envolvendo observações, entrevistas em profundidade, entrevistas autodirigidas com imagens, diários de alimentação e análise de fotografias. Apesar de haver teses mais alarmistas acerca da homogeneização dos hábitos alimentares, os resultados aqui apresentados indicam que a globalização proporciona recursos simbólicos para que diferentes significados sejam produzidos e negociados no dia a dia do jantar doméstico. Processos globalizadores penetram nesses jantares e são incorporados principalmente via processos de apropriação e creolização, sem necessariamente ameaçar práticas mais arraigadas relacionadas às famílias de origem e à cultura local. / This work aims to understand consumption activities through the lens of globalization. In particular, turns to the eating practices at home and how it reacts to globalizing processes. The focus of this work stems from the belief that it is appropriate to talk about food from the discursive domain of the "global", assuming that many of the changes that occur in eating practices are somehow related to globalization movements. According to Ger and Belk (1996, p. 295), "the dialectic of globalization-localization cannot be understood unless we begin with how the local experience that dialectic", that is, the way global and local forces are felt in daily lives. To this end, I opted for a microsociological perspective through the study of eight families for a nine months period. The method used followed the interpretive consumer research tradition (eg. Thompson et al. 1989; Arnould, 1998) and is inspired both in ethnography and phenomenology. Several procedures for collecting and producing data were applied, involving observations, in-depth interviews, autodriving interviews with pictures, eating diaries and photographs analysis. Although more alarmist arguments about the homogenization of eating habits, results indicate that globalization provides resources for the production and negotiations of different symbolic meanings in everyday domestic dinners. Globalizing processes penetrate these dinners and are incorporated mainly through processes of appropriation and creolization, without necessarily threatening the most solid practices related to parent’s families and local culture.

Este trabalho tem o propósito de compreender uma atividade de consumo pelas lentes da globalização. Em específico, volta-se às práticas de alimentação doméstica e à maneira como esta reage a processos globalizadores. O foco pretendido decorre da crença de que é pertinente se falar a respeito de comida a partir do domínio discursivo do “global”, assumindo-se que muitas das mudanças que ocorrem nas práticas de alimentação estão de alguma forma relacionadas aos movimentos da globalização. Conforme destacam Ger e Belk (1996, p. 295), “a dialética entre globalização e localização não pode ser compreendida a menos que se conheça a forma como o local experimenta essa dialética”, ou seja, a maneira como as forças globais e locais são sentidas no dia-a-dia das pessoas. Para tanto, optou-se por uma perspectiva microssociológica a partir do estudo de oito famílias pelo período de nove meses. O método empregado seguiu a tradição interpretativa da pesquisa do consumidor (i.e. THOMPSON et al., 1989; ARNOULD, 1998) e é inspirado tanto na etnografia quanto na fenomenologia. Diversos procedimentos de coleta e produção de dados foram aplicados, envolvendo observações, entrevistas em profundidade, entrevistas autodirigidas com imagens, diários de alimentação e análise de fotografias. Apesar de haver teses mais alarmistas acerca da homogeneização dos hábitos alimentares, os resultados aqui apresentados indicam que a globalização proporciona recursos simbólicos para que diferentes significados sejam produzidos e negociados no dia a dia do jantar doméstico. Processos globalizadores penetram nesses jantares e são incorporados principalmente via processos de apropriação e creolização, sem necessariamente ameaçar práticas mais arraigadas relacionadas às famílias de origem e à cultura local. / This work aims to understand consumption activities through the lens of globalization. In particular, turns to the eating practices at home and how it reacts to globalizing processes. The focus of this work stems from the belief that it is appropriate to talk about food from the discursive domain of the "global", assuming that many of the changes that occur in eating practices are somehow related to globalization movements. According to Ger and Belk (1996, p. 295), "the dialectic of globalization-localization cannot be understood unless we begin with how the local experience that dialectic", that is, the way global and local forces are felt in daily lives. To this end, I opted for a microsociological perspective through the study of eight families for a nine months period. The method used followed the interpretive consumer research tradition (eg. Thompson et al. 1989; Arnould, 1998) and is inspired both in ethnography and phenomenology. Several procedures for collecting and producing data were applied, involving observations, in-depth interviews, autodriving interviews with pictures, eating diaries and photographs analysis. Although more alarmist arguments about the homogenization of eating habits, results indicate that globalization provides resources for the production and negotiations of different symbolic meanings in everyday domestic dinners. Globalizing processes penetrate these dinners and are incorporated mainly through processes of appropriation and creolization, without necessarily threatening the most solid practices related to parent’s families and local culture.

Este trabalho tem o propósito de compreender uma atividade de consumo pelas lentes da globalização. Em específico, volta-se às práticas de alimentação doméstica e à maneira como esta reage a processos globalizadores. O foco pretendido decorre da crença de que é pertinente se falar a respeito de comida a partir do domínio discursivo do “global”, assumindo-se que muitas das mudanças que ocorrem nas práticas de alimentação estão de alguma forma relacionadas aos movimentos da globalização. Conforme destacam Ger e Belk (1996, p. 295), “a dialética entre globalização e localização não pode ser compreendida a menos que se conheça a forma como o local experimenta essa dialética”, ou seja, a maneira como as forças globais e locais são sentidas no dia-a-dia das pessoas. Para tanto, optou-se por uma perspectiva microssociológica a partir do estudo de oito famílias pelo período de nove meses. O método empregado seguiu a tradição interpretativa da pesquisa do consumidor (i.e. THOMPSON et al., 1989; ARNOULD, 1998) e é inspirado tanto na etnografia quanto na fenomenologia. Diversos procedimentos de coleta e produção de dados foram aplicados, envolvendo observações, entrevistas em profundidade, entrevistas autodirigidas com imagens, diários de alimentação e análise de fotografias. Apesar de haver teses mais alarmistas acerca da homogeneização dos hábitos alimentares, os resultados aqui apresentados indicam que a globalização proporciona recursos simbólicos para que diferentes significados sejam produzidos e negociados no dia a dia do jantar doméstico. Processos globalizadores penetram nesses jantares e são incorporados principalmente via processos de apropriação e creolização, sem necessariamente ameaçar práticas mais arraigadas relacionadas às famílias de origem e à cultura local. / This work aims to understand consumption activities through the lens of globalization. In particular, turns to the eating practices at home and how it reacts to globalizing processes. The focus of this work stems from the belief that it is appropriate to talk about food from the discursive domain of the "global", assuming that many of the changes that occur in eating practices are somehow related to globalization movements. According to Ger and Belk (1996, p. 295), "the dialectic of globalization-localization cannot be understood unless we begin with how the local experience that dialectic", that is, the way global and local forces are felt in daily lives. To this end, I opted for a microsociological perspective through the study of eight families for a nine months period. The method used followed the interpretive consumer research tradition (eg. Thompson et al. 1989; Arnould, 1998) and is inspired both in ethnography and phenomenology. Several procedures for collecting and producing data were applied, involving observations, in-depth interviews, autodriving interviews with pictures, eating diaries and photographs analysis. Although more alarmist arguments about the homogenization of eating habits, results indicate that globalization provides resources for the production and negotiations of different symbolic meanings in everyday domestic dinners. Globalizing processes penetrate these dinners and are incorporated mainly through processes of appropriation and creolization, without necessarily threatening the most solid practices related to parent’s families and local culture.

Diploma thesis Construstion of Identity in the Emotional Culture deals with possible changes in the construction of identity of man after the fall of the millenium. The thesis stems from Eva Illouz's description of society which states that our present society is unprecedently emotional and rational at the same time. The goal of this thesis is to advocate the intitial statement, that in this organization of society the main source for construction of identity is no longer the consumption of material goods as it put notable social theorists since the second half of the twentienth century. I do not state that this remarkable era is fully over now, but I would like to point out, that consumption of material goods is loosing its strength in the process of identity construction due to the overall increasing living standards and mainly due to the fragmentarization of lifestyles. Considering the unprecedently high level of penetration of our society with emotion I consider them to be the new source of identity creation.

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Yes / The face is not the property of an individual; it is a key part of our communicating body. It is performed, in social interaction (Goffman, 1982) and seen and responded to within historicised and gendered ideals of the normal and of beauty. The normal and the beautiful have a particular resonance in a visually mediated consumer society, “looks matter”. But more than half-a million people in the UK have a significant disfigurement to their face (Changing Faces, 2007). This chapter explores the way facial difference illuminates debates on bodily representation. It explores how people living with visible facial difference invoke discursive formations of disfigurement (Garland-Thomson, 2009). It asks how we encounter and respond to facial difference and examines how close personal relationships can offer a source of support. The chapter contextualises the relevance of the face for communication and then examines implications for social selves in personal communities. Seventeen people living with visible facial difference were interviewed as part of a PhD study and interview extracts illuminate different aspects of the aesthetics of inclusion.

Yes / This study explores how global and local forces influence the processes of consumer re-acculturation amongst third-generation British Sikhs in the United Kingdom (U.K.). Data is collected over a three-year period using multiple methods that focus on the experiential consumption of shaadi.com by third-generation British-born Sikhs. Data is analysed using thematic analysis, and findings reveal three transcultural identity patterns: accommodating, re-acculturating, and resisting Sikh culture. We argue that the emergent identity patterns are fluid, as our participants feel neither wholly British, wholly Sikh, nor wholly British-Sikh, positioning themselves beyond, rather than against, Sikh or British culture. We uncover the connectedness between the traditional cultural practices of arranged marriages and the space of shaadi.com, a matrimonial website. We interpret this website as a medium through which transcultural identities are constructed. We contribute to theory by showing the development of transcultural patterns of consumption and consistent transcultural identity construction in non-migrating ethnic communities.

La théorie de la diffusion de l’innovation s’est constituée au cours du XXeme siècle autour de modèles qualitatifs et quantitatifs qui ne prennent pas en compte, sinon à la marge, l’influence des valeurs et des normes dans la genèse de l’adoption des innovations. A partir d’une hypothèse de recherche, la « structure complexe » d’Edgard Morin et Jean-Pierre Dupuy, et d’une synthèse épistémologique, ce travail de recherche propose une échelle de mesure expérimentale des « cités » de Boltanski et Thévenot et l’intégration de l’influence des conventions comme variables antécédentes de l’adoption des innovations dans un modèle d’équations structurelles inspiré d’une modélisation classique de comportement du consommateur, la théorie de l’action raisonnée de Fishbein. Appliqué au terrain des émissions de télévision, ce modèle indique que l’adoption des émissions dites de « téléréalité » et le bulletin télévisé de la météorologie répondent à des influences normatives différentes qui impliquent des comportements différenciés chez le téléspectateur lors de la consommation de ces programmes. La modélisation de l’influence des conventions ouvre la voie à une classification inédite des émissions de télévision, en fonction des influences sociales, et, en lien avec l’audience, à une meilleure anticipation du succès des nouveaux formats télévisuels. / The theory of the diffusion of innovations has been built during the XXth century around qualitative and quantitative models which does not take into account, otherwise barely, the influence of values and norms on the genesis of innovations. From a research hypothesis, the “complex structure” thought by Edgar Morin and Jean-Pierre Dupuy and an epistemic synthesis, this thesis proposes an experimental measure scale of the Boltanski and Thevenot’s “worlds” and the implementation of sociological forms, “the conventions”, as variable of the innovation adoption in a structural equations model inspired from the Fishbein’s Theory of reasoned action. Built on the field of Tv programs, this model shows that the adoption of “reality TV programs” are linked with specific sociological influences. These sociological influences involve atypical behaviors of TV viewers in front of the screen. The model of the influence of the “conventions” on consumer behavior opens the way to a new classification of TV programs as well as an improved prevision of the success of new formats.