Localizing taste: using metaphors to understand loctural consumptionscapes

ABSTRACT

The globalization of consumption or discourses of glocalization and hybridization dominate the extant literature on “consumptionscapes”. We introduce the “loctural consumptionscape” as an alternative that is centered on products of local-origin and draw upon conceptual metaphor theory to examine an Indian socio-cultural metaphor – traditional-sweets-consumption-as-shubh (auspicious). This metaphor involves the consumption of locally produced traditional Indian sweets. We find that various conceptual associations and relationships comprise the metaphor and these can be categorized into four dimensions – occasion, form and production, relationships – personal and social, and value. We further note that the taste of and for traditional Indian sweets is a key cultural sensibility that inhabits these dimensions. We employ such understanding to offer a view that is socio-culturally driven and which as a localized system of meaning distinguishes the loctural from other consumptionscapes in mass-ties of a horizontal rather than those of a hierarchical nature. The paper engages with the literature on the globalization of consumption by showing that cases of local consumption need not be examples of either anti-globalization or of hybridization, but a case of a search for a sense of cultural identity and authenticity rooted in indigenous products, consumed on appropriate occasions.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumption
• sweets
• local
• global
• metaphor
• taste

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research is personally funded.

Notes on contributors

Renu Emile

Renu Emile is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Jindal Global Business School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India.  Her current research interests lie within the sphere of consumer-behavior, consumer-culture, products and brands, identity, and initiatives for the refugee humanitarian crisis.  She tends to use qualitative techniques for a deeper and richer understanding of the varied textures that constitute life and our consumption behaviors. 

Russell W. Belk

Russell Belk is York University Distinguished Research Professor, Royal Society of Canada Fellow, and Kraft Foods Canada Chair in Marketing at the Schulich School of Business in York University.  His research involves the extended self, meanings of possessions, collecting, gift-giving, sharing, digital consumption, and materialism.

John R. Clammer

John Clammer is Professor of Sociology at the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University.  His primary fields are cultural sociology, the interface of culture and development, sustainability studies, contemporary Asian social theory and issues of cultural rights, and in terms of area interests, Japan, Southeast Asia and India.