This paper explores ethnic majority consumption practices in immigrant economies. Drawing on recent debates on cosmopolitanism, we focus on the question of how the use of immigrant shops by members of the ethnic majority is intertwined with the erosion and/or the (re)production of symbolic boundaries. We conducted 31 in-depth interviews and 15 go-alongs with consumers in immigrant grocery shops in Vienna. Our findings show how consumption is based upon and shaped by the various ways consumers attribute meaning to the shops, the products on offer as well as their shopping experiences. We identified five different types of consumption: consuming nostalgia, consuming patronage, consuming change, consuming alterity and consuming diversity. However, we only consider the latter two as cosmopolitan consumption in a narrower sense. We show that within these types, the expression of openness towards 'the other' constitutes a form of cultural capital displayed by members of the privileged classes. The article argues in favour of a more comprehensive understanding of consumption practices in immigrant economies. This encompasses that not every act of shopping in immigrant businesses is cosmopolitan and that research is called to consider that the various types of consumption effect boundaries along ethnicity and class in manifold ways.
During their transition from lower to upper secondary education, young peoplemake educational and occupational choices driven by their aspirations. Such aspirations are shaped by the individuals’ social environment, their idea of what seems achievable and desirable, and their experiences. Therefore, aspirations can change during the transitional phase. In this article, we explore the development of educational and occupational aspirations of young people over three years. At the start of the study period, the students were attending the lower track in lower secondary education, the so‐called Neue Mittelschule (8th grade), in the city of Vienna in the 2017–2018 academic year. Drawing on the panel survey data (2018–2020) of the Pathways to the Future project, we simultaneously explore stability and change of educational and occupational aspirations. We describe different patterns of change in aspirations and analyse the influence of sociodemographic characteristics and prior achievement on these patterns. Using latent transition analysis, we identify 11 patterns of aspirations with important differences depending on social background. Most of the students have stable aspirations. However, the results show that school performance, migration background, and the level of parental education play important roles in explaining different levels and patterns of aspirations over time. These longitudinal analyses of educational and occupational aspirations provide important insights into the transition process.
This paper examines native consumption practices in immigrant grocery stores. Drawing on qualitative research on immigrant food retail in Vienna, we reveal how native Austrians use immigrant grocery shops, how they purchase products and which meanings they attribute to the act of shopping. We identified two different modes of shopping: While consuming for convenience is driven by aspects of practicability, consuming for exceptionality is related to the attraction of 'the foreign'. This typology corresponds with two special types of consumers: The 'Because'-consumers use immigrant shops mainly because of the ethnicity associated with the shops, the owners and their staff. The 'Nevertheless'-consumers use these shops in spite of the entrepreneurs' (imagined) ethnic origin and their migrant background. While 'Because'-consumers run the risk of reproducing ethnic stereotypes, the 'Nevertheless'-consumers may tend to retain or even strengthen their xenophobic resentments. These results partly challenge previous findings which argue that natives' shopping routines in immigrant stores have become increasingly ordinary. We conclude by suggesting further research to examine the conditions under which an everyday engagement with foreign culture is promoted -without falling into the trap of reproducing symbolic boundaries between the majority and the minority.
ZusammenfassungBildungsaspirationen – Ziele, die als erstrebenswert und möglich betrachtet werden – hängen von der sozialen Herkunft ab und wirken sich auf die Bildungserfolge aus. Somit sind sie ein wesentlicher Faktor in der Reproduktion sozialer Ungleichheit: Höhere soziale Positionen der Eltern gehen mit höheren Aspirationen von Jugendlichen einher. Liegt ein Migrationshintergrund vor, sind die Aspirationen tendenziell ambitionierter als wenn dies nicht der Fall ist. Die Zusammenhänge zwischen sozialer Position der Eltern und den Aspirationen der Jugendlichen im Migrationskontext sind bislang jedoch nicht ausreichend geklärt. Auf Basis des Projektes „Wege in die Zukunft“, in dem Schüler*innen der 4. Klasse NMS in Wien 2018 online befragt wurden (n = 2850) zeigen wir, dass je nach Migrationsgeneration der Bildungshintergrund der Eltern (Indikator für die soziale Herkunft) die idealistische Bildungsaspiration unterschiedlich beeinflusst. Weiters divergieren die realistischen Bildungsaspirationen nicht nach Migrationshintergrund, sondern lediglich nach dem Bildungshintergrund. Im Migrationskontext ergeben sich also spezifische Zusammenhänge zwischen sozialer Herkunft und idealistischen sowie realistischen Bildungsaspirationen, die anknüpfende theoretische und empirische Forschung notwendig machen.
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