City, Consumption and Interculturalism: How Cities Can Facilitate Consumer Acculturation

Abstract

With the rise of interculturalism as an alternative paradigm to the dominant multicultural integration policies in immigration countries, the importance of cities, as landscapes of intercultural interactions and consumption has become more and more important. This study aims to investigate how cities and city-related consumption practices play a role in consumer acculturation, an area that is largely overlooked in previous research. A hermeneutic approach is used to analyse and interpret the data collected through semi-structured and unstructured go-along interviews with 18 Iranian immigrants who live in Dortmund, Germany. Beyond the dichotomy of the home and host countries, the findings of this study show how city-related activities and interactions can lead to the construction of a sense of belonging to the hosting society. We show how such a sense of belonging can be constructed through immigrant consumers’ involvement in city-related rituals, private appropriation of public space and reterritorialisation.