Branded Cosmopolitanisms: ‘Global’ Coffee Brands and the Co-creation of ‘Cosmopolitan Cool’

Abstract

Engaging key issues in a growing sociological literature on the emergence of ordinary cosmopolitanisms in consumer culture, this paper traces a link between brands and cosmopolitanism. Focusing on the case of specialty coffee brands Starbucks and Second Cup, the paper draws on recent theoretical approaches to the brand, and substantial qualitative data from research conducted in Toronto, to outline how the brands frame and invoke a narrow form of cosmopolitanism as part of the brand experience. However, it is not assumed that such cosmopolitanism is straightforwardly taken up or reproduced by consumers. Rather, considering the interactive ways in which consumers engage with the brands, it is argued that a stylized ‘cosmopolitan cool’ is co-generated in the dynamic interplay. While elaborating the connection between cosmopolitanism and the brands, the paper will also consider the paradoxes, limits and tensions of such branded cosmopolitanism.