{"title":"‘Sympathy for the Devil?’ McDonald’s between imperialism and the building of post-Yugoslav Serbian identity","authors":"Laurent Tournois","doi":"10.2478/pce-2023-0005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Since the opening of its first restaurant in a communist country, which was Yugoslavia, not only is the huge success of the U.S. franchise something that was merely not supposed to happen, but ‘consuming McDonald’s’ has left its mark on the post ‑Yugoslav identity building process. Our central argument is that the singularity of the ‘McDonaldization of Serbia’ encompasses the interactions between expansion/ localness, dominance/adaptation and those who take part in this historical process which spans more than three decades, their responses that apprise, shape and constrain their everyday life conditions. This paper starts from the observation that most of the existing scholarly literature on identity building addresses the end of the Yugoslav experience whether through state narratives or identities introverted. We chose a different and understudied angle, which is a people ‑centred perspective. Accordingly, this paper uses different research methods under the umbrella of a biographical perspective from 1988 to 2021. Ethnographic fieldwork, comprising 45 semi ‑structured interviews with Belgradians, aims to expand scholarly knowledge on consumption and identity building in post ‑Yugoslav Serbia. In addition, conversations with influential individuals contributed to identify periods in the intermingled life of McDonald’s and people in contemporary Serbia. In the early 1990s, the McDonaldisation to some extent escalated cultural disputes between the republics against a backdrop of identity tensions. During the period spanning from the late years of Milosevic’s rule to the advent of Alexandar Vučić in 2012, political conflicts over sovereignty sparked ambiguous civic responses. Finally, McDonald’s has brought Serbs into the Western sphere which is probably best encapsulated in a local popular saying ‘McDonald’s is McDonald’s’ (‘Mek je Mek’), despite being considered ‘tasty’/unhealthy, expensive/rewarding or socially stimulating.","PeriodicalId":37403,"journal":{"name":"Politics in Central Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Politics in Central Europe","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2023-0005","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract Since the opening of its first restaurant in a communist country, which was Yugoslavia, not only is the huge success of the U.S. franchise something that was merely not supposed to happen, but ‘consuming McDonald’s’ has left its mark on the post ‑Yugoslav identity building process. Our central argument is that the singularity of the ‘McDonaldization of Serbia’ encompasses the interactions between expansion/ localness, dominance/adaptation and those who take part in this historical process which spans more than three decades, their responses that apprise, shape and constrain their everyday life conditions. This paper starts from the observation that most of the existing scholarly literature on identity building addresses the end of the Yugoslav experience whether through state narratives or identities introverted. We chose a different and understudied angle, which is a people ‑centred perspective. Accordingly, this paper uses different research methods under the umbrella of a biographical perspective from 1988 to 2021. Ethnographic fieldwork, comprising 45 semi ‑structured interviews with Belgradians, aims to expand scholarly knowledge on consumption and identity building in post ‑Yugoslav Serbia. In addition, conversations with influential individuals contributed to identify periods in the intermingled life of McDonald’s and people in contemporary Serbia. In the early 1990s, the McDonaldisation to some extent escalated cultural disputes between the republics against a backdrop of identity tensions. During the period spanning from the late years of Milosevic’s rule to the advent of Alexandar Vučić in 2012, political conflicts over sovereignty sparked ambiguous civic responses. Finally, McDonald’s has brought Serbs into the Western sphere which is probably best encapsulated in a local popular saying ‘McDonald’s is McDonald’s’ (‘Mek je Mek’), despite being considered ‘tasty’/unhealthy, expensive/rewarding or socially stimulating.
摘要自第一家餐厅在共产主义国家南斯拉夫开业以来,美国特许经营的巨大成功不仅是不应该发生的,而且“消费麦当劳”也在后南斯拉夫的身份建设过程中留下了印记。我们的核心论点是,“塞尔维亚麦当劳化”的独特性包括扩张/地方性、主导地位/适应与那些参与这一跨越三十多年的历史进程的人之间的互动,他们的反应影响、塑造和限制了他们的日常生活条件。本文首先观察到,大多数现有的关于身份建构的学术文献都通过国家叙事或身份内向来解决南斯拉夫经历的终结。我们选择了一个不同的、研究不足的角度,那就是以人为本的视角。因此,从1988年到2021年,本文在传记视角的保护伞下使用了不同的研究方法。民族志实地调查包括对贝尔格莱德人的45次半结构化采访,旨在扩大对后南斯拉夫塞尔维亚消费和身份认同建设的学术知识。此外,与有影响力的个人的对话有助于确定麦当劳和当代塞尔维亚人混合生活的时期。20世纪90年代初,在身份紧张的背景下,麦当劳化在一定程度上加剧了共和国之间的文化争端。从米洛舍维奇统治的最后几年到2012年亚历山大·武契奇的出现,围绕主权的政治冲突引发了模棱两可的公民反应。最后,麦当劳将塞尔维亚人带入了西方世界,这可能最好地体现在当地流行的一句话“麦当劳就是麦当劳”(“Mek je Mek”)中,尽管它被认为是“美味的”/不健康的、昂贵的/有回报的或有社会刺激性的。
期刊介绍:
POLITICS IN CENTRAL EUROPE – The Journal of the Central European Political Science Association is an independent and internationally peer-reviewed scientific journal in political science and international relations. The Journal was established in 2005 as the scientific review that publishes scientific essays, book reviews and information about conferences and other events connected with Central European issues. POLITICS IN CENTRAL EUROPE publishes politics, policy analysis, international relations and other sub-disciplines of political original, peer-reviewed manuscripts that provide scientific essays focusing on issues in comparative science, as well as original theoretical or conceptual analyses. All essays must contribute to a broad understanding of the region of Central Europe. Our goal is to give scholars from Central Europe and beyond the opportunity to present the results of their research.