Abstract
Taking IKEA catalogues from 2010 to 2017 as the objects of analysis, this chapter examines how this global furniture retailer constructs the ideal homes that offer Chinese consumers aspirations for good homes and good lives, and their cultural implications. We argue that IKEA’s popularity in China is attributed to a ‘cultural odourlessness’, which, for its ease in travelling globally, has also become an odour in itself in the Chinese context. In its global circulation, IKEA’s transcultural odourlessness attracts – rather than rejects – diverse translocal experiences of different places and therefore powerfully enriches and pluralises senses of place. IKEA exemplifies how transcultural flows de-territorialise and re-territorialise home, endlessly pluralising senses of home.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Changing Senses of Place |
| Subtitle of host publication | Navigating Global Challenges |
| Editors | Christopher M. Raymond, Lynne C. Manzo, Daniel R. Williams, Andrés Di Masso, Timo von Wirth |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Chapter | 24 |
| Pages | 313-328 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781108769471 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781108477260 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Jul 2021 |
Scopus Subject Areas
- Arts and Humanities(all)
- General
- General Social Sciences
- Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)
User-Defined Keywords
- IKEA
- transcultural odourlessness
- aspirations
- senses of place
- urban Chinese