“A nation with your beer? ”
Based on Alfred Schütz’s hermeneutic phenomenology, we lay the theoretical foundations for a sociology of lived nationhood. This approach, we argue, allows for a better understanding of the constitutive sense of nationhood in everyday activities. To substantiate this thesis, we use a case study to illustrate the empirical relevance of a sociology of lived nationhood. By reconstituting the meaning of actions involved in the development of the marketing campaigns of a Belgian brewery, we demonstrate how nationhood shapes the merchandizing of beer. In addition to supporting the idea that we live in a world of nations, we posit that the operations of this brewery participate in the development of a nation branding era, a point in time in which companies, by doing business with nationhood alongside states, help to build but also benefit from the nation as a brand.