‘Lost then Found’ Drinking Coffee in Towns: Can Eliasian-Inspired Introspection Inform Re-figurations of Space?

This chapter reflects on the author’s ventures into UK town centre independent coffee shops, exploring how coffee drinking experiences reveal interdependencies between town and speciality coffee figurations. Revisiting written accounts of coffee shop experiences, she responds to initial sentiments of feeling established in speciality coffee and simultaneously an ‘outsider’ in the towns she visits. Delving deeper, her analysis reveals an emotional dynamic of being ‘lost then found’ from finding, consuming in, and exiting town centre coffee shops. These Eliasian-informed introspections help the author interpret relational entanglements between coffee culture and towns, revealing emotional insights of connection and belonging to place. Methodologically, this chapter proposes that figurations can be explored through autoethnography that making sense of place can arise from the preoccupation of ‘finding oneself’.