Branding the Nation

National governments around the world are turning to branding consultants, public relations advisers and strategic communications experts to help them "brand" their jurisdiction. Using the tools, techniques and expertise of commercial branding is believed to help nations articulate more coherent and cohesive identities, attract foreign capital, and maintain citizen loyalty. In short, the goal of nation branding is to make the nation matter in a world where borders and boundaries appear increasingly obsolete. But what actually happens to the nation when it is reconceived as a brand? How does nation branding change the terms of politics and culture in a globalized world? Through case studies in twelve countries and in-depth interviews with nation branding experts and their national clients, Melissa Aronczyk argues that the social, political and cultural discourses constitutive of the nation have been harnessed in new and problematic ways, with far-reaching consequences for both our concept of the nation and our ideals of national citizenship. Branding the Nation challenges the received wisdom about the power of brands to change the world, and offers a critical perspective on these new ways of conceiving value and identity in the globalized twenty-first century. This book is about how nation branding became a worldwide phenomenon and a professional transnational practice. It is also about how nation branding has become a solution to perceived contemporary problems affecting the space of the nation state: problems of economic development, democratic communication, and especially national visibility and legitimacy amidst the multiple global flows of late modernity. In this book, Melissa Aronczyk charts the political, cultural and economic rationales by which the nation has been made to matter in a twenty-first-century context of global integration. "Nation branding has become a globally prominent enterprise, a tool of governance as well as marketing, with its own cadre of consultants, and with implications for citizenship as well as commerce. Melissa Aronczyk's terrific and clearly written book provides the most informative account available and much-needed critical analysis."-Craig Calhoun, Director, London School of Economics and Political Science "This book contributes substantially to our understanding of the powerful role of branding at the national scale. Melissa Aronczyk does a masterful job of bringing to light the key players, practices, and logics in these behind-the-scenes processes, across a variety of settings. Through exhaustive and innovative research, she reveals the growing influence of marketing in the reimagining and repositioning of the nation in our competitive global era. A must-read for students of politics, globalization, and cultural studies."-Miriam Greenberg, author of Branding New York"Grounded in studies of marketing and nationalism, Branding the Nation explains how and why nations develop resonant and distinctive brands in global circulation. With theoretical agility and a refreshing lack of jargon, Melissa Aronczyk unpacks globalization's effect on identity formation in novel and compelling ways."-Michael D. Kennedy, Professor of Sociology and International Studies, Brown University "Branding the Nation is a trenchant and savvy guide to a phenomenon of increasing cultural and economic significance. Melissa Aronczyk takes us on a fascinating global tour of the world of nation branding and the consciousness of its practitioners. In so doing, she shows us that the nation, far from having exhausted its relevance, is the subject of new and ever more specific forms of calculation, strategy, faith and enchantment. This is cultural studies at its best."-Rosemary Coombe, Tier One Canada Research Chair in Law, Communication and Cultural Studies, York UnLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ; INTRODUCTION: THERE MUST CERTAINLY BE SOME SUCH PLACE ; 1. NATION AND BRAND: KEYWORDS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ; 2. THE NEW AND IMPROVED NATION: HOW CULTURE BECAME COMPETITIVE ; 3. LIVING THE BRAND: THE IDENTITY STRATEGIES OF NATION BRANDING CONSULTANTS ; 4. CREATIVE TENSION, NORMAL NATION: BRANDING NATIONAL IDENTITY IN POLAND ; 5. FROM BLAND TO BRAND: TRANSFORMING CANADIAN CULTURE ; 6. TRADING SPACES: THE WORLD TOUR ; CONCLUSION: VARIABLE UTOPIAS ; LIST OF REFERENCES ; NOTES ; INDEX