Full Description
Since the 1990s, city branding has become a key factor in urban development policies. Cities all over the world take specific actions to manipulate the imagery and the perceptions of places, both in the eyes of the inhabitants and in those of potential tourists, investors, users and consumers.
City Branding: The Ghostly Politics of Representation in Globalising Cities explores different sides of place branding policies. The construction and the manipulation of urban images triggers a complex politics of representation, modifying the visibility and the invisibility of spaces, subjects, problems and discourses. In this sense, urban branding is not an innocent tool; this book aims to investigate and reflect on the ideas of urban life, the political unconscious, the affective geographies and the imaginaries of power constructed and reproduced through urban branding.
This book situates city branding within different geographical contexts and 'ordinary' cities, demonstrated through a number of international case studies. In order to map and contextualise the variety of urban imaginaries involved, author Alberto Vanolo incorporates conceptual tools from cultural studies and the embrace of an explicitly post-colonial perspective. This critical analysis of current place branding strategy is an essential reference for the study of city marketing.
Contents
List of Figures
List of Boxes
Chapter 1 Introducing Urban Branding: A Spectral Metaphor
Chapter 2 The Evolution of the Place Branding Debate
Chapter 3 Neoliberalism, Consumption and the Institutional Frameworks of City Branding
Chapter 4 City Branding as a Politics of Representation: A Play with the Visible, the Invisible
and the Ghostly In-Between
Chapter 5 The Global, the Creative and the Smart City
Chapter 6 Symbols, Spectres and the Emotional Geographies of City Branding
Chapter 7 Assessment and Evaluation of Urban Brands, or, Disciplining Urban Spectres
Chapter 8 Concluding Remarks: Insurgent Ghosts and the Politics of City Branding
Index
