I am encouraged that the critical scrutiny of nation branding has also increased in recent years. I don’t necessarily accept such claims, however, and I question this normalization of nation branding in my research. To me, this illustrates that nation branding is now widely regarded as normal and inevitable it has become a “common sense” practice for nations today. To give just one example, the government of Ukraine announced a new country branding strategy only days after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, while parts of Ukraine appeared to be descending into civil war. They pop up even in the midst of highly unstable social circumstances. Various place branding programs and initiatives are launched at the national, regional, or city levels all the time. There is greater interest among practitioners and policy makers, as well as among scholars and students. Have you observed growing interest in nation branding during the last years?Ībsolutely. These are complex dynamics, which need to be analyzed within the context of specific countries and regions. In response, nation-states are expected to make themselves more attractive to capital, and nation branding is one tool used to serve this goal.Īt the same time, nation branding responds to the nation-state’s crisis of legitimacy in a globalizing world, where the state is no longer in control of the national economy, yet it still has the primary responsibility for the welfare of its citizens.
More broadly, I see nation branding as a logical outcome of neoliberal policies, which have made it easier for transnational capital to flow across borders. One important change is that national identity narratives, which used to be created by national intellectual and artistic elites (i.e., artists, poets, educators, political leaders), are increasingly being shaped by marketing experts, many of whom work for Western companies and are complete outsiders to the countries they advise. I am interested in how nation branding projects take political and cultural processes – such as the construction of national identities – and reconstitute them to make them more “market-friendly.” My research looks at nation branding from the perspective of critical social theories. In one of my articles, “ Nation Branding: Toward an Agenda for Critical Research” (2011), I summarize the main points of view on what nation branding is and how it relates to public diplomacy. The answer to this question varies, depending on the disciplinary perspective of the person you ask. What is nation branding all about, and (how) does it relate to the concept of public diplomacy? This scene created a powerful cognitive dissonance in my mind and I simply couldn’t forget it.Įventually, the study and critique of nation branding ideas, practices, and the institutions behind them became the focus of my doctoral dissertation and a major strand of my ongoing research. This conversation was taking place at an outdoor cafe and I remember that, as I listened to the journalist, a child was begging on the street corner not far from us. The project had generated a lot of public attention and it instantly piqued my curiosity. One journalist I was interviewing mentioned in passing that the British Council in Sofia was running a project with the title “Branding Bulgaria,” which was supposed to develop a comprehensive brand strategy for the country. I was conducting research in Bulgaria on the commercialization of media and culture since the collapse of socialist regimes in the region.
It was in 2005 and I was still a doctoral student. Nadia, do you remember the first time you heard about nation branding? Why young researchers should step outside of their disciplinary comfort zones and engage with scholars across disciplinary lines.How nation branding and public diplomacy will move in the direction of greater audience engagement and relationship-building with multiple stakeholders.How the competition for audience attention is quite unequal, depending on the size and wealth of a nation.Nation branding from the perspective of critical social theories.Nadia Kaneva’s critical stance is a timely reminder for place branding professionals that developing and managing a national brand or country reputation is a highly political and delicate affair, whose success requires much more than ‘merely’ marketing skills. Nadia Kaneva, Associate Professor at the University of Denver, USA, in this interview shares her thoughts on the theory and practice of nation branding.
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