Branding Latin America: Strategies, Aims, Resistance

(Hardback)

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As public and private sectors become stakeholders, nation-states become corporations, interests become strategic objectives, and identities become brands, branding emerges as a key feature of the pervasiveness of market logic in todays world. Branding Latin America: Strategies, Aims, Resistance offers a sustained critical analysis of these transformations, which see identities deliberately (re)defined according to the principle of competition and strategically (re)oriented towards the market. Through context-sensitive case studies that foreground a specific, under examined set of practices and concepts, this volume draws particular attention not only to the reconfigurations of citizenship, identity, and culture according to an insidious logic of market competitiveness, but also to the ways in which different actors resist, survive, and even thrive in such a context. In so doing, it illuminates the ambivalent relationships between the local, national, and global; the individual and collective; the public and private; and the economic, political, and cultural landscapes that characterize contemporary Latin America and the wider world.

Reviews

This volume is a must-read for scholars and students interested in the interdisciplinary study of place branding. Besides the Latin American perspective, the authors contribute to the discussions that focus on tensions between media versus policy, culture versus economics, and external image projection versus internal identity construction and resident reactions. -- Robert Govers, independent advisor, speaker and author on the reputation of cities, regions and countries
This excellent book provides a robust and eloquent critique of contemporary nation branding practices in Latin America, a geographic area hitherto under-represented in the literature. The range of case studies is compelling and fascinating. In forensic detail the authors analyse the actors and processes involved in nation branding campaigns, demonstrating that nation branding can often be sadly lacking in transparency. -- Keith Dinnie, Middlesex University
Branding Latin America delves into the polemics of nation branding throughout the region and offers important insights into how these nation-states articulate national brand value in the face of globalizations homogenizing forces. The authors expose the polytonality of nation branding and raise critical questions about heritage and economic tensions in which stakeholders views are articulated. -- Joseph L. Scarpaci, Center for Cuban Culture + Economy

Author Bio

Rebecca Ogden is lecturer in Latin American studies at the University of Kent. Dunja Fehimovi is lecturer in Spanish and Portuguese at Newcastle University.