Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Marketing the unmarketable: Place branding in a postindustrial medium-sized town
Abstract This paper analyzes place branding as a policy intervention in postindustrial small and medium sized towns. We broaden the current and primarily large city focused discussion of place branding in postindustrial locales by examining the re-branding of the former mining town of Heerlen, the Netherlands. The concept of urban imaginaries, or the collection of (historical) representations and narrations of urban space, is used to analyze how place branding strategies are (un)successfully received by target audiences, in particular by different resident groups. While the campaign ‘Urban Heerlen’ has contributed to a successful cultural regeneration, its contested definition of ‘urban’ and the application of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy for regeneration limits its effectiveness in terms of authenticity and inclusivity. We argue that place branding in smaller postindustrial cities might benefit from an explicit recognition of and engagement with the urban imaginaries of residents.
Highlights This article discusses place branding as policy intervention through the lens of urban imaginaries Our case study Heerlen represents a city type underrepresented in place branding literature: post-industrial small and medium-sized towns Our study demonstrates the relevance of taking resident imaginaries into account in place branding campaigns Post-industrial place branding strategies must balance between transcending negative associations related to deindustrialization and existing imaginaries of place among different resident groups
Marketing the unmarketable: Place branding in a postindustrial medium-sized town
Abstract This paper analyzes place branding as a policy intervention in postindustrial small and medium sized towns. We broaden the current and primarily large city focused discussion of place branding in postindustrial locales by examining the re-branding of the former mining town of Heerlen, the Netherlands. The concept of urban imaginaries, or the collection of (historical) representations and narrations of urban space, is used to analyze how place branding strategies are (un)successfully received by target audiences, in particular by different resident groups. While the campaign ‘Urban Heerlen’ has contributed to a successful cultural regeneration, its contested definition of ‘urban’ and the application of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy for regeneration limits its effectiveness in terms of authenticity and inclusivity. We argue that place branding in smaller postindustrial cities might benefit from an explicit recognition of and engagement with the urban imaginaries of residents.
Highlights This article discusses place branding as policy intervention through the lens of urban imaginaries Our case study Heerlen represents a city type underrepresented in place branding literature: post-industrial small and medium-sized towns Our study demonstrates the relevance of taking resident imaginaries into account in place branding campaigns Post-industrial place branding strategies must balance between transcending negative associations related to deindustrialization and existing imaginaries of place among different resident groups
Marketing the unmarketable: Place branding in a postindustrial medium-sized town
VanHoose, Katherine (Autor:in) / Hoekstra, Myrte (Autor:in) / Bontje, Marco (Autor:in)
Cities ; 114
11.04.2021
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Reframing place promotion, place marketing, and place branding - moving beyond conceptual confusion
| BASE | 2018
Reframing place promotion, place marketing, and place branding - moving beyond conceptual confusion
| BASE | 2018
| British Library Online Contents | 1997
| BASE | 2022