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Branding the City: The Democratic Legitimacy of a New Mode of Governance

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  • Jasper Eshuis
  • Arthur Edwards

Abstract

Place branding has been used to influence ideas concerning communities and districts, especially in regeneration programmes. This article approaches branding as a new governance strategy for managing perceptions. Considering the popular criticism that branding is a form of spin that prevents the public from gaining a proper understanding of their government’s policies, this article focuses on the democratic legitimacy of branding in urban governance. The branding of two urban communities in the Netherlands is examined empirically in terms of input legitimacy, throughput legitimacy and output legitimacy. The research shows how the democratic legitimacy of branding varies in the two cases. In one case, branding largely excluded citizens, whereas in the other case there was limited citizen participation. The article indicates that, although branding can potentially be a participatory process in which the feelings and emotions of citizens are included, this potential is not always fully realised in practice.

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  • Jasper Eshuis & Arthur Edwards, 2013. "Branding the City: The Democratic Legitimacy of a New Mode of Governance," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(5), pages 1066-1082, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:50:y:2013:i:5:p:1066-1082
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098012459581
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Christopher Lord & David Beetham, 2001. "Legitimizing the EU: Is there a ‘Post‐parliamentary Basis’ for its Legitimation?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 443-462, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Antti Wallin & Helena Leino & Ari Jokinen & Markus Laine & Johanna Tuomisaari & Pia Bäcklund, 2018. "A Polyphonic Story of Urban Densification," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(3), pages 40-51.
    2. Maria J. Cerda-Bertomeu & Francisco J. Sarabia-Sanchez, 2016. "Stakeholders’ perceptions of place branding and the role of the public sector: An exploratory analysis," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(4), pages 299-313, November.
    3. Anna Adamus-Matuszyńska & Jerzy Michnik & Grzegorz Polok, 2019. "A Systemic Approach to City Image Building. The Case of Katowice City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-20, August.
    4. Engelbert, Jiska & van Zoonen, Liesbet & Hirzalla, Fadi, 2019. "Excluding citizens from the European smart city: The discourse practices of pursuing and granting smartness," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 347-353.
    5. Francisco J. Sarabia-Sanchez & Maria J. Cerda-Bertomeu, 2017. "Place brand developers’ perceptions of brand identity, brand architecture and neutrality in place brand development," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(1), pages 51-64, February.
    6. Marta Hereźniak & Magdalena Florek, 2018. "Citizen involvement, place branding and mega events: insights from Expo host cities," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 14(2), pages 89-100, May.
    7. Wenting Ma & Daan Schraven & Mark de Bruijne & Martin de Jong & Haiyan Lu, 2019. "Tracing the Origins of Place Branding Research: A Bibliometric Study of Concepts in Use (1980–2018)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-20, May.

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