Co-created visual narratives and inclusive place branding: a socially responsible approach to residents’ participation and engagement

Abstract

This paper discusses the importance of co-created visual narratives in developing participatory and inclusive place branding. We refer to the need for a socially responsible approach when considering place branding policies and practices. For this purpose, we develop and empirically apply a novel framework with four interconnected phases comprising place-based contextualization, re-appreciation, re-positioning, and consolidation of residents' perceptions, experiences and aspirations to develop and initiate inclusive place branding processes. Using participatory research and collaborative visual methods, we worked with a group of residents in Carvalhal de Vermilhas, Portugal. This work stimulated the co-development of collective agency to consider narratives, values and identities to be articulated for creating and promoting more inclusive representation of place in a (hypothetical) branding exercise. The framework application as well as its challenges and limitations, particularly in co-creation processes, were critically deliberated at all phases. Collaborative visual techniques from our analysis emerge as valuable participatory tools for researchers towards improving residents' participation in place branding, and therefore contributing towards a more inclusive form of this practice. However, we are also aware of the perils associated with communities' opening up their pristine heritage to touristic ventures, and hence suggest considering the importance of sustainable place-shaping in all branding decisions.

Transformative roles of people and places: learning, experiencing, and regenerative action through social innovation

“…Participatory and creative visual methods are considered an appropriate way to unveil diverse, multi-layered, and sensorial narratives of place and place practices as well as varied values and meanings attached to it. Such approaches can serve as an alternative that respects the complexity, social fabric, geography, and socio-political contexts of people and places (Lucarelli and Giovanardi 2014;Rebelo et al 2019).…”

“…Experiencing can be related to the processes of apprehension and sharing the sense and identity of a place. Shared transformative experiences can help to understand how place relationships are discerned and visualised, stimulate inclusive forms of identity building, and acknowledging the transformative agency of people to shape the respective places by means of values, ideas, and needs (Rebelo et al 2019). Regeneration in its place-based articulation facilitates contextualizing and identifying the distinctive character of society and place (Axinte et al 2019).…”

“…• Cátia Rebelo's work in Portugal and Wales explored how co-produced visual narratives help local actors to define and articulate their sense(s) of place and placebased knowledge, and how this may help to transform people and places (Rebelo et al 2019). For this purpose, an interconnected, non-linear four-stage conceptual framework was devised to guide the data collection in two comparative case studies.…”

Exploring the transformative capacity of place-shaping practices

“…A systems perspective acknowledges the different dimensions or 'pillars' of sustainability (people, profit, planet) and the complexity of interconnections between geographical scales and levels of change. Interpreting sustainability in terms of ecological limits respects the ecological boundaries in all human activities and aims at shaping practices that fit within those planetary boundaries (Rockström et al 2009;Raworth 2017). In other words, the goal is to ensure that no one falls short on life's essentials (from food and housing to healthcare and political voice) while ensuring that collectively we do not overshoot our pressure on Earth's life-supporting systems, on which we fundamentally depend-such as a stable climate, fertile soils, and a protective ozone layer.…”

“…Grenni et al (2019, this issue) explore the role of sense of place and place values in the context of sustainable place-shaping and propose a framework to operationalize these in research. Rebelo et al (2019) analyze how co-development of collective agency via narratives, values and identities can be articulated for creating and promoting a more inclusive representation of place in a (hypothetical) branding exercise.…”