Translating public diplomacy and nation branding in Scandinavia: An institutional approach to the cartoon crises

Abstract

Her research areas include place branding, visual studies, digital media and consumer research.

The spirit of sauna: legitimating the Finnish place brand

“…The analysis of how discursive activity surrounding the symbolic resource of sauna constitutes the institutional structures of Finnish national identity at three levels (regulative, normative and cognitive) that we respectively labelsauna governance, communal identity creation and mythmaking. Examining how Finnish nation branding discourses and imaginaries produce three types of internal legitimacy work, we extend prior legitimation research (Cassinger et al, 2016;Eshuis and Edwards, 2013;Humphreys, 2010;Humphreys and LaTour, 2013;Lucarelli, 2018), theorising how local inhabitants actuate legitimating discourses; that is, how they negotiate regulative legitimacy, affirm normative legitimacy and mobilise cultural-cognitive legitimacy. Across each level, Finnish nation branding discourses were both affirmed and contested.…”

“…A case in pointto this day, Saturday is characterised as sauna day and is embedded in Finnish legislation through collective labour agreements (Finland, 2018, p. 9). This suggests that some forms of nation branding discourses, those of which are integrated with public diplomacy in an overall consensus-based framework (Szondi, 2008), are not only used to form external legitimacy amongst foreign constituents (Cassinger et al, 2016), but can also be used as a form of internal legitimacy work. Leveraging the symbolic resource of sauna, nation branding discourses become a neoliberal mode of governing (Jansen, 2008;Lucarelli and Giovanardi, 2014), significant particularly as policymakers begin to acknowledge the role of residents as important brand ambassadors (Braun et al, 2013).…”

“…More recently, scholarship has begun to consider participatory approaches (Kavaratzis and Kalandides, 2015; Zenker and Erfgen, 2014) and democratic legitimacy (Eshuis and Edwards, 2013) that stress the co-constitutive nature of place branding. While these studies have proven valuable in furthering understandings of citizens as participants in place branding processes, they tend to generally prioritise the agentic performance of citizens whilst overlooking discursive constraints, including the role of cultural artefacts (Cassinger et al , 2016) that help organise and naturalise cultural meanings. Thus, building on and extending previous research, the current study examines both the discursive practices and constraints by which inhabitants use sauna – as a symbolic resource – to shape Finnish place branding discourse from the bottom-up.…”

“…At the heart of this “reputational capital” (Bell, 2016), symbolic resources function as conduits for place branding discourses and expressions of discursive meanings (Kaneva, 2011; Varga, 2013). Cassinger et al (2016, p. 181) argue that the meaning-making process connected to nation branding resources (ideas, practices or configurations) is dynamic, that is contextually, temporally and spatially bound. While foregrounding the role of institutional actors, they maintain that this process requires consensus, mutual understanding and “support from the population”.…”

“…The institutional legitimacy of a place branding discourse is an ongoing set of individual and social processes established in an apparent collective acceptance by local community members as desirable or suitable (Brown and Toyoki, 2013; Suchman, 1995). Substantial research has been devoted to understanding the external legitimacy of place brands; this includes the ecology or environments that place brands exist, their envelopment in neoliberal discourses (Lucarelli, 2018; Varga, 2013), as well as the various stakeholders involved, including government regulators, foreign diplomacy makers, marketers, tourists, transnational corporations, product brands and employees (Cassinger et al , 2016; Morgan et al , 2003). Far less attention has been paid to internal legitimacy, afforded by a nation’s inhabitants or residents (Braun et al , 2013; Lichrou et al , 2017; Warnaby and Medway, 2013), and its import for the stability and institutionalisation of place branding discourses.…”