What Brand Is This Place? Place-Making and the Cultural Politics of Downtown Revitalization

Abstract

This article investigates place-branding as a contested “cultural politics.” Through a case study of the creation of a “Downtown” Pomona (California) from the “Antiques Row” and “Arts Colony” that preceded it, the framework furthers our understanding of place-branding by highlighting how communities of interest contest competing cultural outlooks and further outlines the consequences of inadequate attention to the cultural economies that are supported by the meaning-making and place-making strategies of this cultural politics. In discussing how coalitions that cut across business and community interests contest cultural outlooks in an intralocal politics, the analysis offers an alternative to both elite/local and use/exchange approaches to the study of place-branding.

Contested planning efforts for the revitalization of small town centres in Finland

“…The rebranding efforts of planners have been criticised as "place-masking", rather than a constructive part of place-making open to the heterogenous, and potentially contested discourses and practices by locals (Fincher et al 2016, 534). Furthermore, branding must be understood as a contested process of involved stakeholders to delimit potential futures for their locality and which consequently materialises the visions of certain communities of interest (McCann 2002;Farhat 2019). While place branding is not the focus of this study, it nonetheless provides an important linkage to assess local planning in relation to shrinkage and place-making in small towns.…”

City Branding and the Link to Urban Planning: Theories, Practices, and Challenges

“…Among these strategies that speak to the taste of city leaders, cultural projects exhibit a rising trend, where the use of culture as the cornerstone of branding strategies is frequently metamorphosed into monumental structures. Using art museums (Grodach 2010; Vivant 2011; Lindsay 2018) and urban regeneration projects (Peel and Lloyd 2008; Ulldemolins 2014; Farhat 2019), municipal governments attempt to replicate the Bilbao effect and bolster civic pride (Lindsay 2018). While these efforts have remained in universal use, recent city branding practices have found expression in sustainability and green policies to leverage economic resources (see Gulsrud, Gooding, and Konijnendijk van den Bosch 2013; Chan 2017).…”

“…Viewed by some planners as the obvious outcome of neoliberal policies, urban redevelopment is tantamount to commodification of the built environment, through prolonged, large-scale urban design interventions lumped under the umbrella of urban revitalization programs (Keatinge and Martin 2016; Dinardi 2017; Farhat 2019). The drive for mobilizing entrepreneurial efforts to create a need for revitalization has in fact been a central premise of global neoliberalism (Brenner and Theodore 2002).…”

Sustainable Tourism and Residents’ Perception towards the Brand: The Case of Malaga (Spain)

“…The promotion of culture is a greatest challenge in the design of campaigns to promote cities, in terms of the global economy [35]. This offers new possibilities to cities that find in this element, a formula to make the promotion a success [36]. If the residents identify themselves with their city and the institutions do respect their opinions, the city may offer activities related to the culture that promote the image of the city and, at the same time, achieve a climate of attraction for tourists, new residents, or investors [28].…”