Place branding in the Nordic Context: Similarities, Differences, Challenges and Opportunities

Place branding evolution, expansion and geographical spread in the Nordic places has been reported in several manner. This materialized both as a widespread academic field and as an increasingly field of branding practices (i.e. performed by both public officers, and consultants).  All this also recently echoed by a recent special issue on public diplomacy  in the Nordic Regions in the journal of Place Branding and Public Diplomacy.

In spite of such growing literature the peculiarity of the Nordic “context” given by the (un)usual open access which is granted to researchers (at least compared to Anglo-Saxon and European standard); by  the collaboration researcher-practitioner and;  by the peculiar political, institutional, cultural and technological stratus has not fully unpacked. 

All this, paired with widespread interest for place brandings calls for more research into the peculiarity of the Nordic “context” for/of place branding. Given such open and fertile field, if on one side the Nordic “difference” allows to expand research in different directions and opens for opportunities, it also at the same time creates challenges in building theories and in pursuing methodologies which are commonly Anglo-Saxon or European born.

The present session aims therefore to use the Nordic both as empirical and contextual context in order to explore the similarities, differences, challenges and opportunities that both practices and theories of place branding. In this regards possible topics, but not limited to, could be:

• Place branding and its declination (i.e. place marketing, place making, destination branding) in the Nordic Context
• Methodologies and Methods for place branding actives and policies in the Nordic Context
• Nordic Place Branding vs European and Anglo-Saxon Place Branding 
• The role of the macro institutional, economic, political, cultural context into Nordic Place branding activities
• “Nordic” Social media and Nordic Place Branding
• Democratic, Community and Participatory elements in Nordic Place branding practices
• Practitioners- Researcher relationships in Nordic Place Branding
• Stakeholder Involvement in Nordic Place Branding
• “Jentelagen” in Nordic Place Branding practices and theories
• Micro political and institutional context in Nordic Place Branding
• Tourism vs Local Development in Nordic Place Branding
• Questioning the Nordic exceptionalism of/in Nordic Place Branding
• Nordic Branding vis a vis Nordic “Place” Branding