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PN 167
Nation Brands and the Political Economy of Image
N. Kaneva
1
1
University of Denver, Media- Film and Journalism Studies, Denver, USA
This theoretical paper explores nation brands as symbolic commodities, which are produced, circulated, and consumed within a global marketplace for
mediated images. The argument engages theoretical insights from the political economy of media and communication and relates them to notions of au‑
thenticity, meaning, and value as these apply to nation brands.The discussion takes as its starting point the Marxist critique of the political economy of signs
in postmodern culture articulated by Baudrillard (1975, 1981, 1994) and connects it to recent political economic perspectives on brands and branding
(e.g., Arvidsson 2005, 2006). Although critiques of signs as commodities have been deployed to analyzeWestern commercial culture and advertising (e.g.,
Goldman 1987, 1992; Goldman & Papson 1994), this perspective is underutilized in analyses of the ways in which nation brands operate. Much of the critical
literature on nation branding to date focuses on how nation brands are produced by a transnational class of promotional experts in tandem with national
political elites. From this point of view, the critiques levelled at nation branding as a symbolic process of identity construction frequently argue that national
representations rendered through branding are reductionist, exclusionary, and driven by economic logics. Furthermore, most critical analyses of nation
branding are grounded in theories of the nation and of nationalism, and as a result tend to see “nationhood” and “national identity” as pre-existing social
phenomena that are being transformed through branding. This paper is interested in tipping the analytical lens away from“the nation”and in the direction
of “the brand.” Particularly, it examines the nation brand as a symbolic commodity, which exists and functions within a system of mediated exchanges
of signs. The main proposition is that nation brands – as symbolic commodities – shed their representational burden of standing in for “the nation” and
begin to circulate as self-referential commodity signs in a global media marketplace. Put differently, this paper is an attempt to think through the idea that
nation brands operate as simulations, rather than as representations, of national identity. Furthermore, it seeks to consider the theoretical and political
implications of such a conceptual shift.