• demonstrate understanding of the socio-political and market-related context of the selected problem
• demonstrate ability to analyse a selected problem within one of the main thematic areas of the course
• demonstrate ability to base the assignment on relevant sources
• demonstrate ability to choose and apply relevant concepts and methods to the selected problem
• demonstrate ability to present the problem in a logical and organised manner in accordance with the academic genre and language

Seemingly everything needs to be branded these days and what does not have a competitive identity does not have a future! This course will take a closer look at the phenomenon of place branding, i.e. how notions of branding and image management are increasingly applied to nations, regions and cities and even to supranational entities as e.g. Scandinavia. These places all compete for tourists, trade, investments and talent, and for that purpose they rely on having an attractive brand to be competitive in a globalized world. A lot of resources are spent on branding efforts - from tourist campaigns to public diplomacy efforts of governments - and indexes and rankings are produced; but are the rankings reliable and are the resources well-spent? The course will have a double focus on case studies of different countries, cities and regions on the one hand, and on more theoretically focused sessions on the other, where we will critically consider if and how place branding is possible, whether (nation) brands can be measured and whether branding campaigns are likely to be good value for money. We will also consider how mega-events such as the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup may be used in a nation branding context. There will be a possibility to hand in and have comments on up to two written assignments during the course.

Anholt, Simon (2010). Places: Identity, Image and Reputation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Online CBS Library)

Aronczyk, Melissa (2013) Branding the Nation: The Global Business of National Identity. Oxford University Press. (Online CBS Library)

Cassinger, Cecilia, Merkelsen, Henrik, Eksell, Jörgen & Rasmussen, Rasmus Kjærgaard (2016). Translating public diplomacy and nation branding in Scandinavia: An institutional approach to the cartoon crises. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, vol. 12(2-3), 172-186.

Clerc, Louis, Glover, Nikolas & Jordan, Paul (eds.) (2015) Histories of Public Diplomacy and Nation Branding in the Nordic and Baltic Countries: Representing the Periphery. Leiden and Boston: Brill Nijhoff, pages 217-236.

Cull, Nicholas J. (2010). Public diplomacy: Seven lessons for its future from its past. Place Branding and public diplomacy, vol. 6(1), 11-17.

Dinnie, Keith (ed.)(2011). City Branding: Theory and Cases. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Online CBS Library)

Dinnie, Keith (2008). Nation Branding: Concepts, Issues, Practice. London and New York: Routledge. (Online CBS Library)

Falkheimer, Jesper (2016). Place branding in the Øresund region: From a transnational region to a bi-national city-region. Place branding and public diplomacy, vol. 12(2-3), 160-171.

Fan, Ying (2006). Branding the nation: What is being branded? Journal of Vacation Marketing, vol. 12(1), 5-14.

Gilmore, Fiona (2002). A country – can it be repositioned? Spain – the success story of country branding. Brand Management, vol. 9(4-5), 281-293

Grix, Jonathan (ed.)(2014). Leveraging Legacies from Sports Mega-Events: Concepts and Cases. Basingstoke, GB: Palgrave Macmillan.

Jordan, Paul (2014). Nation branding: A tool for nationalism? Journal of Baltic Studies, vol 45(3), 283-303.

Kaneva, Nadia (2011). Nation branding: Toward an Agenda for Critical Research. International Journal of Communication, 5, 117-141.

Khamis, Susie (2012). Brand Australia; half-truths for a hard sell. Journal of Australian Studies, vol 36(1), 49-63.

Leonard, Mark (1997). Britain TM: Renewing our identity. London: Demos. Available: http:/​/​www.demos.co.uk/​files/​britaintm.pdf 

MacRury, Iain & Poynter, Gavin (2010). ‘Team GB’ and London 2012: The Paradox of National and Global Identities. The International Journal of the History of sport, vol. 27(16-18), 2958-2975.

Magnus, Johannes (2016). International branding of the Nordic region. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, vol. 12(2-3), 195-200.

Melissen, Jan (ed.) (2005), The New Public Diplomacy: Soft power in International Relations. Basingstoke, GB: Palgrave Macmillan.

Merkelsen, Henrik & Rasmussen, Rasmus Kjærgaard  (2016). Nation branding as an emerging field – An institutionalist perspective. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy,  vol. 12(2-3), 99-109.

Nordic Council of Ministers (2015). Strategy for International Branding of the Nordic Region 2015-2016: The Nordic Perspective. http:/​/​norden.diva-portal.org/​smash/​get/​diva2:783406/​FULLTEXT01.pdf

Pamment, James (2016). Introduction: Why the Nordic region? Place Branding and Public Diplomacy,  vol. 12(2-3), 91-98.

Pamment, James (2015). ‘Putting the GREAT Back into Britain’: National Identity, Public-Private Collaboration & Transfers of Brand Equity in 2012’s Global Promotional Campaign. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, vol. 17(2), 260-283.

Pamment, James (2014). The 2012 Olympics and Its Legacies: State, Citizen, and the Corporate Mobilizations of the Olympic Spirit. International Journal of Communication, vol .8 (2014), 2578-2596.

Pillay, Udesh, Tomlinson, Richard & Bass, Orli (eds.).(2009). Developments and Dreams: The Urban Legacy of the 2010 Football World Cup. Cape Town: HSRC Press.

Poynter, Gavin & MacRury, Iain (eds.)(2009). Olympic Cities: 2012 and the Remaking of London. Farnham: Ashgate.

Quelch, John & Jocz, Katherine (2005). Positioning the nation-state. Place Branding, vol. 1(3), 229-237.

Ren, Carina & Szilvia Gyimóth (2013). Transforming and contesting nation branding strategies: Denmark at the Expo 2010. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, vol. 9(1), 17-29.

Rius, Joaquim & Mariano Martín (2015). Spain’s nation branding project Marca España and its cultural policy: the economic and political instrumentalization of a homogeneous and simplified cultural image. International Journal of Cultural Policy, vol. 21(1), 20-40.

Rosendorf, Neal Moses (2013). Franco Sells Spain to America: Hollywood, Tourism and Public Relations As Postwar Spanish Soft Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Saunders, Robert A. (2017). Popular Geopolitics and Nation Branding in the Post-Soviet Realm. London and New York: Routledge.

Stubbs, Julian (2016). Stockholm the capital of Scandinavia. Ten years on.  Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, vol. 12(2-3), 187-194.

Tomlinson, Alan and Young, Christopher (red.) (2006): ’National Identity and Global Sports Events – Culture, Politics, and Spectacle in the Olympics and the Football World Cup’, State University of New York Press, New York.

Tomlinson, Richard, Bass, Orli & Bassett, Thomas (2011). Before and after the vuvuzela: identity, image and mega-events in South Africa, China and Brazil. South African Geographical Journal, vol. 93(1), 38-48.

van Ham, Peter (2001). The Rise of the Brand State: The Postmodern Politics of Image and Reputation. Foreign Affairs, vol. 80(5), 2-6

Werther (2011). Rebranding Britain: Cool Britannia, the Millenium Dome and the 2012 Olympics. Moderna Språk, vol. 105(1), 1-14.