Towards Credible City Branding Practices: How Do Iran’s Largest Cities Face Ecological Modernization?

A potentially attractive way for cities to maintain economic growth while reducing environmental harm is to let their production structures undergo industrial transformation, a process otherwise known as ecological modernization. This attraction lies mainly in the fact that residents, visitors and corporations prefer clean air, water and soil as a milieu to invest their resources in. Municipal governments can use city branding as an important instrument to force off such a transformation, if it is taken as a point of departure for the adoption of a strategy to which they are deeply committed and for the benefit of which they are willing to deploy their various policy instruments. In the literature on ecological modernization, five different pathways for industrial transformation in cities have been identified and these have been matched with city branding practices. In this contribution, the abovementioned conceptual framework is further detailed and specified to account for a variety in types of secondary and tertiary sector industries. In the empirical sections, all cities in the Chinese provinces Hubei and Hunan, where the transition from manufacturing to services is typically most pressing, are examined in terms of their industrial structures, pathways to industrial transformation and city branding choices. The results indicate, inter alia, that further subdivision of the secondary and tertiary economic sectors is useful in understanding key features of the transformation, and that different sub-pathways affect tradeoffs between economic expansion and ecological preservation differently. Branding practices among Hubei and Hunan cities also indicate that some industries are more easily embraced and utilized than others in establishing brand identities and adopting popular city labels.

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Explaining city branding practices in China's three mega-city regions: The role of ecological modernization

Journal of Cleaner Production ◽

10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.098 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 179 ◽

pp. 527-543 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Martin de Jong ◽

Yawei Chen ◽

Simon Joss ◽

Haiyan Lu ◽

Miaoxi Zhao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecological Modernization ◽

City Branding ◽

City Regions

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Portuguese Sardines - from the ritual to the brand

TRANSNATIONAL MARKETING JOURNAL ◽

10.33182/tmj.v5i2.382 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 109-120

Author(s):

Cecília Avelino Barbosa

Keyword(s):

Social Construction ◽

Place Branding ◽

Symbolic Capital ◽

City Council ◽

Point Of View ◽

City Branding ◽

The Past ◽

Behavioral Expression ◽

The City ◽

City Identity

Place branding is a network of associations in the consumer’s mind, based on the visual, verbal, and behavioral expression of a place. Food can be an important tool to summarize it as it is part of the culture of a city and its symbolic capital. Food is imaginary, a ritual and a social construction. This paper aims to explore a ritual that has turned into one of the brands of Lisbon in the past few years. The fresh sardines barbecued out of doors, during Saint Anthony’s festival, has become a symbol that can be found on t-shirts, magnets and all kinds of souvenirs. Over the year, tourists can buy sardine shaped objects in very cheap stores to luxurious shops. There is even a whole boutique dedicated to the fish: “The Fantastic World of Portuguese Sardines” and an annual competition promoted by the city council to choose the five most emblematic designs of sardines. In order to analyze the Sardine phenomenon from a city branding point of view, the objective of this paper is to comprehend what associations are made by foreigners when they are outside of Lisbon. As a methodological procedure five design sardines, were used of last year to questioning to which city they relate them in interviews carried in Madrid, Lyon, Rome and London. Upon completion of the analysis, the results of the city branding strategy adopted by the city council to promote the sardines as the official symbol of Lisbon is seen as a Folkmarketing action. The effects are positive, but still quite local. On the other hand, significant participation of the Lisbon´s dwellers in the Sardine Contest was observed, which seems to be a good way to promote the city identity and pride in their best ambassador: the citizens.

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Lyon – UNESCO’s Creative City of Gastronomy?

TRANSNATIONAL MARKETING JOURNAL ◽

10.33182/tmj.v4i2.395 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 126-132 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Cecilia Avelino Barbosa

Keyword(s):

Cultural Industries ◽

Brand Positioning ◽

City Branding ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Creative Cities ◽

Marketing Program ◽

Creative City ◽

Territorial Marketing ◽

The World ◽

The City

The fast urbanization in many regions of the world has generated a high competition between cities. In the race for investments and for international presence, some cities have increasingly resorting to the territorial marketing techniques like city branding. One of the strategies of recent years has been to use of creativity and / or labeling of creative city for the promotion of its destination. This phenomenon raises a question whether the city branding programs have worked in accordance with the cultural industries of the territory or if such labels influence the thought of tourists and locals. This paper begins by placing a consideration of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) and the strategies of the Territorial Marketing Program of the city of Lyon in France, Only Lyon. It also raises the question the perception of the target public to each of the current actions through semi-structured interviews which were applied between May and August 2015. Finally, I will try to open a discussion the brand positioning adopted by the city of Lyon

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The impact of a mega-event on city branding: The European Capital of Culture 2010 and the image of Istanbul

BORDER CROSSING ◽

10.33182/bc.v3i1.524 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 29-50 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Evinç Doğan ◽

Ibrahim Sirkeci

Keyword(s):

Visual Analysis ◽

Place Branding ◽

World City ◽

City Branding ◽

City Image ◽

European Capital Of Culture ◽

National Boundaries ◽

Symbolic Production ◽

The Impact ◽

The City

This study examines the ways in which the city image of Istanbul is re-created through the mega-events within the context of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) 2010. Istanbul “took the stage” as one of the three ECoC cities (Essen for the Ruhr in Germany and Pécs in Hungary), where the urban spaces were projected as the theatre décor while residents and visitors became the spectators of the events. Organisers and agents of the ECoC 2010 seemed to rebrand Istanbul as a “world city” rather than a “European capital”. With a series of transnational connotations, this can be considered as part of an attempt to turn Istanbul to a global city. In this study we examine posters used during the ECoC 2010 to see whether this was evident in the promoted images of Istanbul. The research employs a hermeneutic approach in which representations, signs and language are the means of symbolic meaning, which is analysed through qualitative methods for the visual data (Visual Analysis Methods), namely Semiotics and Discourse Analysis. The analysed research material comes from a sample of posters released during the ECoC 2010 to promote 549 events throughout the year. Using stratified random sampling we have drawn 28 posters (5% of the total) reflecting the thematic groups of events in the ECoC 2010. Particular attention is also paid to the reflexivity of the researchers and researchers’ embeddedness to the object of research. The symbolic production and visual representation are therefore investigated firstly through the authoritative and historically constituted discourses in the making of Istanbul image and secondly through the orders of cultural consumption and mediatisation of culture through spectacular events. Hence enforcing a transnationalisation of the image of the city where the image appears to be almost stateless transcending the national boundaries. Findings and methodology used in this study can be useful in understanding similar cases and further research into the processes of city and place branding and image relationships.

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Uneven Decoupling

Sociology of Development ◽

10.1525/sod.2019.5.4.410 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 410-427 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ryan P. Thombs ◽

Xiaorui Huang

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Co2 Emissions ◽

Ecological Modernization ◽

Climate Mitigation ◽

Data Limitations ◽

Treadmill Of Production ◽

Global North ◽

Organization Of Production ◽

Changes Over Time ◽

Over Time

The macro-comparative decoupling literature has often sought to test the arguments made by the treadmill of production (TP) and ecological modernization (EM) theories. However, due to data limitations, these studies have been limited to analyzing the years after 1960. Given that both theories discuss historical processes operating before 1960, analyzing pre-1960 data is warranted to more comprehensively test the propositions made by both theories. We assess the long-term relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions from 1870 to 2014 using a sample of global North nations. We use Prais-Winsten regression models with time interactions to assess whether, when, and how much CO2 emissions have decoupled from economic growth over time. We find that significant relative decoupling has occurred twice since 1870: during the last 30 years of the nineteenth century, the timing of which is contrary to what both the EM and TP theories might expect, and after 1970. We also observe that the relationship remained relatively stable from the turn of the twentieth century to approximately 1970, which aligns with the arguments made by the classical TP work. We conclude that shifts in the global organization of production have shaped the magnitude of the economic growth–CO2 emissions relationship and its changes over time, which has implications for climate mitigation policy.

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Coal's Persistence in the Capitalist World-Economy

Sociology of Development ◽

10.1525/sod.2020.6.2.194 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 194-221 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Paul K. Gellert ◽

Paul S. Ciccantell

Keyword(s):

World Economy ◽

Industrial Revolution ◽

Energy Transition ◽

Ecological Modernization ◽

World Systems ◽

Coal Consumption ◽

The World ◽

Capitalist World Economy ◽

Capitalist World

Predominant analyses of energy offer insufficient theoretical and political-economic insight into the persistence of coal and other fossil fuels. The dominant narrative of coal powering the Industrial Revolution, and Great Britain's world dominance in the nineteenth century giving way to a U.S.- and oil-dominated twentieth century, is marred by teleological assumptions. The key assumption that a complete energy “transition” will occur leads some to conceive of a renewable-energy-dominated twenty-first century led by China. After critiquing the teleological assumptions of modernization, ecological modernization, energetics, and even world-systems analysis of energy “transition,” this paper offers a world-systems perspective on the “raw” materialism of coal. Examining the material characteristics of coal and the unequal structure of the world-economy, the paper uses long-term data from governmental and private sources to reveal the lack of transition as new sources of energy are added. The increases in coal consumption in China and India as they have ascended in the capitalist world-economy have more than offset the leveling-off and decline in some core nations. A true global peak and decline (let alone full substitution) in energy generally and coal specifically has never happened. The future need not repeat the past, but technical, policy, and movement approaches will not get far without addressing the structural imperatives of capitalist growth and the uneven power structures and processes of long-term change of the world-system.

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