Abstract
City branding as produced by local governments has been widely recognized as a modern version of government communication. Local governments convey attractive features of their identity to current and potential stakeholders in their cities. In this contribution, we examine how municipal governments have used urban design as a form of city branding reflecting the identity of the historical (sub)region in which they are located. We do this in a French border region where features of medieval, Burgundian and Spanish Netherlandish traditions can still clearly be distinguished in public buildings: Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and more specifically its five subregions Maritime Flanders, Roman Flanders, Hainaut, Artesia and Cambrai. We systematically map historical and cultural symbols found on leading public urban architecture and indicate to which era of origin and identity feature they refer. We do this for a selection of 17 municipalities of over 20,000 inhabitants. We find that symbols to pre-French traditions are still very conspicuous (Flemish architecture, typical beer bars, selective use of ancient Dutch language), but also that as new political powers establish themselves in a region these symbols are redefined such that such regional identities are in line with new ‘national requirements’ and become ‘innocuous’. Classicist building styles, French military works and war memorials and modernist architecture embed and blend with these ancient traditions and make regional identities multi-layered. Either way, ‘thin’ instrumental and identities pushed by governments grow ‘thick’ and deeply felt over the centuries.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Not applicable.
Code availability
Not applicable.
References
Anttiroiko, A. (2016). City brands in the mediatised world. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, 20(2), 97–118.
Bauthière, Y., & Pirotte, A. (2012). Histoire de Wallonie - Le point de vue wallon de Yannick Bauthière. Yoran Embanner
Boisen, M., Terlouw, K., Groote, P., & Couwenberg, O. (2018). Reframing place promotion, place marketing, and place branding - moving beyond conceptual confusion. Cities, 80(August), 4–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.08.021
Boisen, M., Terlouw, K., & Gorp, B. Van. (2011). The selective nature of place branding and the layering of spatial identities. 4(2), 135–147. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538331111153151.
Braun, E., Eshuis, J., & Klijn, E. H. (2014). The effectiveness of place brand communication. Cities, 41, 64–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2014.05.007
Bucken-Knapp, G. (2002). Testing our borders: Questions of national and regional identity in the Øresund region. Journal of Baltic Studies, 33(2), 199–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/01629770200000051
Cardoso, R. V., & Meijers, E. J. (2017). The metropolitan name game: The pathways to place naming shaping metropolitan regions. Environment and Planning A, 49(3), 703–721. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X16678851
Davidson Cragoe, C. (2008). How to read buildings: a crash course in architectural styles. New York: Rizzoli.
Davis, E. J., & Reed, M. G. (2013). Multi-level governance of British Columbia’s mountain pine beetle crisis: The roles of memory and identity. Geoforum, 47, 32–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.02.005
de Jong, M., Chen, Y., Joss, S., Lu, H., Zhao, M., Yang, Q., & Zhang, C. (2018). Explaining city branding practices in China’s three mega-city regions: The role of ecological modernization. Journal of Cleaner Production, 179, 527–543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.098
Delanty, G., & Rumford, C. (2005). Rethinking Europe: Social theory and the implications of europeanization. In Rethinking Europe: Social theory and the implications of europeanization. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203640050
Del Biaggio, C. (2010). Theoretical reflection on the making of the Alpine region. The role of transnational networks of local actors on regional identity and institutionalization. Fennia, 188(1), 137–148.
Esherick, J. (2019). Modernity and nation in the Chinese City. In Remaking the Chinese City (pp. 1–16). University of Hawaii Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824864125-003/HTML
Everett, S., & Aitchison, C. (2008). The role of food tourism in sustaining regional identity: A case study of Cornwall, South West England. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 16(2), 150–167. https://doi.org/10.2167/jost696.0
Goess, S., de Jong, M., & Meijers, E. (2016). City branding in polycentric urban regions: Identification, profiling and transformation in the Randstad and Rhine-Ruhr. European Planning Studies, 24(11), 2036–2056. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2016.1228832
Grodach, C. (2009). Urban branding: An analysis of city homepage imagery. Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 26, 181–197.
Hayden, C., & Sevin, E. (2012). The politics of meaning and the city brand: The controversy over the branding of Ankara. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 8(2), 133–146. https://doi.org/10.1057/pb.2012.8
Herstein, R. (2012). Thin line between country, city, and region branding. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 18(2), 147–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356766711435976
Howlett, M. (2009). Government communication as a policy tool: A framework for analysis. The Canadian Political Science Review Government Communication as a Policy Tool, 3(2), 23–37.
Hrdalo, I., Trojanović, A., & Tomić Reljić, D. (2019). The terraced landscape as a part of the Dubrovnik regional identity: Cross time study of the region Dubrovačko Primorje (Republic of Croatia). Annales-Anali Za Istrske in Mediteranske Studije - Series Historia et Sociologia. https://doi.org/10.19233/ASHS.2019.09
Kavaratzis, M. (2012). City branding communication model. European Institute for Brand Management, 1–3.
Kavaratzis, M. (2004). From city marketing to city branding: Towards a theoretical framework for developing city brands. Place Branding, 1, 58–73. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.pb.5990005
Lu, H., & de Jong, M. (2019). Evolution in city branding practices in China’s Pearl River Delta since the year 2000. Cities, 89(July 2018), 154–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.01.026
Lu, H., de Jong, M., & Chen, Y. (2017). Economic city branding in China: The multi-level governance of municipal self-promotion in the Greater Pearl River Delta. Sustainability, 9(4), 496. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9040496
Lu, H., de Jong, M., Yun, S., & Zhao, M. (2020). The multi-level governance of formulating regional brand identities: Evidence from three Mega City Regions in China. Cities. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102668
Luo, X., & Shen, J. (2012). The making of new regionalism in the cross-boundary metropolis of Hong Kong-Shenzhen, China. Habitat International, 36(1), 126–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2011.06.009
Ma, W., Schraven, D., de Bruijne, M., de Jong, M., & Lu, H. (2019). Tracing the origins of place branding research: A bibliometric study of concepts in use (1980–2018). Sustainability (switzerland). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11112999
Ma, W., de Jong, M., de Bruijne, M., & Mu, R. (2021). Mix and match: Configuring different types of policy instruments to develop successful low carbon cities in China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125399.
Martin, E., & Capelli, S. (2017). Region brand legitimacy: Towards a participatory approach involving residents of a place. Public Management Review, 19(6), 820–844. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2016.1210908
Ochkovskaya, M., & Gerasimenko, V. (2018). Buildings from the socialist past as part of a city’s brand identity: The case of Warsaw. Bulletin of Geography, 39(39), 113–127. https://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2018-0008
Oliveira, E. (2016). Place branding as a strategic spatial planning instrument. Journal of Place Management and Development, 9(1), 47–72. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMD-11-2015-0053
Paasi, A. (2002). Bounded spaces in the mobile world: Deconstructing “regional identity.” Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, 93(2), 137–148. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9663.00190
Paasi, A. (2013). Regional planning and the mobilization of ‘regional identity’: From bounded spaces to relational complexity. Regional Studies, 47(8), 1206–1219. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2012.661410
Pierce, J. C., Lovrich, N. P., & Budd, W. W. (2016). Social capital, institutional performance, and sustainability in Italy’s regions: Still evidence of enduring historical effects? Social Science Journal. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2016.06.001
Raagmaa, G. (2002). Regional identity in regional development and planning. European Planning Studies, 10(1), 37–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965431012009926
Rius-Ulldemolins, J., Gisbert, V., & Vera, C. (2021). Traditional festivities, political domination and social reproduction: Case analysis of Valencia’s Fallas. European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1080/23254823.2020.1829497
Sagan, I. (2004). Looking for the nature of the contemporary region. Progress in Human Geography,. https://doi.org/10.1191/0309132504ph477xx.
Šerý, M., & Daňková, M. (2021). When regional identities differ over generation: Deinstitutionalisation of regions and regional identities in a regional amalgam. Journal of Rural Studies, 82(February), 430–441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.01.033
Sletto, B. (2002). Boundary making and regional identities in a globalized environment: Rebordering the Nariva Swamp, Trinidad. Environment and Planning d: Society and Space, 20(2), 183–208. https://doi.org/10.1068/d325
Smits, J., & Van Der Hoeven, F. (2015). A bridge with a view, a view with a bridge: Identifying design considerations for bridges to strengthen regional identity. Research in Urbanism Series. https://doi.org/10.7480/rius.3.833
Szűcs, J. (1983). The three historical regions of Europe: An outline. Acta Historica Academiae Scientiarum, 29(2/4), 131–184.
Terlouw, K. (2009). Rescaling regional identities: communicating thick and thin regional identities. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 9(3), 452–464. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9469.2009.01064.x
Terlouw, K. (2012). From thick to thin regional identities? GeoJournal, 77(5), 707–721. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-011-9422-x
Van den Berg, L., & Braun, E. (1999). Urban competitiveness, marketing and the need for organising capacity. Urban Studies, 36(January), 987–999. https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098993312
van Langenhove, L. (2013). What is a region? Towards a statehood theory of regions. Contemporary Politics, 19(4), 474–490. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2013.853392
Vanneufville, E. (2009). Histoire de Flandre - Le point de vue flamand de Eric Vanneufville. Yoran Embanner.
Wäckerlin, N., Hoppe, T., Warnier, M., & de Jong, W. M. (2019). Comparing city image and brand identity in polycentric regions using network analysis. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 0123456789. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41254-019-00128-4
Zimmerbauer, K., & Paasi, A. (2013). When old and new regionalism collide: Deinstitutionalization of regions and resistance identity in municipality amalgamations. Journal of Rural Studies, 30, 31–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2012.11.004
Zimmerbauer, K., Riukulehto, S., & Suutari, T. (2017). Killing the regional leviathan? Deinstitutionalization and stickiness of regions. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.,. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12547.
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to the Erasmus Initiative for the Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity (DoIP) and Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) for offering time and funds to undertake this study.
Funding
This study was funded by the Erasmus Initiative for the Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity, Erasmus University Rotterdam. This work was also supported by Shenzhen City Overseas High-Level Talents Introduction Funding: Research on urban renewal emission reduction strategy in Greater Bay Area based on big data.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The conception of the study and all empirical work was conducted by MJ. He also took the photos, developed the table and gave the text a final edit. Much of the theoretical work was conducted by HL; she also made the figure. They share full joint responsibility for the final result.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
Not applicable.
EBM disclosure
Martin de Jong is editorial board member of GPPG, but was not involved in the journal’s review or any decision related to this submission.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
This is original work.
Author information
Martin de Jong is scientific director of the Erasmus Initiative for the Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity and professor at Rotterdam School of Management and Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is also visiting professor at the Institute for Global Public Policy at Fudan University. Haiyan Lu is assistant professor at the School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen, China.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de Jong, M., Lu, H. City branding, regional identity and public space: What historical and cultural symbols in urban architecture reveal. GPPG 2, 203–231 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43508-022-00043-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43508-022-00043-0