Research Companion to Language and Country Branding

Irene Theodoropoulou is Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics at Qatar University. Her current research interests lie at the intersection of Modern Greek and Arabic sociolinguistics, intercultural communication and discourse analysis with politics, architecture, communication studies and sports. Her geographical areas of interest include primarily Greece and the State of Qatar. She is the author of Sociolinguistics of Style and Social Class in Contemporary Athens (2014), and her most recent publications include journal articles in Language Policy, Sociolinguistic Studies, Lingua, Journal of Arabian Studies, Discourse & Society and Visual Communication. Currently, she is the Lead PI of an Impact Grant, funded by Qatar University, on sports-related branding. Johanna Tovar, née Woydack, is Assistant Professor at WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business) in the Department of Foreign Language Business Communication. Prior to moving to Austria, she was a postdoctoral fellow at City University Hong Kong. She received her PhD in Sociolinguistics from King’s College London and holds a master’s degree in Anthropology from the London School of Economics. She has done ethnographic fieldwork in a variety of organizations and workplaces, including call centers in Europe and Asia, pertaining to issues such as standardization, text trajectories, invisible work, resistance and compliance, monitoring, and migration. Her monograph Linguistic Ethnography of a Multilingual Call Center was published in 2019. Her most recent publications have appeared in journals such as Language in Society, the International Journal of Business Communication, English for Specific Purposes, and Sociolinguistic Studies.

• Table of ContentsList of figuresList of tablesContributorsAcknowledgmentsDisclaimerIntroduction – Irene Theodoropoulou and Johanna TovarPart I: Nationalism and country brandingNationalism and politicsChapter 1: Enregistering the nation: Bolsonaro’s populist branding of Brazil—– Daniel N. SilvaChapter 2: The sociolinguistic saffronisation of India—– Jaspal Naveel SinghChapter 3: "There is a wonderfully contrary spirit among the British people": Conservative MPs’ (un)successful branding of the British nation in the Brexit debate—- Nora WenzlNationalism and diversityChapter 4: The overflow of Peru’s country brand: National narratives, recognition, and moral brandedness in neoliberal Peru—– Gisela Cánepa KochChapter 5: Sociocultural diversity: An opportunity for branding or a problem? The case of Chile—– Ignacio López EscarcenaNationalism and cosmopolitanismChapter 6: "The Sweet Life" and the Russian nation: The role of a TV serial in the process of nation branding—– Katharina KlingseisChapter 7: Singapore’s nation branding through language policy: 'Commercial nationalism' and internal tensions—– Luke LuChapter 8: Legitimizing national, striving cosmopolitan: Branding of post-Soviet city space in Almaty, Kazakhstan—– Juldyz Smagulova and Kara FlemingChapter 9: The republic’s new clothes: Reimaging and branding a post-reunification Germany—– Johanna TovarNationalism and timeChapter 10: The narrative arc of nation branding: Staging Shanghai World Expo 2010 in historical events—– Jackie Jia LouChapter 11: "Deliver amazing": Qatar as a branded architectural discourse in World Cup 2022—– Irene TheodoropoulouNationalism and (in)authenticityChapter 12: National anxieties in polite disguise: Cool Japan branding and the inversion of globalization—– Rebecca CarlsonChapter 13: Translation, transliteration, and translingualization: On the possibilities of 'Korea' in the linguistic landscape—– Jerry Won LeePart 2: Place and country brandingPlace as branded destinationChapter 14: "Milano, a place to be": Expo 2015 and the chronotopic rebranding of Italy’s moral capital—– Aurora DonzelliChapter 15: "We all sell wine, but it comes back to the land really": The narrative construction of place in Australian wine branding narratives—– Kerrilee LockyerChapter 16: Social media branding: The case of Mykonos, Greece on Facebook—– Irene TheodoropoulouChapter 17: Place branding in its place—– Asif AghaPlace as a tourism-related brandChapter 18: Potential of destination branding for tourism promotion in Cameroon—– Evelyne N. Tegomoh and Jeff M. MolombeChapter 19: Tale of Two Cities: Tourist destination branding and its role in nation branding in France—– Adam WilsonChapter 20: Conflicts over authenticity and overtourism in destination branding: 'Blame the Bieber effect' in Iceland—– Natalia Yannopoulou, Koblarp Chandrasapth and Darren KelseyIndex

An authoritative collection offering a comprehensive account of the ways in which places are branded. Covering an impressive geo-political range of contexts and employing a variety of theoretical and analytical approaches, this book breaks new ground in contemporary sociolinguistic inquiry. - Tommaso Milani, Professor of Multilingualism, University of GothenburgLanguage and symbols are at the heart of the nation’s brand. Bringing together expert contributions from linguistics, anthropology and management, Theodoropoulou and Tovar show us how to recognize the power and limits of discursive and semiotic forms. This robust and multidisciplinary volume will be of use to international practitioners, policy makers and scholars to make sense of national promotion in global communication circuits. - Melissa Aronczyk, Associate Professor of Journalism & Media Studies, Rutgers UniversityIn this timely and impressive collection, Theodoropoulou and Tovar bring together a wide range of case studies on place and nation branding in a world on the cusp of the C19 pandemic. The book persuasively demonstrates the centrality of discourse and the confluence of politics, profits and partisanship in contemporary nation building.- Adam Jaworski, Chair Professor of Sociolinguistics, University of Hong KongResearch companion to language and country branding is a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary, polyvalent, and theoretically innovative book suited both for novices and experts. It is written by scholars and researchers from different disciplines and as both a theoretical and practical ‘companion’ for those interested in the role of language in country branding.- Giovanna Parmigiani, Harvard Divinity School and CSWR, Harvard University