Routledge Research Companion to Language and Country Branding (Routledge Studies in Language and Identity)

Research Companion to Language and Country Branding brings together entirely new interdisciplinary research conducted by scholars working on various sociolinguistic, semiotic, anthropological and discursive analytical aspects of country branding all over the world. Branding is a process of identity construction, whereby countries gain visibility and put themselves on the world map as distinctive entities by drawing on their history, culture, economy, society, geography, and their people. Through branding, countries aim not only at establishing their uniqueness but also, and perhaps most importantly, at attracting tourism, investments, high quality human capital, as well as at forging financial, military, political and social alliances. Against this backdrop, this volume explores how countries and regions imagine and portray others and themselves in terms of gender, ethnicity, and diversity today as well as the past. In this respect, the book examines how branding differs from other, related policies and practices, such as nation building, banal nationalism, and populism. This volume is an essential reference for students, researchers, and practitioners with an interest in country, nation, and place branding processes. Review 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 Gothenburg Language 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 University In 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 Kong About the Author 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, r