About the Workshop

Irrespective of ideology, political actors have a strong interest in positioning themselves on the political stage. Yet, they seem to follow different scripts: Self-proclaimed liberals stage themselves differently than dictatorial and authoritarian regimes. And the aims and prerequisites of well-established big players are fundamentally different from those of, say, political movements or lesser known small states. Over time, practitioners and scholars from various disciplines have used many labels to describe these practices, evoking different notions and foci: propaganda, public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, place branding, or simply image management.

This workshop seeks to explore and compare these practices from a historical perspective. And it aims to do so along the lines of the Cluster of Excellence SCRIPTS: To what an extent is the branding of places and nations ideologically driven? Is there a particularly liberal script of place branding? What are alternative or competing scripts and what do we learn from their differences? To answer these questions, the workshop will zoom in on different types of actors, regimes, regions, and historical contexts.

Programme

• 08.30–09.00 Arrival, coffee and tea
• 09.00–09.10 Welcome!
• 09.10–10.30 Panel I: Welcome to the Liberal State: Place Branding as a Historical Practice in Catalonia, Turkey, and Western Europe
  Tobias Klee (Freie Universität Berlin), Marlene Ritter (Freie Universität Berlin), Lesar Yurtsever (Freie Universität Berlin) Comment: Jessica Gienow-Hecht (Freie Universität Berlin)
• 10.30–10.45 Coffee and tea break
• 10.45–12.15 Panel II: Opening Nights? Image Management of Thailand, Morocco, and Brazil
  Peera Charoenvattananukul (Thammasat University, Bangkok), Gustavo Mesquita (University of Brasília, Brasília), Pol Dalmau (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) Comment: Tobias Rupprecht (Freie Universität Berlin)
• 12.15–13.15 Lunch break & coffee and tea 13.15–14.45 Panel III: No Questions Asked! Promoting the Illiberal State in Japan, the Soviet Union and North Korea
  Tycho van der Hoog (Netherlands Defense Academy), Rósa Magnúsdóttir (University of Iceland, Rejkjavík), Jessamyn Abel (Penn State University, Pennsylvania) Comment: Jazmín Duarte Sckell (Freie Universität Berlin)
• 14.45–15.00 Coffee and tea break
• 15.00–16.00 Final discussion and closing remarks from commentators & presenters

Attending the Workshop

• To register, please contact Marlene Ritter / marlene.ritter@fu-berlin.de.