Resumo

Current socioeconomic and environmental changes have forced different social actors to formulate new strategies and practices to deal with the intensely turbulent context. In the last decade, cities became recognized as the place where changes are implemented, including economic and social development strategies (Klopp & Petretta, 2017). Among the attempts to develop planning around an inclusive socioeconomic development that sustainably engages with the environment, the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] proposed by the United Nations (2015) have emerged.

In order to project cities at national and global levels, public actors use Place Branding [PB] strategies to make locations attractive to diverse audiences. Thus, this study aims to discover and evaluate the nature of PB strategies in three distinct cities located in different parts of the world Almaty (KZ), Belo Horizonte (BR) and Wroclaw (PL). Thus, the question the study proposes to answer is: How do these three cities elaborate their PB strategies on precepts such as sustainable development, entrepreneurship, and economic and cultural issues?

PB is defined as “a compendium of discourses and practices aimed at reconstituting nationhood through marketing and branding paradigms” (Kaneva, 2011, p. 188). Cities use PB to achieve tourism related goals, such as those linked to modern tourism, like personalized urban tourism experiences, mundane (Edensor, 2007) and sustainable in character. PB strategies, in turn, are in permanent tension, usually being observed through economic biases and used as propaganda or creating unrealistic scenarios (Kaneva, 2011).

Through extensive inductive documentary research, we sought to discover and evaluate the nature of PB strategies in three distinct cities located in different parts of the world. A comparative case study was conducted, using secondary data and documentary research. Data collection was based on tools that could translate qualitative data. Thus, official documents prepared and published by each of the cities were selected, including official news and economic development plans. For the analysis, the categories of PB developed by Kaneva (2011) were taken into consideration.

The findings demonstrated that tensions in relation to PB categories are even more intricate at the local level. It was found that the strategies operationalized by the cities demonstrate the natural tension of PB: they display a strong technical economic nature, distancing themselves from aspects linked to sustainable development, such as community action in direct entrepreneurial actions and the preservation of natural infrastructure. Current PB strategies are disconnected from sustainable development goals.

Through documentary research, it was possible to evaluate local PB strategies and their relationships with entrepreneurship, tourism, and sustainable development. The analyses demonstrated the idiosyncrasies of each of the localities, but also the tension between the objectives of the PB strategies, such as the conflict of economic bias in relation to cultural perspectives. It is expected that this study will contribute to new discussions about PB strategies at the local level.

Edensor, T. (2007). Mundane mobilities, performances and spaces of tourism. Social and Cultural Geography, 8(2), 199 215. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649360701360089 Kaneva, N. (2011). Nation Branding: Toward an Agenda for Critical Research. International Journal of Communication, 5, 117 141. Klopp, J. M., and Petretta, D. L. (2017). The urban sustainable development goal: Indicators, complexity and the politics of measuring cities. Cities, 63, 92 97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.12.019 United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.