Rethinking Place Branding Governance: A Multiple Actor Study of a Medium Sized UK City, 2021

The research is a part of an ongoing programme of research looking into the involvement of local actors in the presentation and representation of their cities. This links to a growing body of research on participatory place branding that looks at how multiple actors can work independently and collectively to share and enact the narratives they assign to the city. This covers the overlaps in the place branding, placemaking and policy activities, providing an in-depth exploration of actors’ participation in the place agenda. Actors included in this research were involved in marketing, planning, placemaking, policy making, economic development, environmental activism, community engagement, heritage protection, and the visitor economy. The funded fieldwork looked specifically at how these actors were able to collaborate on key areas of a medium-sized UK city’s place agenda. Linked to this, the research covers actors’ perceptions of the place and their interactions with each other.