De Hallen and Zuidas
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Aurelien Reynolds How is public interest communicated in place branding? Master Thesis Project 7354102004 HOW IS PUBLIC INTEREST COMMUNICATED IN PLACE BRANDING? Zuidas and De Hallen, big city projects in Amsterdam Aurelien REYNOLDS 11127813 Graduate School of Social Sciences University of Amsterdam The Netherlands Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok 1 Aurelien Reynolds How is public interest communicated in place branding? P.N All credits to photographs and pictures can be found in the reference section 2 Aurelien Reynolds How is public interest communicated in place branding? 3 Aurelien Reynolds How is public interest communicated in place branding? Abstract In today’s market economy, cities are increasingly competing with each other to attract both people and resources. Place branding has emerged as an instrument to promote places and give space a sense of identity to attract economic and human capital. A way to make cities more attractive is through large scale projects which involve both public and private actors; however such projects do not necessarily concord with the public or the surrounding community and in a pluralist society, often have to contend with multiple stakeholders’ interests. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the discourses around the communicative component of place branding in large projects in the city of Amsterdam, Netherlands using discourse/content analysis and fieldwork. I argue that the public interest is framed as a communication tool in place branding, which intentionally aims to highlight certain social characteristics of a large-scale project as a marketing strategy. Keywords: place branding, public interest, entrepreneurial governance, communication 4 Aurelien Reynolds How is public interest communicated in place branding? Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis supervisor Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok for her enthusiasm and insight during the creation of this thesis. Her positive attitude and understanding of my project has helped me to be more concise and elaborate and reassured me at times when I was uncertain that I was actually on the right track. I also wish to thank the two planning professionals who took the time to answer my questions and provided feedback on some concluding aspect of this thesis. Finally, I am grateful to my family for their support and my fellow classmates in urban and regional planning for their vibrant and insightful contribution to discussions throughout the year. 5 Aurelien Reynolds How is public interest communicated in place branding? Table of Contents Abstract 1. Introduction 8 2. Theoretical Framework 11 2.0 Introduction to place branding 11 2.1 Place branding 11 2.2 Public interest 16 2.3 Formal intentional communication and social construction of reality 19 2.4 Conclusion 24 3. Problem Statement, Research Question &Conceptual Framework 25 3.0 Introduction to research methods 25 3.1 Research Design 25 3.2 Research Framework 27 3.3 Research Methods 29 3.4 Conclusion 37 4. Case Study Research – De Hallen and Zuidas 38 4.0 Introduction 38 4.1 Power of municipalities in the Netherlands 38 4.2 Analysis of Amsterdam Vision documents 42 4.3 De Hallen 46 4.4 Zuidas 57 5. Research Analysis 72 6. Thesis Conclusion 79 References 85 Appendix 91 6 Aurelien Reynolds How is public interest communicated in place branding? List of Figures 1. Strategic place-brand management model 14 2. Social construction of reality 22 3. Analytical Framework: place branding social construction of reality 27 4. Word Cloud - De Hallen 51 5. Word Cloud - Zuidas building blocks 62 List of Tables 1. Content Analysis De Hallen 48 2. Critical Discourse Analysis De Hallen 49 3. Fieldwork De Hallen 51 4. Map overlay De Hallen 54 5. Trip Advisor stat review - De Hallen 55 6. Instagram De Hallen 56 7. Overview of the three scenarios 58 8. Content Analysis Zuidas building blocks 60 9. Macro and Micro-Societal trends Zuidas 61 10. Critical Discourse Analysis Zuidas building blocks 62 11. Map overlay Zuidas 64 12. Fieldwork Zuidas 65 13 Instagram Zuidas 70 List of Maps 1. Vision Map of the structural vision 2011 45 2. Big projects in the city of Amsterdam 45 3. Big projects in the city: De Hallen 48 4. Big projects in the city: Zuidas 59 7 Aurelien Reynolds How is public interest communicated in place branding? Chapter 1 Introduction to the study The expansion of neoliberal forces and the market economy since the 70s has been well known to be a starting point of the erosion of the post second world war welfare state or state of provision. The national state, which took under its wing the peoples welfare through its strong institutional implications in the sectors of health, transport, energy and planning, slowly over the last forty years started transferring this responsibility to that of the market but also to cities in what Brenner (2005) calls a process of “deteretorrialization” and re-scaling . This process involves the downscaling and fragmentation of the welfare state to better accommodate the market. More recently, the effects of these shifts can be felt and seen through the increasing privatization of public services and an increase in public private partnerships particularly in the case of large scale projects. These can be seen as a consequence of cities being increasingly driven to gather financial resources in a highly competitive environment. The role of planning as a state activity has usually been legitimized because the public responsibilities of planning as an institution are defined around the concept of public interest. In addition, the “public interest” was also seen as a criterion for evaluating planning and its products such as policies, projects and plans (Alexander 2002, Innes 1996). Today however we find ourselves in a state of “entrepreneurial governance” where public sector responsibilities are decentralised and privatised by using certain legal and market instruments. This entails that the municipal government plays a key role in urban development and acts as a negotiating party rather than implementing development policies. These have had obvious consequences on the understanding of public interest, however less research has been done on the movement or shift of this notion. As opposed to place marketing which is only focused on a utilitarian approach whereby the best social action is one that maximizes usefulness, place branding advocates itself as providing on the one hand the basis for developing policy to pursue economic development and, at the same time, serve as a conduit for city residents to identify with their city (Kavaratzis 2004). Furthermore, branding implies that the shape 8 Aurelien Reynolds How is public interest communicated in place branding? and substance of places are produced by residents, local public and private actors and civil society in general (Govers 2011). To elaborate its vision, it uses stakeholders perceptions, ideas, values, symbols, culture to shape the image of the city. It therefore aims to impact the perceptions of a place and position it favourably in the minds of the target groups. Place branding can even be considered as a “governance strategy for projecting images and managing perceptions about places” (Braun, Eshuis, & Klijn, 2014, p. 64). Problem Statement, Research Question and Conceptual Framework Place branding is being increasingly used in cities around the world as a way to make them more attractive for investments and for people. By distinguishing itself from standard city marketing which aims to induce behavioural change from a target audience, place branding frames itself in the public interest by giving identities to places that can contribute to the marketing advantage. Legislative and legal procedures such as public hearings and stakeholder involvements in planning already mandate for the public interest, yet, public interest is recognised as troublesome to measure and complex to operationalize. Research Question: How is public interest communicated in place branding? The following sub-questions have been formulated and will aim to address the main research question. A. What is place branding? How did it come about? What are its processes and dimensions? What are its communicative components? B. What is the meaning of “public interest” in planning? How is it changing in a context of “entrepreneurial governance” ? How can the contested term be operationalised? C. How is “public interest” communicated in the place branding of development projects in Amsterdam? What kind of discourses can be found? Are there any similarities in the strategies used? How do both projects compare? 9 Aurelien Reynolds How is public interest communicated in place branding? This thesis elaborates on two main concepts namely place branding and public interest, and aims to investigate their relationship in the case of two place branding projects in Amsterdam. Place branding can be defined as the process employed to create place brands, networks of associations in the target groups’ minds “based on the visual, verbal, and behavioural expression of a place, which is embodied through the aims, communication, values, and the general culture of the place’s stakeholders and the overall place design” (Zenker & Braun, 2010). From my perspective, place branding is about building and providing an identity to places and communicating this identity in a way that is transparent, truthful and resonates with targeted audiences. The concept of public interest is considered in its dialogical conception, that is to say that it is recognised as being constructed either through consensus or by political means. Because public interest has also been used as a way of legitimizing planning, I see it as a “term” which is strategically used in place branding to legitimize projects. Its definition is essentially constructed through consensus among different stakeholders and can be analysed in its discourse. I consider public interest as being contextual and dependent on stakeholder wants and needs and consider it as being able to have differing impacts on local, regional and global scales.