Representing the city : linguistic perspectives, discursive strategies and multimodality in city branding

This book speculates on city branding from a privileged linguistic, discursive and semiotic perspective, eliciting the peculiarities of city brands in the public sector and exploring the digital genres through which the contemporary network city is communicated on the Internet. Like nations and regions, cities have become aware of the importance of enhancing their reputation to promote specific aspects of urban life to a city’s stakeholders – residents, businesses, investors, tourists and students – in order to improve communication at the local level and compete with other centres in the emergent global sphere. In the knowledge economies of contemporary cities it so happens that the multi-faceted nature of urban life has expanded the potential of city branding from the promotional techniques of the tourism sector into a sophisticated tool of contemporary web governance in the hands of public administration. This explains why gaining a better grasp of city branding is a precious contribution towards active citizenship and e-democracy.