Regimes of visibility : Unravelling media, conflict, and hegemony in place branding processes

This chapter explores place branding processes in contemporary urban landscapes, emphasising their media-driven construction and conflicts over territorial representation. It calls for a deeper exploration and experimentation in reclaiming the symbolic identity of urban territories through branding while acknowledging the complexities of brand dynamics in contemporary urban contexts. Using the frame of “regimes of visibility”, it analyses place brands as narrative and affective representations of urban spaces with performative effects. Using the case study of NoLo and Via Padova in Milan, Italy, a grassroots place branding initiative, this study examines the NoLo regime of visibility's media-driven hegemony and territorial control. It demonstrates that despite its bottom-up origins, NoLo's branding attracted media attention and corporate interests favouring the aestheticisation and commodification of the urban space. This research underscores the importance of dismissing simplistic approaches to place branding, considering the key involvement of inhabitants as a sufficient solution to the risks of gentrification and questioning the potential of residents to hold a real “right to the brand”. For community organisers, it implies they must rethink the very notion of what a brand is and how it operates. For urban planners and institutions, this confirms the risks of commodification and gentrification.