ABSTRACT
Several studies demonstrate the value of residents’ voices in the place branding process, however, relatively little is known about how residents experience participating in place branding campaigns and the consequences for place identity. This chapter explores the question of whether participatory branding initiatives could potentially lead to more inclusionary representational spaces in the city. Knowledge about how such spaces are produced can inform the maintenance of place brand on the strategic level and how it may include the needs of the local community. The study shows that contradictions within spaces could be useful to preserve on a strategic level in order to increase the awareness of marginalized interest in the city’s identity. Contradictions highlight asymmetries in power relations between groups and interests in the city and are difficult to resolve, thus they create ambiguous spaces in which the place identity is continuously reworked and negotiated.
