The Politics of National Promotion: Nation Branding and State Power in Latin America
Latin American Studies At Westminster is excited to present this fascinating talk by César Jiménez-Martínez from London School of Economics and Political Science on his latest edited book on nation branding in Latin America.
During the last two decades, governments across Latin America have embraced the practice of nation branding, seeking to create and communicate a positive version of national identity to advance political and economic goals. From Mexico to Chile, authorities have developed public and private organizational infrastructures tasked with manufacturing, circulating, and managing narratives about these nations aimed at overseas audiences. Despite being promoted as a cross-party, long-term solution, nation branding is a highly political practice, exploited by specific governments to address contingent situations. Furthermore, it significantly limits the role of ordinary people in these activities, constructing nation-less versions of national identity, with citizens approached as mere resources to extract information about supposed collective features or a problem to be managed and disciplined through the imposition of a specific identity as the ‘correct’ one.
