“City branding in a Chinese mega city” A critical discourse analysis of citizens’ sense of belonging
(2022) SKOM12 20221Department of Strategic Communication
- Abstract
- This study takes a critical stance and examines how the official city branding discourse in China's megacity Shenzhen affects citizens' sense of belonging. More specifically, through an empirical study of the extreme case, it intends to bring new knowledge to the critical cultural stream of city branding research, especially in the Chinese socio-cultural context. The current academic research on city branding is uneven and lacks a critical cultural voice from the perspective of its inhabitants. Therefore, this study utilizes critical discourse analysis theory as a theoretical framework to examine the phenomenon of residents' lack of belonging, deconstruct the representations of official discourse, and trace possible discursive power and... (More)
- This study takes a critical stance and examines how the official city branding discourse in China's megacity Shenzhen affects citizens' sense of belonging. More specifically, through an empirical study of the extreme case, it intends to bring new knowledge to the critical cultural stream of city branding research, especially in the Chinese socio-cultural context. The current academic research on city branding is uneven and lacks a critical cultural voice from the perspective of its inhabitants. Therefore, this study utilizes critical discourse analysis theory as a theoretical framework to examine the phenomenon of residents' lack of belonging, deconstruct the representations of official discourse, and trace possible discursive power and ideological features in order to understand its impact on residents' sense of belonging. The data analyzed in this study include discursive materials and interviews. Thus, on the one hand, this study attempts to capture the relationship between the meaning of discourse and social power relations through the official discourse of the Shenzhen city brand. On the other hand, it emphasizes the perceptions and attitudes of Shenzhen residents towards their sense of belonging in Shenzhen in order to investigate the bottom-up changes in city perceptions. This study concludes that the Shenzhen government and media are shaping the city brand image in a top-down process, and that these official discourses have a negative impact on residents' sense of belonging. (Less)
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http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9098467
@misc{9098467,
abstract = {{This study takes a critical stance and examines how the official city branding discourse in China's megacity Shenzhen affects citizens' sense of belonging. More specifically, through an empirical study of the extreme case, it intends to bring new knowledge to the critical cultural stream of city branding research, especially in the Chinese socio-cultural context. The current academic research on city branding is uneven and lacks a critical cultural voice from the perspective of its inhabitants. Therefore, this study utilizes critical discourse analysis theory as a theoretical framework to examine the phenomenon of residents' lack of belonging, deconstruct the representations of official discourse, and trace possible discursive power and ideological features in order to understand its impact on residents' sense of belonging. The data analyzed in this study include discursive materials and interviews. Thus, on the one hand, this study attempts to capture the relationship between the meaning of discourse and social power relations through the official discourse of the Shenzhen city brand. On the other hand, it emphasizes the perceptions and attitudes of Shenzhen residents towards their sense of belonging in Shenzhen in order to investigate the bottom-up changes in city perceptions. This study concludes that the Shenzhen government and media are shaping the city brand image in a top-down process, and that these official discourses have a negative impact on residents' sense of belonging.}},
author = {{Xu, Yilin}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{“City branding in a Chinese mega city” A critical discourse analysis of citizens’ sense of belonging}},
year = {{2022}},
}