There is a quiet shift underway in place branding scholarship. The latest issue of Place Branding and Public Diplomacy does not declare a paradigm change outright, but taken together, its contributions point to something more structural: a move from representation to systems, from perception to performance, and from messaging to governance.
This is an issue preoccupied with alignment – between image and reality, actors and institutions, strategy and outcome. It also leans decisively into methodological experimentation, digital diplomacy, and hybrid governance models.
Reports Olga Rauhut Kompaniets, TPBO’s Associate Editor Research.
Key Themes
The following themes stand out in this latest edition of the academic journal:
From soft power to measurable performance
Viriya Taecharungroj and Ake Pattaratanakun open with “Can soft power and nation brands predict economic performance of nations? A machine learning approach.” It reads as a methodological step-change. The real contribution lies less in the findings than in the approach: soft power is treated as something that can be modelled, stress-tested, and interrogated for non-linear effects. Place branding here edges into a more computational, evidence-driven phase.
Bridging the perception–reality divide
If the previous paper pushes forward, Geeho Jeon’s “Exploring perception-reality gap in nation brand with a new model” calls the field out. Perception-based rankings still dominate, but they lag, distort, and ocasionally mislead.
Jeon’s model, aligning perception indicators with statistical realities across 35 countries, offers a practical diagnostic tool. The message is clear: branding without reality-checking is strategy built on delay.
Together, these two papers mark a pivot – from measuring opinions to testing validity.
Governance, co-creation, and “reverberation”
One of the issue’s most original conceptual contributions comes from Laura Minestroni and Andrea Lucarelli in “Reverberation branding: conceptualising the branding governance mechanism of the Acqua dell’Elba and Isola d’Elba relationship.” Branding is framed as a multi-actor governance process, where value circulates between firms, institutions, and place.
“Reverberation” is an apt term: branding here is not controlled but coordinated over time. Less campaign, more ecosystem.
Institutional diplomacy in transition
The governance thread continues in Francisco José Pradana Pérez’s “Public diplomacy’s communication management through Spanish embassies.” Spanish embassies are adapting – digitally active and increasingly participatory – but still structurally behind. The shift towards contemporary public diplomacy is underway, but not yet complete.
The tension is telling: agile, networked practices on one side; slower institutional reform on the other.
Competing places and economic positioning
Economic positioning returns in two papers, both extending familiar territory.
Mahdi Yousefi and Luo Fan, in “Adapting Dubai’s free zone success to Hainan’s free trade frontier: a cross-case comparison,” distil twelve performance drivers – from infrastructure to alliances – behind JAFZA’s success. It’s pragmatic, almost manual-like.
Meanwhile, M. Irene Prete, Luigi Piper, Valeria Greco, and Gianluigi Guido shift the scale in “Sustainable development, attractiveness, and competitive capacity of touristic local territorial systems (LTSs) in south Italy: a strategic positioning.” Their focus on Local Territorial Systems reframes competitiveness as collective rather than city-bound, supported by a forward-looking investment model.
Both papers point towards a more integrated, policy-facing approach to place branding – less slogan, more system design.
New actors, new authenticity
The most contemporary lens comes from Changyu Liu and Weiying Shi in “Reclaiming authenticity through image construction: wanghong as actors of China’s digital public diplomacy.”
Here, influencers – wanghong – operate as cultural intermediaries, producing narratives that often feel more authentic than official channels. Public diplomacy is no longer purely institutional; it is performed, distributed, and validated by audiences.
Placed alongside the embassy study, the contrast is stark: influence is shifting faster than institutions can follow.
Diplomacy beyond communication
Finally, Anna Kobierecka’s “Polish health diplomacy and the COVID-19 crisis: fostering foreign policy goals through health” broadens the scope. Health aid becomes foreign policy, particularly for mid-sized states. Public diplomacy here is not messaging – it is action.
What This Issue Tells Us
Taken together, several directions emerge that are relevant for place brand makers and shapers:
- From perception to validation: measuring is no longer enough – models must reflect reality.
- From campaigns to coordination: place branding is increasingly a governance challenge.
- From institutions to ecosystems: influence is distributed across formal and informal actors.
- From narrative to delivery: public diplomacy now includes tangible interventions, not just communication.
A Final Note
What stands out is not any single paper, but the collective reorientation. This is an issue that quietly asks: what happens when place branding grows up, when it becomes accountable, measurable, and embedded in systems of governance?
The answer is less controllable, more complex, and ultimately more interesting.
Read the full issue here.
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