How is public interest communicated in place branding? : Zuidas and De Hallen, big city projects in Amsterdam

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Master Thesis Project 7354102004

HOW IS PUBLIC INTEREST COMMUNICATED IN PLACE BRANDING? Zuidas and De Hallen, big city projects in Amsterdam

Aurelien REYNOLDS 11127813

Graduate School of Social Sciences University of Amsterdam

The Netherlands

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4 Abstract

In today’s market economy, cities are increasingly competing with each other to attract both people and resources. Place branding has emerged as an instrument to promote places and give space a sense of identity to attract economic and human capital. A way to make cities more attractive is through large scale projects which involve both public and private actors; however such projects do not necessarily concord with the public or the surrounding community and in a pluralist society, often have to contend with multiple stakeholders’ interests.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the discourses around the communicative component of place branding in large projects in the city of Amsterdam, Netherlands using discourse/content analysis and fieldwork. I argue that the public interest is framed as a communication tool in place branding, which intentionally aims to highlight certain social characteristics of a large-scale project as a marketing strategy.

5 Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my thesis supervisor Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok for her enthusiasm and insight during the creation of this thesis. Her positive attitude and understanding of my project has helped me to be more concise and elaborate and reassured me at times when I was uncertain that I was actually on the right track.

I also wish to thank the two planning professionals who took the time to answer my questions and provided feedback on some concluding aspect of this thesis.

Finally, I am grateful to my family for their support and my fellow classmates in urban and regional planning for their vibrant and insightful contribution to discussions throughout the year.

6 Table of Contents

Abstract

1. Introduction 8

2. Theoretical Framework 11

2.0 Introduction to place branding 11

2.1 Place branding 11

2.2 Public interest 16

2.3 Formal intentional communication and social construction of reality 19

2.4 Conclusion 24

3. Problem Statement, Research Question &Conceptual Framework 25

3.0 Introduction to research methods 25

3.1 Research Design 25

3.2 Research Framework 27

3.3 Research Methods 29

3.4 Conclusion 37

4. Case Study Research – De Hallen and Zuidas 38

4.0 Introduction 38

4.1 Power of municipalities in the Netherlands 38

4.2 Analysis of Amsterdam Vision documents 42

4.3 De Hallen 46 4.4 Zuidas 57 5. Research Analysis 72 6. Thesis Conclusion 79 References 85 Appendix 91

7 List of Figures

1. Strategic place-brand management model 14

2. Social construction of reality 22

3. Analytical Framework: place branding social construction of reality 27

4. Word Cloud - De Hallen 51

5. Word Cloud - Zuidas building blocks 62

List of Tables

1. Content Analysis De Hallen 48

2. Critical Discourse Analysis De Hallen 49

3. Fieldwork De Hallen 51

4. Map overlay De Hallen 54

5. Trip Advisor stat review - De Hallen 55

6. Instagram De Hallen 56

7. Overview of the three scenarios 58

8. Content Analysis Zuidas building blocks 60

9. Macro and Micro-Societal trends Zuidas 61

10. Critical Discourse Analysis Zuidas building blocks 62

11. Map overlay Zuidas 64

12. Fieldwork Zuidas 65

13 Instagram Zuidas 70

List of Maps

1. Vision Map of the structural vision 2011 45

2. Big projects in the city of Amsterdam 45

3. Big projects in the city: De Hallen 48

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Chapter 1 Introduction to the study

The expansion of neoliberal forces and the market economy since the 70s has been well known to be a starting point of the erosion of the post second world war welfare state or state of provision. The national state, which took under its wing the peoples welfare through its strong institutional implications in the sectors of health, transport, energy and planning, slowly over the last forty years started transferring this responsibility to that of the market but also to cities in what Brenner (2005) calls a process of

“deteretorrialization” and re-scaling . This process involves the downscaling and fragmentation of the welfare state to better accommodate the market. More recently, the effects of these shifts can be felt and seen through the increasing privatization of public services and an increase in public private partnerships particularly in the case of large scale projects. These can be seen as a consequence of cities being increasingly driven to gather financial resources in a highly competitive environment.

The role of planning as a state activity has usually been legitimized because the public responsibilities of planning as an institution are defined around the concept of public interest. In addition, the “public interest” was also seen as a criterion for evaluating planning and its products such as policies, projects and plans (Alexander 2002, Innes 1996). Today however we find ourselves in a state of “entrepreneurial governance” where public sector responsibilities are decentralised and privatised by using certain legal and market instruments. This entails that the municipal government plays a key role in urban development and acts as a negotiating party rather than implementing development policies. These have had obvious consequences on the understanding of public interest, however less research has been done on the movement or shift of this notion. As opposed to place marketing which is only focused on a utilitarian approach whereby the best social action is one that maximizes usefulness, place branding

advocates itself as providing on the one hand the basis for developing policy to pursue economic development and, at the same time, serve as a conduit for city residents to identify with their city (Kavaratzis 2004). Furthermore, branding implies that the shape

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and substance of places are produced by residents, local public and private actors and civil society in general (Govers 2011). To elaborate its vision, it uses stakeholders perceptions, ideas, values, symbols, culture to shape the image of the city. It therefore aims to impact the perceptions of a place and position it favourably in the minds of the target groups. Place branding can even be considered as a “governance strategy for projecting images and managing perceptions about places” (Braun, Eshuis, & Klijn, 2014, p. 64).

Problem Statement, Research Question and Conceptual Framework

Place branding is being increasingly used in cities around the world as a way to make them more attractive for investments and for people. By distinguishing itself from standard city marketing which aims to induce behavioural change from a target

audience, place branding frames itself in the public interest by giving identities to places that can contribute to the marketing advantage. Legislative and legal procedures such as public hearings and stakeholder involvements in planning already mandate for the public interest, yet, public interest is recognised as troublesome to measure and complex to operationalize.

Research Question: How is public interest communicated in place branding?

The following sub-questions have been formulated and will aim to address the main research question.

A. What is place branding? How did it come about? What are its processes and dimensions? What are its communicative components?

B. What is the meaning of “public interest” in planning? How is it changing in a context of “entrepreneurial governance” ? How can the contested term be operationalised? C. How is “public interest” communicated in the place branding of development projects in Amsterdam? What kind of discourses can be found? Are there any similarities in the strategies used? How do both projects compare?

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This thesis elaborates on two main concepts namely place branding and public interest, and aims to investigate their relationship in the case of two place branding projects in Amsterdam. Place branding can be defined as the process employed to create place brands, networks of associations in the target groups’ minds “based on the visual, verbal, and behavioural expression of a place, which is embodied through the aims, communication, values, and the general culture of the place’s stakeholders and the overall place design” (Zenker & Braun, 2010). From my perspective, place branding is about building and providing an identity to places and communicating this identity in a way that is transparent, truthful and resonates with targeted audiences. The concept of public interest is considered in its dialogical conception, that is to say that it is

recognised as being constructed either through consensus or by political means.

Because public interest has also been used as a way of legitimizing planning, I see it as a “term” which is strategically used in place branding to legitimize projects. Its definition is essentially constructed through consensus among different stakeholders and can be analysed in its discourse. I consider public interest as being contextual and dependent on stakeholder wants and needs and consider it as being able to have differing impacts on local, regional and global scales.

The methods used in the research in this thesis are based on three communicative components and will be done by a)looking marketing materials that is available online b) reputation of the brand on social media platforms c) fieldwork in order to verify the findings of the discourses.

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Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework

To understand how public interest is framed in the communication of place branding, it is important to understand the context in which place branding appeared and the existing theoretical work about it. The aim of this chapter is to give a structured knowledge about place branding and delve into its interlinkages with the concepts of public interest and communication. This will establish a basis for my analytical

framework based on the elements of formal intentional communication, words of mouth and brand experience.

Section 2.1 has three objectives. First, to provide a clear and comprehensible definition of the place branding concept. Second give an explanation on the

circumstances under which the term emerged from city competition in a neoliberal world. Third and finally , deliver an insight into the different processual dimensions that characterize it with a focus on the communicative component of the process. Section 2.2 deals with the concept of public interest notably the academic debate that surround the notion and the difficulties associated with its measurement. Section 2.3 focuses on communicative aspects notably formal intentional communication, framing and the social construction of reality. Finally, section 2.4 will offer a brief conclusion of what has been discussed in this chapter

2.1 Place Branding

Branding is a term that is widely used in our contemporary society and which is often associated with products, “Nike”, “Rolls Royce”, “Easy Jet” are such examples of brand names. A brand distinguishes itself by the fact it is meant to embody a product, its image must correspond to its function.

The key to successful branding is to establish a relationship between the brand and the consumer, such that there is a close fit between the consumer’s own physical and psychological needs and the brand’s functional attributes and symbolic values. Both corporate brands and city brands have multidisciplinary roots, they address multiple

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groups of stakeholders (Ashworth, 2001), have a high level of intangibility and complexity, they need to take into account social responsibility and both deal with multiple identities (Kavaratzis 2004). Place branding provides on one hand the basis for developing policy to pursue economic development and, at the same time, it serves as a conduit for city residents to identify with their city (Kavaratzis 2004).

In order to better understand place branding, it is helpful to comprehend how it differs from “place marketing”. Place branding departs from the identity of place and is hence supply driven, as opposed to marketing, which is primarily demand driven. Govers (2011) analyses three main differences. First, place branding is about managing your reputation and intends to build awareness such as a distinctive believable image

(Govers 2001). The Volkswagen (VW) scandal that happened in September 2015, revealed that VW cars beings sold in the United States had a deceitful device in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results of carbon emissions (Hotten 2015). If a brand does not comply with what is says it is, the consequences of such deceit can be devastating for a company both financially and

socially. Second, marketing a city or region runs the risk of ignoring the fact that the shape and substance of places are produced by residents, local public and private actors and civil society in general. For example to reduce a place to a “tourist destination” may result in conflict with local interest groups. It is thus important to create conditions for local brand ambassadorship by building brand on the sense of place identity of the local actors and wider population. Third, a market approach to branding may exclude or discourage other actors from participation.

"Place branding is not the same as place marketing, but rather acts as a strategy that informs the marketing of the product offering of place i.e tourism, trade and talent etc" (Govers 2011).

Kavaratzis (2014) explains that city marketing is essentially dependent on the

construction, and communication of the city's image- therefore the city's image is the starting point for developing a city's brand. The marketing ability of cities must first go through its “branding”.

13 How did place branding come about?

Based on Kantor’s work on global city regions and the strategic position and pressures they hold, it seems clear that one of the main consequences of neoliberalism has been linked to governance(Kantor 2012). Governance is a process of coordinating political decision making implicating different actors, social groups and institutions in a particular institutional context to attain appropriate goals (Tasan-Kok & Vranken 2011). Urban governance is affected by increasing inter-urban competition and entrepreneurialism, changing urban cultures and a declining support of national governments. The neoliberal ideology of markets affect new urban policies , which are affected by deregulation of state control, downsizing of public services, dismantling of welfare programmes and overall call for the transformation to promote capital

accumulation and to increase comparative advantages of the city in a global inward investment economy ( Brenner 2005) . This entails a shift from managerial government to “entrepreneurial governance” whereby the municipal government plays a key role in urban development and acts as a negotiating party rather than implementing

development policies. In this entrepreneurial and competitive environment, property market actors take more pro -active roles in urban development (Heurkens & Al 2015). Emerging from this notion, the implementation of large scale projects involves building governance regimes and more precisely forging partnerships between public and private actors to reduce both the costs and risks associated with such projects.

However, balancing both public and private interest in governance systems appears to pose a major challenge, and the outcomes seem problematic (Tasan-Kok 2010). There are many examples abound of unrealistic public development schemes that failed to attract private investments or market oriented projects that serve very limited public interests. In a Dutch governance system , the participation of private sector actors is organised centrally and has seemingly better balance between public and private sector interest.

The place branding process

The previous sections have attempted to both define and give a background to the concept of place branding in a context of entrepreneurial governance. However, to truly understand the term and its complexity it is useful to understand the components and

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process that form its structure. Hanna and Rowley (2010) offer a strategic place brand model of the branding management process (see figure 1). It includes four main

dimensions: Brand Evaluation, Brand Infrastructure Relationships, Place Brand Articulation and Brand Communication.

Figure 1. Strategic place brand-management model (Hannah & Rowley 2010 p463)

The arrows on the model (figure 1) indicate the way in which components influence each other. For instance, the “brand communication” component influences the “brand experience” component. In her model, it is inherent that (a) the importance of

conceptualising the place brand as being about both image and experience; (b) the central significance of the physical environment on the brand experience; and (c) the complex but pivotal role of stakeholders in the brand building process. Rather than just being advertised, place branding is about delivering an exceptional experience which is both memorable and emotional. It is a bridge building between stakeholders and several target markets. When it comes to brand evaluation, place branding cannot be measured in absolute values, yet there are examples of “benchmarking” where it can be compared and ranked with comparable and competing places and can also be assessed by the quality and effectiveness of stakeholder relations or network (Resonance report 2015). The brand evaluation therefore refers to the process undertaken to gather feedback on brand image and experience. In order to monitor expectations and

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A lot of literature argues that good management starts with good measurement, yet there has almost been no research reported with regards to clearly assessing the strategic effectiveness of place branding initiatives (Pike 2007). Yet, we do know that a brands performance is linked to stakeholder relations as stakeholder consultation provides means for understanding what the place has to offer in it diversity, talent, mentality supporting the establishment of effective partnerships. Place brands acknowledge the importance of stakeholder’s and the development of networks, whether citizen participation, or the establishment of public- private partnership processes are crucial to their development (Hanna & Rowley 2010). It is important to keep in mind however that place branding involves multiple stakeholders often with competing interests, unlike product branding, place branding is seldom under the control of one central authority (Van Ham 2008). Within that spectrum and looking back at figure 1, it is clear that stakeholder engagement is key in developing the infrastructure and identity of a place and thus articulation of a place. These three components then need to be communicated in a way that will affect the overall

experience of the brand. The way in which stakeholder involvement is communicated is consequently of utmost importance as a way to show the value of the network as it is one of the criteria used for the brands evaluation.

This form of communication or what Kavaratzis (2004) calls “formal intentional

communication” is essentially the component which focuses on the activities associated with the communication of the brand identity. As such, it builds on the brand

articulation component , and has a direct influence on the perception and reality of the brand experience. Formal intentional communication is considered to be the

promotional component and one of the variables of the marketing mix ( a business tool used in marketing) that has been so far adopted with ease. In Hanna & Rowley’s (2010) framework, formal intentional communication is affected by brand experience which is the experience provided by the physical characteristics of a place, and words of mouth which is the informal communication that takes place with the consumers of the brand experience.

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What should be found in the “formal intentional communication”?

Baker (2007) raises the issue of integrated brand communication and explains that the challenge is to embed messages into as many marketing applications as possible. In a sense, “incorporating” the wider public interest in place branding can be considered a form of risk management. In addition, Foley and Fahy (2004) also put forward that the sustainability of the brand is related not only to the message delivered but also to the degree of shared meanings that is contained in the message. Some however question the feasibility and/or desirability of integrated brand communication based on the

assumption that consumer do not distinguish message sources in the same ways as marketers . Therefore messages regarding various proposition can result in a confused image if marketers fail to integrate various communications effectively, thus negating efforts to build a sustainable brand (Hanna & Rowley 2010). Branding is essentially a form of communicative interaction in terms of integrating and getting people together around a shared identity and image (Aitken & Campelo 2011). Brands avoid the territorial boundaries managed by suppliers, stakeholders, consumers and are susceptible to the influence of non-consumers.

2.2 Public Interest

With the marketization of the city at a global level, cities have used communication tools such as place branding to attract both social and economic capital. However, for people to come and live in cities, economic opportunities are not necessarily enough to attract them. For instance in Beijing, China, economic expats are known to have left the city due to its high levels of pollution affecting people’s health despite the economic

opportunities of the area. It is thus important for cities and places to incorporate the “public interest” within their development policies if they wish to remain competitive as goes the “live, work and play” paradigm that exemplifies todays mixed use

developments. Present urban regimes in a context of entrepreneurial governance means that private and public parties must find a middle ground in terms of the outcome of development projects. However, balancing both public and private interest can be problematic (Tasan-Kok 2011). In addition, it is important to emphasize that the: “relationship between planning and the market is one of continuous dynamic interaction.

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As a result, planners essentially operate as “market actors” in the sense that they are intricately involved in framing and re-framing real estate markets and so become a significant constitutive element of such markets” (Adams and Tiesdell 2013 p 65). Importantly, markets are seen as social constructs which are highly conditioned by societal norms and regulations and are reflective of dominant powers and interests. It is precisely because markets as seen as social constructs and because stakeholder relations play a pivotal role in evaluating place branding that the idea of public interest is worth researching. Because I am dealing with place branding which has an inherent spatial dimension, I consider public interest from a planner’s perspective. Public interest in planning is a widely contested construct which is recognised in academic literature as being problematic to operationalize (Campbell 2002, Alexander 2002, Innes1996). Yet, it is also recognised that planning is meant to be legitimised by the fact it acts in the public interest (Alexander 2002).

The role of planners as market actors has been increasing with city competition. Collaboration with private parties, consulting firms, development firms are becoming predominant (Campbell 2002) and thus the role of the planner is to negotiate for the betterment of the “public interest” and not that of a firm and its profit. The role of the planner as a market actor is thus to exert leverage, and strive for betterment. In its procedural sense, public interest, is undisputed because of the whole legal framework and guidelines built around it such as human rights, workers’ rights, zoning plans, planning regulations and other legal requirements. The problem with public interest is its substantive content if it is to be considered as an instrument or norm for ethical practice and as a “criterion” for assessing the “goodness of projects, policies and plans”. Three arguments illustrate this problem. First, the concept does not exist as a fact. Second, it cannot exist as a holistic interpersonal value. Third, it should not exist as a holistic interpersonal value. In short, substantive public interest cannot exist because of the diverse and complex nature of our pluralist society (Alexander 2002).

In the mid-1960’s Alan Altshuler, a prominent urban planning and policy academic at the University of Harvard, exposed the city planners’ idea of comprehensive planning. Comprehensive planning is a process that determines community goals and

aspirations in terms of community development which is similar to the contribution of local stakeholders in the case of place branding (see section 2.2). Altshuler gave a

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devastating critique of this conception , stating that the comprehensive physical plan is neither practically feasible nor politically viable and that the comprehensive planner has no basis for legitimacy as a profession. According to him, the only claim to

“legitimacy” that comprehensive planners have is that they are experts who know and measure the public interest. Since measuring something no one can even define is clearly impossible, Altshuler’s critique was not only true in many ways ( see Alexander 2002) but also sent a “touché” effect on the development of the idea and practice of incorporating the public interest in planning (Innes 1996). Despite these critiques, some still consider substantive public interest, which is identified through a political process. They argue that although there is pluralism and diversity , there is also consensus around some critical commonalities due to the economic, social and

environmental interdependencies of our societies – as Campbell (2002) argues, we need to recognise people more by our common traits than by our differences. In her work, Innes disputes Altshuler’s critiques (Innes 1996). Findings from her study support the idea that consensus building results can often be associated with the conception of “public interest” as conceived in the unitary criterions favoured by planning theorists (and most common in the usage of the term) of the idea that it acts for the “common good”. However for a consensus group to claim to speak for a public interest, it must be widely representative of the viewpoints of the public realm. She explains that groups choose to be inclusive because they want or desire their proposal to have legitimacy in the public eye and in planning procedures. They incorporate the knowledge necessary for a workable proposal, to then put their proposal forward with broad political support (Innes 1996).

Based on those findings, if place branding were to represent the public interest, it would be through a dialogical approach of the interest base of stakeholder groups which is essentially, a political discourse. The dialogic principle relates to the public interest as an interactive process from pragmatic political discourse , to utopian dialogue and consensus among stakeholders and concerned parties. In a way, it is a framework to legitimize adopted policies as being in the public interest.. Its two main problems are its Madisonian view which assumes an unquestioned acceptance of the democratic

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rationality , which focuses on the communicative practice itself, Habermas offers

criteria that can be applied to planning or decision making processes to assess whether they are likely to produce decisions and collective actions that are in the public interest. Its norms are quite usable in theoretical practice, yet these criterions are considered to be self-limiting (Alexander 2002).

This dialogical approach is particularly relevant to place branding in a context of entrepreneurial governance, as stakeholder interests is clearly one of the essential components of the process that affect the infrastructure, brand articulation, brand communication and brand evalutation. If an expert is to measure the public interest, then their needs to be an objective way of aggregating multiple diverse goals , however in most cases of consensus building around stakeholders various interests, nobody asked for a measurement to be done , rather participants moved towards a strategy of action in a qualitative discursive way (Innes 1996). This essentially suggests that public interest is contextual and is constructed through discourse.

2.3 Formal intentional communication and social construction of reality

Communication is part of our everyday lives and is far from being a passive process. Communication requires interaction between individuals and actors and is necessarily at least a two way process. As we have seen in the earlier section, place branding goes through a deliberate process of communication. Formal intentional communication of places is affected by its brand articulation and interrelates with words of mouth,a brands reputation and brand experience, how the place is experienced by consumers (see fig.1). For this reason, I consider formal intentional communication not as a passive, objective and factual but as being carefully constructed thus my use of the word “framed”.

Framing is essentially the construction of ‘meanings’ or ‘symbols’ which implies an active process of agency and contention at the level of reality construction( Benford and Snow 2000). It is active in the sense that something is being done based upon a specifically formed vision, and processual in the sense of an evolving process. It entails agency in the sense that what is evolving is the work of an organization. Frames are developed, generated and elaborated. The diffusion of objects (e.g. the symbolic markers and policies, cultural ideas, items for practices) are framed so as to enhance

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their potential resonance with the host or target culture and audience. Strategic

processes are a part of a framing process that is utilitarian and goal oriented, developed to achieve a specific purpose such as recruiting new members, mobilizing current adherents, or acquiring resources. However, “framings” can also be contested and become a negotiated process which is not always under the tight control of elites and does not necessarily yield the desired outcomes. Including other stakeholders in the framing process could lead to more resilient results if we accept Gunderson and Holling’s (2002 p74) concept of panarchy - in which coordination is done ecologically and not consciously through non-hierarchically directed adaptation - which is directly opposed to the forms of power structures (oligarchy) that some elites currently use to control development (Fainstein, 2013).

In 1972, McQuail, considered one of the most influential scholars in the field of mass communication studies, defined the mass media as playing a part in “in shaping the individual collective consciousness by organizing and circulating knowledge which people have in their own everyday life and of the more remote contexts of their lives.” (-McQuail 1972 p 13). This statement not only unveiled some of the intricate framing mechanisms of mass media but also their powerful influence on people’s perceptions and

understandings. In their paper, Adoni and Mane (1984) consider the study of the media and notably the social construction of reality. They explain that two basic approaches distinguish the processes of communication research. The first, approach focuses on the “social construction of reality” as an important aspect of the relationships between culture and society. The second approach concentrates on the “social

construction of reality” as a type of media effect. In their work, both approaches are merged into a common theoretical framework in order to provide both a systematic conceptualization and provide a holistic approach to the topic. The social construction of reality approach is considered to be a dialectical (or discursive) process in which human beings act as the creators and products of their social world. It is essentially the consequence of a special human faculty of externalization and the objective capacity of one’s own internalized and subjective meanings, experiences and actions (Adoni & Mane 1984). Three types of realities can be found in this dialectical process: objective, symbolic and subjective reality (see figure 2)

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Objective social reality is experienced as the objective world existing outside the individual and confronting him or her as facts, it is not influenced by a person’s feelings or opinions. This reality is understood by people as reality par excellence and does not need any further verification over and beyond its simple existence. Although human beings are capable of doubting this reality, they are obliged to suspend such doubt in order to be able to perform the routine actions that ensure their existence and their interactions with others. A good example of objective reality for instance is science and physical laws that compose our world (Babbie 2006).

A second form of reality is symbolic social reality which consists of any form of symbolic expression of objective reality such as art, literature or media contents. There are

multiple symbolic realities that differ due to various symbol systems. Most important in this regard is the individuals ability to perceive different spheres of symbolic reality and to distinguish among different objects that are the constituents of these multiple

realities. In planning, symbolic markers can take a variety of forms such as linguistic tropes , planning imagery, iconic architecture, landmarks or cultural manifestations. Symbolic markers are also the visible elements of institutional change. Symbolic markers are always addressed to an audience such as stakeholders, the private sector, civic groups, consumers. They always carry non-inherent meaning and encoded messages, embedded in a web of social relations and institutional norms (Dembski 2012). For instance, a portrait of an unknown person is an image not a symbol, it is not linked to values derived from the outside picture and has no referential character outside itself (statues usually do though). Urban symbols however are “polyvocal” in the way that their meanings are interpretable and often subject to misinterpretation. They may possess an official meaning but informal reference may be attached to them thus enforcing or neutralising the original meant intention . Urban symbols are related to urban community and are submerged in a realm of symbolism of personal

institutional national and even international character, they may concern the whole urban community or simply parts of it (Nas 1998).

Third and finally, there is subjective social reality in which both objective and symbolic realities serve as an input for the construction of the individuals own subjective reality. Both the objective world and its symbolic representations are fused into an individual’s consciousness. When dealing with a dialectic process, the subjective reality provides the

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basis for the individuals social actions and ensures the existence of objective reality and the meaningfulness of its symbolic expressions. An individual’s subjective reality is organized in terms of “zones of relevance” which differ on the basis for their distance from the here and now and the individuals immediate sphere of activity. Social reality is perceived along a continuum based on the distance of its elements from the individuals everyday life experiences (Adoni & Mane 1984). The social elements and actors with whom the individual interacts and experiences frequently in face to face situations are part of a close zones of relevance . The remote zones of relevance are composed of general more abstract social elements that are not accessible to direct experience for example “public opinion” or the “social order “ and in my case public interest which form symbolic realities.

The notion of close-remote social elements is important because it provides a

dimension along which the elements of the three types of reality can be classified and related to the micro and macro-levels of social life (namely micro and macro-societal).

Figure 2. Social construction of reality (Adoni & Mane 1984 p327)

According to the media dependency hypothesis – the degree of media contribution to the individual’s construction of subjective reality is a function of one’s direct experience with various phenomena and consequent dependence on the media for information about these phenomena. The dialectical process of the social construction of reality can be defined as a system consisting of two dimensions – type of reality (objective,

symbolic and subjective) and distance of social elements from direct experience (see figure 2).

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Correspondingly to “close” and “remote” zones of relevance, Benford and Snow (2000) considered the idea of “resonance” in the context of social movements, and questioned why some framings seem to be effective or ‘resonate’ while others do not. Their findings show that degrees of resonance are dependent upon the credibility of the proffered frame and its relative salience (noticeable or important). They identify

three dimensions of salience. Centrality which involves how essential the beliefs values and ideas associated with movement frames are to the lives of the targets of

mobilization. Experiential commensurability which hypothesizes that the greater the framings can associate with everyday experience of targets of mobilization the greater the probability of mobilization. If the framings are too abstract and distant from the lives and experiences of the target their salience would be diminished (similar to the brand evaluation of the place brand management model figure 1). And finally, narrative fidelity which is understood as whether the proffered frames or storyline is believable. In modern societies, communication technologies have enabled rapid diffusions of ‘resonance’ due to the general public’s ease of accessibility to relevant documents, videos, forums and other sources. Large Scale Projects (LSPs) (and the societal elites who govern them) may take advantages of these means of diffusion to express their “visions” and market their “plans”.

The idea of resonance can also be found in branding. When considering brand relationships, the aim is to focus on the best relationship and identification that the customer has with the brand. The brand resonance refers to the nature of the

relationship that customers have with the brand and the extent to which they feel in “synch” with the brand . This is usually observed by the depth and psychological bond that customers have as well as the level of activity engendered by this loyalty (higher consumption rates , the extent to which customers seek brand information, events and so on). Two of his brand resonance dimensions seem particularly relevant to places . One of them is Sense of community resonance and means the brand takes a broader meaning to the customers in terms of a sense of community . Identifying with a brand community means that customers feel a kinship or affiliation with other people associated with the brand. Such connections can involve brand users, customers, employees or even representative of companies. The other is active engagement which occurs when customers are willing to invest time, energy, money, or other resources

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into the brand beyond expenses committed during purchase or consumption of the brand. For example, they may choose to visit brand related websites, participate in chat rooms, in this case, customers become brand ambassadors on behalf of the brand strengthening the brands network (Keller 2001). While these two resonance categories are mainly tailored to branding products or services, it does not sot seem unimaginable to consider both sense of community resonance and active engagement as being

applicable to places, however both are more perceived as outcomes that gives an idea of a brands evaluation.

2.4 Conclusion of literature review

Place branding has emerged as a new term and a concept which is meant to truly

embody a places identity beyond its utilitarian functions. By incorporating stakeholders wants and needs in the construction of a place brands identity, similarities can be found with a dialogical conception of public interest which is formed through agreement and consensus among various stakeholders. The quality of stakeholder relationships are crucial and provide a way to evaluate the quality of a brand by achieving a sense of community and active engagement, however the way these relationship are evaluated depends on the levels of resonance achieved. Inherently when communicating the

quality of those relationships on mass media, a social construction of reality takes place. Both close and remote social elements which are both objective and symbolic affect individuals subjective reality and if the branding is truthful and transparent a narrative fidelity should be ensued between real life and what is communicated on templates, websites, videos and other communication tools. However, although “close” social elements (micro-societal) more easily relate to peoples everyday lives and instantly benefit their experience and understanding, more remote social elements such as symbolic reality (macro-societal) are more abstract and are not necessarily directly experienced by the targeted audience. The aim of this thesis will therefore be to investigate how the abstract notion of public interest is communicated in place branding.

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Chapter 3 Research Methods

The ambition of my study is to understand how public interest is communicated in place branding in a context of entrepreneurial governance. Due to the increasing

development of projects in the city of Amsterdam , two public-private partnership projects of different scales, namely Zuidas and De Hallen were chosen with a research framework based on formal intentional communication, words of mouth and brand experience which I perceive as forming a social construction of reality. In addition, a feedback session was conducted with two planning professionals, the following can be found in the appendix.

In the previous chapter, I discussed the theoretical aspects of place branding, public interest and communication. I also have to some extent attempted to operationalize those terms. The aim of this chapter is to build from the theoretical framework and construct a strategic research methodology adapted to my study. Section 3.1 deals with the research design of my thesis and provides an explanation for selected case studies. Section 3.2 provides a research framework and methods based on formal intentional communication, words of mouth and brand experience. Section 3.3 discusses the research methods used in relation to the three communicative dimensions. Finally section 3.4 will give a short overview of what has been discussed in the chapter.

3.1 Research Design

A research design is an overall strategy that is chosen by integrating different

components of a study into a coherent and logical way in order to answer a problem statement. It constitutes the framework for an analysis and the measurement of data. In order to answer the main research question, a comparative analysis of development projects using place branding is used. The aim was to investigate similarities and differences that can be found in the communicative strategies employed in “place

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branding”. Notably, the research focused on the communicated objective, symbolic and subjective construction of reality that relate to the public interest in its dialogical form. Case study designs are often used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one or a few easily researchable examples. It is useful for testing whether a specific theory or model actually applies to phenomena in the real world. Social scientists, in particular, make wide use of research design to examine contemporary real-life situations and provide the basis for the application of concepts and theories (Bryman 2012).

Sources of information include websites, vision documents, comments from social media platforms and picture that account for the branding of places and their social construction of reality. The data collected relied upon criteria selected on the basis of “public interest” in its dialogical form and as constructed through discourse of the Amsterdam 2040 vision document, this also provided an intertextual basis. Simply analysing content criteria of formal intentional communication tools was considered to be too exclusive and limited. The research was therefore complemented by two further units of analysis “words of mouth” and “brand experience” that influence brand

communication as discussed in the literature review. These will be explained in further detail in the following section. The city of Amsterdam is selected for a number of

reasons. First, it has experienced city branding with the online “Iamsterdam” website platform for over a decade and its communication strategy is fairly prominent, the success of the logo with visitors, one of which can be found at Museumplein, is an example of its popularity. In a Dutch governance system, the participation of private sector actors is organised centrally and has seemingly better balance between public and private sector interest (Tasan-Kok 2010). Amsterdam is thus a good example of a city characteristic of “entrepreneurial governance”. In addition, English is widely spoken in Amsterdam , this made the research more easily accessible and achievable for a non-Dutch speaker. Two projects were the focus of my analysis De Hallen, a regeneration project of an old tram station initiated from the bottom up by residents of the area; and Zuidas, a megaproject initiated by Dutch national banks and the government in a top down manner in the aim of creating a new central business district for Amsterdam which eventually took a more multifunctional approach and is still under completion. Both developments figure in the city of Amsterdam’s “big projects” plan and both are

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characterized by their recent development . The selection depended upon the

availability of “place branding” resources on these projects such as websites or vision documents and if the content was available in English. By comparing both projects, I expect to find communicative differences between the bottom up and top down initiative, between micro and macro-societal elements, and different resonance levels that affect different scales. I also believe to find a different strategy or framing based on the projects specific context and identity. In addition, in order to confirm my

hypotheses and findings I organised a feedback meeting with a project manager from the municipality and a senior communicative adviser for Zuidas (this feedback can be found in the appendix).

3.2 Research framework.

In order to best address the research question “How is public interest communicated in place branding?” I consider the material findings of the literature review and use the strategic place brand model as a basis for my research. The figure below shows how I link my concepts and research methods.

Figure 3 Analytical Framework: place branding social construction of reality

Formal Intentional

Communication

Centrality Content Analysis and Critical

Discourse Analysis

Brand Experience

Objective Social Reality Fieldwork

City Maps

Word of Mouth Subjective Social Reality

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Based on the strategic place branding model, three main communicative components inter-relate - “brand communication”, “word of mouth” and “brand experience” (see figure 2 above). Because of this relationship, I consider research methods and study content that correspond to each of these components. This will be helpful to obtain a substantial amount of information and also gain a greater understanding of the brand communication strategies by incorporating the other two mechanisms.

In the case of formal intentional communication, the sources chosen are a vision document in the example of Zuidas and an official website in the case of De Hallen. These sources were chosen because they are both formal intentional communication tools used by the respective shareholders. In addition, because of their online nature, they were considered to be the most accessible information on the projects up to date and are therefore the most likely to affect a wide number of audiences considering the undeniable prominence of the world wide web in today’s society. The best research method for these sources was considered to be content analysis and critical discourse analysis for the following reasons. First, public interest considered in its dialogical form which is constructed through discourse and consensus among stakeholders. Second key words, key themes and centrality , which are essential beliefs and ideas, play an

essential role with the overall resonance of a brand.

The brand experience has to do with the overall experience of a place, it gives a realistic account of what can be found on the ground. Based on this definition I will be using field research in both projects to obtain a sense of place. In addition, I will use the

Amsterdam city maps in order to gain concrete factual information about these places that contribute to the public interests such as public amenities in relation to the idea of objective social reality (see section 2.4). Moreover, this will also enable me, to a certain extent, to check the narrative fidelity of the content of the formal communication tools. Word of mouth has to do with the overall reputation of a place and its brand. Although various methods and materials are available, I used online social platforms in order to capture consumers perception of place. Online platforms Trip advisor, Instagram and Hello Zuidas . These resources were used due to ease of access, the unbiased nature of comments and images and because they were considered to reflect aspects of people

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subjective social reality in relation to those paces. Content analysis was used in order to gain an idea of the places reputation and relationship with consumers

3.3 Research Methods

Formal intentional Communication - Content Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis

I used content analysis and critical discourse analysis as a research methods to identify the key words and meanings of the text and to pinpoint macro and micro-societal amenities that are presented. The formal information tools selected consist of the Zuidas 2015 Vision document and De Hallen official website.

Content Analysis

Content analysis is a classification of a text analysis. It helps identify and convey the underlying meanings behind textual dimensions through elements such as words and phrases (Yang 2008) and is used to make observations about the messages conveyed (Babbie 1999 p286). First, content analysis is particularly relevant because it is a research method primarily used for questions concerning communication content. In addition, it can provide a quantitative feature by including word counts and a

qualitative aspect through the meaning of words. Second, it provides an objective and factual method to my study of “place branding” communication materials such as “vision documents” and online website. Third, it helped classify the importance of both micro and macro-societal terms found in relation to public interest, this includes stakeholders, public amenities, issues, objectives and so forth. The strength of such a method is that it is useful to interpret messages, it is inexpensive and accessible and lastly it can examine large volumes of data. Its limitation on the other hand is that it can be interpretive, making it difficult to generalize.

A quantitative approach of content analysis was used in relation to “interest” as a general connotation of one’s own benefit or advantage (whether private or public). This involves the selection of terms and words and their overall frequency within the texts. The purpose of this method is to identify the key themes and patterns as well as the importance given to micro and macro-societal components in the text.

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Critical Discourse Analysis

My analysis of discourse event is inspired by a framework elaborated by Fairclough, a prominent scholar of discourse analysis. It bases itself on the text dimension and discursive practice dimension. The text dimension is the examination of the actual content , structure and meaning of the text under scrutiny (Bryman 2012). Discourse as text involves the linguistic feature and organization of concrete instances of discourse . This includes choices and patterns in vocabulary such as wording and metaphors, grammar (eg: transitivity, modality), cohesion (eg: conjunction and schemata), and text structure (e.g. episoding, turn-taking system) which are systematically analysed. This attention to concrete textual features distinguished CDA from other approaches (Bloomaert 2000). The discursive practice dimension examines the form of discursive interaction used to communicate meanings and beliefs. it sees discourse as something that is produced, circulated, distributed and consumed in society . Approaching

discourse as a discursive practice implies that while analysing vocabulary, grammar, cohesion, and text structure, attention should be given to speech acts, coherence and intertextuality – three aspects that link a text to its context (Bloomaert 2000). I distinguished the analysed discourse through manifest intertextuality (which draws from other texts) by the examined English and Dutch version of the Amsterdam 2040 vision document by pinpointing the macro and micro-societal characteristics found in the text.

Discourse, is not just a mode of talking- it aims to try to makes sense of the regularities and variations in what is beings said or written. It attempts to understand social

backgrounds and the social effects of specific modes of talking. A discourse is an ensemble of ideas, concepts and categorizations that are produced, reproduced and transformed in a particular set of practices and through which meaning is given to physical and social realities (Hajer 1995). In my research, I used “critical discourse analysis” to emphasize the role of language as a power resource. Discourses should be examined in relation to social structures and the power relationships responsible for occasioning them (Bryman 2012). The critical discourse analysis was used on formal intentional communication tools – the Zuidas 2015 Vision Document and the De Hallen official website. These were analysed in relation to the context of “entrepreneurial

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governance”. In addition, because public interest is considered to be constructed by integrating different stakeholder’s interests and thus through discourse (see Innes 1996) it is considered as a particularly relevant research method. Online material is selected on the premise that it is the most accessible of resources and thus the one which is the most broadly communicated and reaches the most audiences. De Hallen official website contains a viable amount of information about the project and its history, and in the case of Zuidas, a vision document entitled “Building Blocks Zuidas Vision Document 2015” unveils an updated idea of the project and its implications.. Other aspects to take into account is that CDA involves exploring why some meanings become privileged and or taken for granted and others become marginalised. Discourse does not just provide an account of what goes on in organisation, it is also a process by which meaning is created. Because we deal with website and other online sources, we will focus on the text dimension of CDA and will look at the choices and patterns of vocabulary. The textual dimension of the CDA was conducted and evaluated based on the following terms, see below.

Vocabulary Grammar Cohesion Schemata- text

structure Wording Metaphors Transitivity

Modality

Conjunction Episoding

Turn- taking system

Vocabulary

Wording: the words used to express something; the way in which something is expressed.

Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.

Grammar

Transitivity: is a property of verbs that relates to whether a verb can take direct objects and how many such objects a verb can take. It can express an action carried from the subject to the object ; requiring a direct object to complete meaning.

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Modality: Modality is about a speaker’s or a writer’s attitude towards the world. A speaker or writer can express certainty, possibility, willingness, obligation, necessity and ability by using modal words and expressions. Speakers often have different opinions about the same thing. These speakers are looking at the same thing. Here are the main verbs we use to express modal meanings: Core modal

verbs: can, could, may, might, will, shall, would, should, must Semi-modals: dare, need, ought to, used to Other verbs with modal meanings: have (got) to, be going to and be able to.

Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical linking within a text or sentence that holds a text together and gives it meaning. It is related to the broader concept of coherence. Conjunction is a part of speech that connects words, sentences, phrases, or clauses.

For - Explains reason or purpose (just like “because”) And - Adds one thing to another

Nor - Used to present an alternative negative idea to an already stated negative idea But - Shows contrast

The soccer in the park is entertaining in the winter, but it’s better in the heat of summer. Or - Presents an alternative or a choice

The men play on teams: shirts or skins.

Yet - Introduces a contrasting idea that follows the preceding idea logically (similar to “but”) I always take a book to read, yet I never seem to turn a single page.

So - Indicates effect, result or consequence

I’ve started dating one of the soccer players, so now I have an excuse to watch the game each week.

Schemata is a high-level complex knowledge structures (van Dijk, 1977) that help the organisation and interpretation of one's experience. "Schemata lead us to expect or predict aspects in our interpretation of discourse" (Brown & Yule, 1983, p. 248).

Schemata help explain why a text is understood easier and faster if a title is provided. • Schemata can also be culture-specific; for example the schema of a wedding ceremony varies culture by culture. and text structure (e.g. episoding, turn-taking system) should be systematically analysed.

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Episoding each of the separate instalments into which a serialized story or radio or television programme is divided.

Turn taking is the manner in which orderly conversation normally takes place. Turn taking has two central aspects: frequency which is the amount of turn taking in a conversation and control of contribution which is the amount of control a person has over what to say and how much to say, it is considered to be either free for all,

negotiated or rule dependent.

Brand Experience - Fieldwork and City Maps

Fieldwork in Zuidas and De Hallen was conducted on several occasions as well as research on Amsterdam city maps. This was done in order to gain an insight of the brand experience by interacting with the physical components of the project, to verify the narrative fidelity of the formal intentional communication content and to gain an objective social construction of reality from factual information.

Ethnography starts from the optimistic idea that the world and its social situations are a laboratory for observing relationships of social life but also the meanings people have with places. The aim is to understand how the “other” experiences certain places (Verloo 2015). However, ethnography mainly focuses on people’s behaviour so

although some participant observation was done, I refer to the research method as field work rather than ethnography on the selected development projects. This contributes to an insight of the people who use those places and an understanding of the functions of those places in the public eye. In addition, it provided a basis to check the narrative fidelity of the content found in formal intentional communication. As a researcher I was able to collect data on narratives and numbers. Most data collected includes things that I saw or heard. Quantitative data on the other hand are based on methods like direct observation. The fieldwork involved acting like a participant observer which involved observing and recording some aspects of life around me (in which case they are observing participants) acting as an insider (Russel Bernard 2011). As a participant observer, if you stand in one spot long enough, people will start to notice you. The reason is that you are not part of their routine or that in some cases you may have no business here. In addition, if you write things on a notepad , this makes things more

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curious yet (LaFarge 2000 p20).The research method was applied on two separate occasions for both projects, once on a week day and the other during the weekend during mild and non-rainy weather. The experience was then transcribed into a narrative which can be found in the appendix. And a table on a specific day was

implemented in chapter four. The fieldwork took place by taking into account the time and place of observation and with the following units of analysis in mind : visitors customers, physical accessibility and components , consumers patterns of overpriced shops, patterns of behaviour, consumers of the place – tourist – locals –how?-

description of the physical space- new/ old well maintained – language used by actors – interactive patterns between actors – presence of actor groups which can be

distinguished by sex, age, kinship or other vocational identity.

City maps were used in order to get an objective construction of reality based on factual data. The Amsterdam city maps website was used as a research tool and several layers of the maps were selected based on public interest themes that concern the

environment, public amenities and home prices. The units which appeared in the studied zone of Zuidas and De Hallen were then counted one by one and inserted into a table (see chapter 4).

Words of Mouth – Content Analysis

A brands communication is affected by “word of mouth” which is essentially the reputation of the brand communicated between and by people who have experienced the brand and their perceptions about it. Because of this relationship, I consider it useful for my research to look into social media platforms Tripadvisor, Instagram, and Hello Zuidas. This provided an insight on consumers perception and experience of the places studied. According to O’Connor (2008) the web is evolving from a

business-to-consumer marketing media to one where current generations sharing data has become a norm. As a result, it has become more difficult to carefully frame a marketing message in front of the consumer. During the consumer decision making process, potential customers can access large amounts of data to evaluate alternative places of consumption. As a result, instead of the marketer deciding on how information is presented and consumed , the "user" is now in control.

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“Tripadvisor” is an American travel website company that provides reviews of travel related content which also includes interactive travel forums. It is considered to be one of the largest travel sites in the world with more than sixty million members. The website is characterised user-generated content , which is any form of media content created by users of an online system or service often made available by social media websites (Chua & Al 2014). The website services are free to users, who provide most of the content through their reviews of the places they have visited .The biggest threats to websites such as TripAdvisor are a loss of credibility. While far from conclusive. a study conducted by O’Connor (2008) suggest that such fears are unfounded. In addition, reviews sent by individuals are not posted to the website instantly, but are subject to a verification process which considers the IP address and email address of the author, and tries to detect any suspicious patterns or obscene or abusive language (Peterson 2011). In addition, the website allows the community of users to report suspicious content, which is then assessed by a team of quality assurance specialists. Statistics from Tripadvisor were taken from De Hallen, as well as comment content from users who have experienced the place. Because of a high majority of positive comments, I

particularly looked at the negative comments as a way to also contribute to my brand experience (next section).

In 2014, the online social media platform Instagram exceeded 300 million users outnumbering Twitter's 288 million worldwide users (Delzio 2015). Instagram has increasingly started to be considered as a social channel that could contribute to the marketing mix (business tool used by marketers) after a series of studies indicated that the audience used the channel for shopping by sharing photos, making comments, liking and getting opinions . Specifically according to a study by Iconosquare, out of 16 000 users, 70 percent reported that they had previously researched a brand using

Instagram. By counting likes and shares, marketers investigate which of their efforts resonate with their target audience and has a seemingly higher engagement rate. Although most of the brands affected by Instagram were considered as products, there is no reason why this could not be applicable to places as each time a picture is taken or posted by a user, the location appears on the uploaded picture. The research method consisted of searching both the “Zuidas” and “De Hallen” location on the Instagram application and using two steps during the analysis of the pictures. The observation of

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the photograph and the examination of individual items such as people, objects and activities, (by dividing the photo into quadrants and studying each section). While the second step consisted of drawing inferences on what was observed and analysed. Because of the wide number of results under both case study names, the research was narrowed to pictures uploaded with the general connotation with the area rather than specific amenities such as restaurants, bars, studios and other also located in the area. Pictures were studied one by one based on their centrality and focus and were

integrated if they fitted one of the three following topics – infrastructure, any physical characteristics representative of the place, people, any pictures with people interacting or enjoying a moment in the area, and finally consumption from food, drinks, jewellery, gym and other products. Some pictures were not accounted for due to irrelevance with the object of the study, double counting or official promotional advertisements using the platform for direct marketing purposes. The aim was to obtain an broad idea of the image associations and relationships that Instagram users had with both Zuidas and De Hallen.

Hello Zuidas is an area management organization which aims to optimize the

functioning and attractiveness of Zuidas. To do so Hello Zuidas works closely together with its members that are both public and private parties located in the Zuidas area. The management firms initiative of ABN AMRO, Accenture, Amsterdam RAI, Gemeente Amsterdam (Zuidas Amsterdam and Stadsdeel Zuid), Loyens & Loeff, ORAM, Royal Zuid (Bouwfonds, Eigen Haard and ERA Contour), Verkeer.advies, Vrije Universiteit

Amsterdam, World Trade Center Amsterdam and Zuidschans (AM, Amvest and Bouwfonds). The goal is to promote a district with an international appeal, with high quality working and living conditions. The effect will be that the Zuidas will stay attractive for all persons and organizations located in this area. Hello Zuidas initiates a broad cooperation between all involved parties, including Dienst Zuidas en Stadsdeel Zuid. And encourages people to participate through its online website platform with its already 186 members ( Hello Zuidas management organisation 2016). The method consisted in selecting words of mouth from the website based on the public interest themes of the Zuidas vision document. The content of the comments was then analysed in conjunction to the Zuidas building block document.

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The use of such online social media platforms can help gain a non-framed conception of places especially when those do not necessarily have a positive connotation.

3.4 Conclusion

It is important for a research design to be as coherent and logical as possible in relation to the given problem and the main research question. My objective is to understand how “public interest” is communicated by researching the kind of discourses which are communicated and by contrasting these narratives with the overall reality of these spaces. It is for those reasons that I have selected content analysis, critical discourse analysis and fieldwork as my research methods. The overall collected data will

primarily be of qualitative nature and based on the three communicative dimensions of formal intentional communication, words of mouth and brand experience.