A Strategic Nature

Revealing the linkages of professional strategists, information politics, and environmental standards, A Strategic Nature argues that the democratic politics we want remains out of reach — and offers pathways to access a more sustainable future.

“Through a deep and illuminating historical investigation of the many ways public relations have shaped our understanding of the natural world, A Strategic Nature invites readers to rethink the assumptions underpinning many public debates about the climate crisis.”
— Naomi Klein, author of On Fire: the Burning Case for the Green New Deal 

“…just as a famine is the want of both food and news, so the natural world and the public sphere are inseparable…PR in Aronczyk and Espinoza’s brilliant rethink is an essential part of our environmental and informational habitat.”
— John Durham Peters, Yale University 

Read the introduction to A Strategic Nature.

Melissa Aronczyk and Maria Espinoza, A Strategic Nature: Public Relations and the Politics of American Environmentalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.

Branding the Nation

National governments around the world are turning to branding consultants, public relations advisers and strategic communications experts to help them “brand” their jurisdiction. Using the tools, techniques and expertise of commercial branding is believed to help nations articulate a more coherent and cohesive identity, attract foreign capital, and maintain citizen loyalty. In short, the goal of nation branding is to make the nation matter in a world where borders and boundaries appear increasingly obsolete.

But what actually happens to the nation when it is reconceived as a brand? How does nation branding change the terms of politics and culture in a globalized world? Through case studies in twelve countries and in-depth interviews with nation branding experts and their national clients, Melissa Aronczyk argues that the social, political and cultural discourses constitutive of the nation have been harnessed in new and problematic ways, with far-reaching consequences for both our concept of the nation and our ideals of national citizenship.

Branding the Nation challenges the received wisdom about the power of brands to change the world, and offers a critical perspective on these new ways of conceiving value and identity in the globalized twenty-first century.

Read the introduction to Branding the Nation.

Melissa Aronczyk, Branding the Nation: The Global Business of National Identity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Blowing Up the Brand

Creative cities, PR nations, celebrity diplomacy, Hype Machine, branded philanthropy, YouTube identities…. These are both symptoms and effects of what Andrew Wernick termed “promotional culture”: the extension of promotional discourses, practices and performances into virtually all areas of public life.

What is at stake in these contemporary promotional paradigms? The interpenetration of public and private interests, techniques and expertise creates new anxieties and demands new forms of analysis. This edited volume develops a set of productive critical perspectives on promotion in relation to contemporary culture. Aronczyk and Powers assemble creative and interdisciplinary frameworks to identify common themes and disjunctures inherent to these forms of communication. At issue is the changing role of the consumer-citizen-user in contemporary life.

Read the introduction to Blowing Up the Brand.

Melissa Aronczyk and Devon Powers, eds. Blowing Up the Brand: Critical Perspectives on Promotional Culture. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.