Performing place promotion—On implaced identity in marketized geographies

Abstract

In the period that has become known as late capitalism, processes of commercialization are continuously taking on new forms. These tendencies enact an influence on how people understand themselves, the social relations they engage in, and the world around them. Geographical knowledge is no exception and has become increasingly shrouded in the language, symbolism, and tropes of marketing. Following the work of Judith Butler, we explore how these tendencies have profound implications on our self-construal, making discursive “implacement” an expedient factor in the marketization of identity. Further, we examine how two interrelated marketing discourses deal with places as commercial entities: the country-of-origin effect and place branding. In their commercial vernacular, they provide salient examples of subtle yet inescapable effects on the understanding of self-construal. In presenting this sensitizing diagnostic, we hope to further advance issues of stakeholdership as it pertains to the place-world and to offer new trajectories of critical inquiry into the commercial relevance of place.