Branding the eco-city: Rhetoric or reality?
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2019) | Viewed by 4033
Special Issue Editor
Interests: place branding; place identity; corporate social responsibility; urban development and change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Over the past two decades, researchers have focused their attention on understanding the concept of eco-cities as a means to realise sustainable urban development. Within this debate, some authors have questioned whether the eco-city model is no more than a branding hoax (Yigitcanlar and Lee, 2014). In practice, there is evidence of the widespread adoption of eco-city models as a mechanism to achieve sustainable development (Caprotti, 2014; de Jong, Chen, Joss, Lu, Zhao, Yang, and Zhang, 2018).
The aim of this Special Issue of Sustainability is to critically examine the connections between city branding and sustainable urban development, with a particular focus on eco-city models. This special issue welcomes papers that investigate whether these two frameworks for organising and governing urban development are conceptually compatible, realistic, and potentially synergistic in their ambitions. Alternatively, is there evidence to show that eco-city branding strategies are little more than a rhetorical device? Contributions are encouraged on topics that bridge the theories and practice of branding eco-cities. In particular, papers on the following topics are encouraged:
- Evidence-based outcomes of eco-city branding strategies to achieve sustainable outcomes
- Stakeholder perceptions of eco-city brands (including credibility, uniqueness, and fit)
- The influence of eco-urbanism on cities’ branding strategies and practices
- The process of and mechanisms for constructing eco-city branding strategies
- Residents’ participation and engagement in eco-city branding
- The interplay of economic and industrial development on cities’ eco-brand positioning
- The role of scale and status in national and global city hierarchies in influencing eco-city branding strategies and practices
- Discourse analysis, as well as other approaches, to examine the meaning of eco-city brands
- Re-branding and repositioning city brands as eco-cities so as to achieve sustainable urban development
References
de Jong, M., Chen, Y., Joss, S., Lu, H., Zhao, M., Yang, Q., & Zhang, C. (2018). Explaining city branding practices in China's three mega-city regions: The role of ecological modernization. Journal of Cleaner Production, 179, 527-543. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.098
Caprotti, F. (2014). Critical research on eco-cities? A walk through the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, China. Cities, 36, 10-17. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2013.08.005
Yigitcanlar, T., & Lee, S. H. (2014). Korean ubiquitous-eco-city: A smart-sustainable urban form or a branding hoax? Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 89, 100-114. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2013.08.034
Dr. Andrea Insch
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- sustainable urbanisation
- eco-cities
- city branding
- sustainability
- urban planning
