MCCI's Connect: Bridging Research, Innovation, Education and Professional Practice with Dr. Cesar Jimenez-Martinez

Your are warmly invited to MCCI's Connect: Bridging Research, Innovation, Education and Professional Practice event with Dr. Cesar Jimenez-Martinez, from the Department of Media and Communications of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), on "The Politics of National Promotion: Nation Branding and the State in Latin America" on Wednesday the 27th of May, from 5pm to 6.30pm at City St. Georges', University of London. The event is hybrid and is organised by the MCCI and Journalism departments at City St. George's, University of London. The event is moderated by Dr. Carolina Matos and supported by Devina Sarwatay. There will also be light refreshments on the day.

Abstract

During the last two decades, governments across the Americas have embraced the practice of nation branding, seeking to create and communicate a positive version of national identity in order to advance political and economic goals. From Canada to Chile, authorities have developed public and private organizational infrastructures tasked with manufacturing, circulating, and managing narratives about these nations aimed at overseas audiences. Notwithstanding the enthusiasm of local governments – allured by promises of economic development and greater global political influence- discussions on nation branding have largely neglected this continent, paying more attention to developments in Europe and Asia.

This talk seeks to start addressing this gap, summarising some of the main arguments of ‘Nation Branding in the Americas’, a recently published book by César Jiménez-Martínez, Pablo Miño and Efe Sevin. More concretely, it argues that, despite being promoted as a cross-party, long-term solution, nation branding is a highly political practice, exploited by specific government to address contingent situations. Although it produces versions of national identity that align with neoliberal ideas, nation branding still situates states as the main actors behind these processes. Furthermore, it significantly limits the role of ordinary people in these activities, constructing nation-less versions of national identity, with citizens approached as mere resources to extract information about supposed collective features or a problem to be managed and disciplined through the imposition of a specific identity as the ‘correct’ one.

Bio

César Jiménez-Martínez is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Director of the MSc Strategic Communications and Society. His research focuses on the intersection of media, identity and contestation, paying special attention to branding and national identities, digital nationalism, and more recently, protests and violence. He is author of Nation Branding in the Americas: Contested Politics and Identities (with Pablo Miño and Efe Sevin; Routledge, 2025), Media and the Image of the Nation during Brazil’s 2013 Protests (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and co-editor (with Terhi Rantanen) of Globalization and the Media (Routledge, 2019). His work has been published in journals such as The International Journal of Press/Politics, International Journal of Communication, International Communication Gazette, Nations and Nationalism, Geopolitics, and Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. His research has won several awards, including the Best Faculty Paper in Public Diplomacy Award (with Alina Dolea) in the 2023 International Communication Association annual conference, and the 2021 Anthony D. Smith Award for best article in nations and nationalism (with Sabina Mihelj).