Introduction to this volume

Place branding is to be construed in contingent and dynamic terms -- i.e., in a constant, productive dialogue with the historical and sociocultural context a place is associated with and not simply in terms of its perceived image --, as well as in strategic terms -- i.e., in its potential to construct competitive identity (Anholt 2007) and to act as a countermeasure to massive globalization processes by mediating between the global and the local (E.M. Bruner 2005). Borrowing Richards’ words (2024, p. 27), "Cities use curation to highlight particular “urban scenes” and develop “experiencescapes” [...] frame[d] and disseminate[d] through creative sensing, stylistic orchestration and synchronization of producers and consumers". It is precisely the “multimodal orchestration” (Kress 2010; Bezemer and Kress 2016) of unique stories and extraordinary experiences that constitutes the main focus of the present work.