The impact of a mega-event on city branding:  The European Capital of Culture 2010 and  the image of Istanbul

Evinç Doğan; Ibrahim Sirkeci

doi:10.33182/bc.v3i1.524

Authors

Evinç Doğan Regent's Centre for Transnational Studies, Regent's University London & Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey
Ibrahim Sirkeci Regent's Centre for Transnational Studies, Regent's University London

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33182/bc.v3i1.524

Keywords:

Istanbul, ECoC, city branding, city image, visual representation, transnational place branding

Abstract

This study examines the ways in which the city image of Istanbul is re-created through the mega-events within the context of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) 2010. Istanbul “took the stage” as one of the three ECoC cities (Essen for the Ruhr in Germany and Pécs in Hungary), where the urban spaces were projected as the theatre décor while residents and visitors became the spectators of the events. Organisers and agents of the ECoC 2010 seemed to rebrand Istanbul as a “world city” rather than a “European capital”. With a series of transnational connotations, this can be considered as part of an attempt to turn Istanbul to a global city. In this study we examine posters used during the ECoC 2010 to see whether this was evident in the promoted images of Istanbul. The research employs a hermeneutic approach in which representations, signs and language are the means of symbolic meaning, which is analysed through qualitative methods for the visual data (Visual Analysis Methods), namely Semiotics and Discourse Analysis. The analysed research material comes from a sample of posters released during the ECoC 2010 to promote 549 events throughout the year. Using stratified random sampling we have drawn 28 posters (5% of the total) reflecting the thematic groups of events in the ECoC 2010. Particular attention is also paid to the reflexivity of the researchers and researchers’ embeddedness to the object of research. The symbolic production and visual representation are therefore investigated firstly through the authoritative and historically constituted discourses in the making of Istanbul image and secondly through the orders of cultural consumption and mediatisation of culture through spectacular events. Hence enforcing a transnationalisation of the image of the city where the image appears to be almost stateless transcending the national boundaries. Findings and methodology used in this study can be useful in understanding similar cases and further research into the processes of city and place branding and image relationships.

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Author Biography

Ibrahim Sirkeci, Regent's Centre for Transnational Studies, Regent's University London

Prof Ibrahim Sirkeci (PhD, Sheffield, BA Bilkent) is Ria Financial Professor of Transnational Studies and Marketing and the Director of the Regent’s Centre for Transnational Studies (RCTS) at Regent's University London. His research focus on transnational marketing and transnational consumers, human mobility, conflict, human insecurity, remittances, segregation, segmentation, marketing of business schools, and mobile consumers. Prof Sirkeci’s most recent book is titled Transnational Marketing for Transnational Consumers in the 21^st Century (by Springer, 2013). He is also author of Cultures of Migration, The Global Nature of Contemporary Mobility (by University of Texas Press, 2011), Migration and Remittances during the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond (by The World Bank, 2012), and The Environment of Insecurity in Turkey and the Emigration of Turkish Kurds to Germany (by Edwin Mellen Press, 2006). Prof Sirkeci is the editor of Migration Letters, Transnational Marketing Journal, and Göç Dergisi while serving on editorial boards of several other peer-reviewed journals.