Power Imbalances and Contested Notions of the Nation: Latin American Nation Branding Through the Lens of the Cultural-Economic Model of Public Relations

Public relations scholars have advocated for a functionalist outlook on nation branding, focused on the effectiveness of campaigns that promote diverse national identities and cultures abroad. However, power imbalances to such approach have been largely neglected in the literature. A critical-cultural approach to these issues is explored in this study, by placing emphasis on the cultural-economic model (CEM) of public relations. Through in-depth interviews with 25 informants involved with nation branding campaigns on behalf of different Latin American countries, this study advocates for an interpretive approach to this subject, by understanding that national identities are nuanced, reflect power imbalances between different actors within a society, and are in constant conflict with each other. This study calls to place more value on the contested notions of the nation that such campaigns represent in the promotion of a country abroad.