Baba poace meaning an representation

What is rebranding and how are places chosen for it?

Processes of change do not happen in a vacuum, they are often driven by policy choices. Places are chosen specifically to be rebranded based on housing quality, employment opportunities, level of deprivation and access to services.

Stratford was chosen to be the site of the major London regeneration project for the 2012 Olympics as it was a large underused area of brownfield land with a high level of poverty amongst the local population and poor access to public services.

What are the three policies of rebranding?

Policies that manipulate place identity are rebranding and regeneration. Often, the processes of gentrification and globalisation can be a by-product of these policies.

The three policies are:

· Reimaging: Separating the idea of the place from previous bad images

· Regeneration: Building new developments in housing and infrastructure

· Rebranding: A wholesale change to the place's built environment and reputation

How does rebranding bring the effects of globalisation?

Rebranding policies that open up an area to free trade will bring the effects of globalisation into the area. To rebrand the northeast following deindustrialisation the UK government attracted the investment of Japanese car company Nissan in Sunderland. This example of TNC investment and increasing globalisation as a result of the rebranding policy has significantly affected the character of Sunderland, known as 'the Home of Nissan' and employing 6,000 people.

What themes are used in rebranding?

These policies are often led by a theme such as culture, art, industry, or sport.

Art-led rebranding was part of the reimagining of Margate - a seaside town in decline on the south coast of Kent. Transformed into a hip centre for art culture following the opening of the Turner Contemporary Gallery in 2011. The town is now a node for artists and art-related enterprises.

The Olympics or sport world cups often provide an opportunity for sport-led rebranding and regeneration as they bring large amounts of investment. London's huge regeneration project in Stratford began with the 2012 London Olympics.

How has Stratford been regenerated through sport-led rebranding?

Stratford continues to be regenerated in the 2020s and its image has changed dramatically. Stratford now has the huge Olympic stadium, home to West Ham football club, and the copper box basketball venue. It will also soon have a satellite site of the V&A museum as well as many recreation and leisure facilities. This image is very different from the deprived post-industrial one it had before 2012.

What are external agencies and what is their influence?

The manipulation of place identity and character involves many groups. These groups range from those with the most power such as national or local government to those with less power such as community action groups. Powerful agencies often have a motive or goal for the regeneration project and this can be interpreted and criticised through scrutiny of the placemaking process.

Investment into areas for regeneration can be criticised if the new area creates social or spatial exclusion of less dominant or marginalised groups. The agencies involved in changing place meaning are governments, councils, individuals, community groups, TNCs, national, international and global organisations.

The external agencies aim to adapt the place meaning and manipulate the sense of place. They do this through advertising campaigns, improvements to the built environment, media coverage that is positive, tourist material and social media campaigns and accounts.

What are examples of success and failure in rebranding?

There are examples of success and failure in rebranding.

Many seaside towns in the UK have been rebranded or regenerated to some extent however, they still struggle to compete with international destinations for tourism revenue.

The £11.3 million sport-led Boscombe Spa Village project created Europe's first artificial surf reef to rebrand and regenerate the south coast location as a surf resort. However, Newquay in Cornwall is still the surf capital of the UK and Boscombe does not make top surfing destination lists for the UK or Europe.

How are places represented?

Places are represented in huge range of qualitative and quantitative ways.

Examples of quantitative place representation include census data, crime rates, house prices, demographic data like population pyramids and economic data that can often be found on a council website.

Qualitative data includes songs, novels, poetry, paintings, photographs and film.

Cartographic data is also a very useful way to represent a place, it is somewhere in between qualitative and quantitative as it is somewhat objective but requires some interpretation by the producer in terms of how to draw the map.

What are the advantages of qualitative and quantitative representations?

Qualitative:

· Art can reinforce as well as reflect place identity and uniqueness

· Many layers of place identity can be represented at the same time

· Can compare with the past timescales

Quantitative:

· Data is reliable and factual

· Data can be compared across different places

· Can be used to compare data across timescales as well as spatial scales

When analysing representations of place it is important to consider the reliability and credibility of the source. All types of representation can present positive and negative portrayals of the place. It is also crucial to consider what the source does not show and what complications or issues there may be with the nature of the representation.