City Branding and Participatory Ethnography in the Global South: Evidence From the Case of Trinidad (Cuba)
Although city branding has been consolidated as a strategic resource for projecting cities internationally, in practice it often reproduces top-down approaches dominated by specialised consultants and urban elites, with only limited citizen participation. This limitation is particularly evident in t...
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| Publicado en: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cs, |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Lenguaje: | Anglais |
| Publicado: |
Comunicação e sociedade
2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:cs_17640 |
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| record_format |
openedition |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
identidade desenvolvimento sustentável city branding etnografia participativa Trinidad (Cuba) identity sustainable development city branding participatory ethnography Trinidad (Cuba) |
| spellingShingle |
identidade desenvolvimento sustentável city branding etnografia participativa Trinidad (Cuba) identity sustainable development city branding participatory ethnography Trinidad (Cuba) Salina, Yánder Castillo Reyes, Jose Angel Yañez City Branding and Participatory Ethnography in the Global South: Evidence From the Case of Trinidad (Cuba) |
| description |
Although city branding has been consolidated as a strategic resource for projecting cities internationally, in practice it often reproduces top-down approaches dominated by specialised consultants and urban elites, with only limited citizen participation. This limitation is particularly evident in the Global South, where participation is frequently reduced to symbolic and dismissive consultations during the final stages of projects, and where documented methodological experiences remain scarce. Within this context, the city of Trinidad (Cuba), an United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization “world heritage site” recognised for its cultural, natural, and patrimonial richness, launched the construction of its city brand. This paper aims to present the participatory construction of that brand, whose novelty lies in the use of participatory ethnography. For this purpose, a methodological protocol was designed, validated through expert judgment, and implemented by combining cycles of participatory ethnographic work with critical reflection by the creative professional team. Across three ethnographic cycles, more than 1,200 contributions were gathered from citizens, entrepreneurs, cultural stakeholders, and government representatives, applying the criterion of theoretical saturation by cohorts. The final brand proposal was evaluated by an interdisciplinary expert panel of 20 international specialists, who confirmed both its validity and the robustness of the methodological procedure. In addition to achieving a brand with a high level of social appropriation, the findings highlight active participation and critical reflexivity as means to make visible and address tensions between hybrid identities, community conflicts, the technical criteria of creative professionals, and local aspirations. The validated methodological protocol represents a novel contribution, providing a replicable and adaptable framework for diverse urban governance scenarios. Furthermore, this study contributes to theoretical debate by proposing practical guidelines for implementing participatory city branding. |
| author |
Salina, Yánder Castillo Reyes, Jose Angel Yañez |
| author_facet |
Salina, Yánder Castillo Reyes, Jose Angel Yañez |
| author_sort |
Salina, Yánder Castillo |
| title |
City Branding and Participatory Ethnography in the Global South: Evidence From the Case of Trinidad (Cuba) |
| title_short |
City Branding and Participatory Ethnography in the Global South: Evidence From the Case of Trinidad (Cuba) |
| title_full |
City Branding and Participatory Ethnography in the Global South: Evidence From the Case of Trinidad (Cuba) |
| title_fullStr |
City Branding and Participatory Ethnography in the Global South: Evidence From the Case of Trinidad (Cuba) |
| title_full_unstemmed |
City Branding and Participatory Ethnography in the Global South: Evidence From the Case of Trinidad (Cuba) |
| title_sort |
city branding and participatory ethnography in the global south: evidence from the case of trinidad (cuba) |
| publisher |
Comunicação e sociedade |
| publishDate |
2026 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cs |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/cs/17640 |
| _version_ |
1877291622862946304 |
| spelling |
openedition-oai:revues.org:cs_17640 en https://journals.openedition.org/cs/17640 2026-07-31T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/16n99 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ City Branding and Participatory Ethnography in the Global South: Evidence From the Case of Trinidad (Cuba) Comunicação e sociedade Centro de estudos de comunicação e sociedade info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2183-3575 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1645-2089 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cs Salina, Yánder Castillo Reyes, Jose Angel Yañez identidade desenvolvimento sustentável city branding etnografia participativa Trinidad (Cuba) identity sustainable development city branding participatory ethnography Trinidad (Cuba) Although city branding has been consolidated as a strategic resource for projecting cities internationally, in practice it often reproduces top-down approaches dominated by specialised consultants and urban elites, with only limited citizen participation. This limitation is particularly evident in the Global South, where participation is frequently reduced to symbolic and dismissive consultations during the final stages of projects, and where documented methodological experiences remain scarce. Within this context, the city of Trinidad (Cuba), an United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization “world heritage site” recognised for its cultural, natural, and patrimonial richness, launched the construction of its city brand. This paper aims to present the participatory construction of that brand, whose novelty lies in the use of participatory ethnography. For this purpose, a methodological protocol was designed, validated through expert judgment, and implemented by combining cycles of participatory ethnographic work with critical reflection by the creative professional team. Across three ethnographic cycles, more than 1,200 contributions were gathered from citizens, entrepreneurs, cultural stakeholders, and government representatives, applying the criterion of theoretical saturation by cohorts. The final brand proposal was evaluated by an interdisciplinary expert panel of 20 international specialists, who confirmed both its validity and the robustness of the methodological procedure. In addition to achieving a brand with a high level of social appropriation, the findings highlight active participation and critical reflexivity as means to make visible and address tensions between hybrid identities, community conflicts, the technical criteria of creative professionals, and local aspirations. The validated methodological protocol represents a novel contribution, providing a replicable and adaptable framework for diverse urban governance scenarios. Furthermore, this study contributes to theoretical debate by proposing practical guidelines for implementing participatory city branding. Embora o city branding se tenha consolidado como um recurso estratégico para a projeção internacional das cidades, na prática, reproduz frequentemente abordagens hierárquicas dominadas por consultores especializados e elites urbanas, com uma participação cidadã limitada. Esta limitação é particularmente evidente no Sul Global, onde a participação é frequentemente reduzida a consultas simbólicas e meramente formais nas fases finais dos projetos, sendo ainda escassas as experiências metodológicas documentadas. Neste contexto, a cidade de Trinidad (Cuba), classificada como “património mundial” da Organização das Nações Unidas para a Educação, a Ciência e a Cultura e reconhecida pela sua riqueza cultural, natural e patrimonial, iniciou o processo de construção da sua marca-cidade. O presente artigo visa apresentar a experiência de construção participativa dessa marca, cuja inovação reside na utilização da etnografia participativa. Para o efeito, foi concebido um protocolo metodológico, posteriormente validado por um painel de peritos e implementado através da articulação entre ciclos de trabalho etnográfico participativo e reflexão crítica da equipa criativa profissional. Ao longo de três ciclos etnográficos, foram recolhidas mais de 1.200 contribuições de cidadãos, empresários, agentes culturais e representantes governamentais, seguindo o critério de saturação teórica por coortes. A proposta final de marca foi avaliada por um painel interdisciplinar de 20 peritos internacionais, que confirmaram tanto a sua validade como a robustez do procedimento metodológico. Para além de alcançar uma marca com elevado nível de apropriação social, os resultados destacam a participação ativa e a reflexividade crítica como meios para tornar visíveis e abordar tensões entre identidades híbridas, conflitos comunitários, critérios técnicos dos profissionais criativos e aspirações locais. O protocolo metodológico validado constitui uma contribuição inovadora, ao fornecer uma referência replicável e adaptável a diferentes contextos de governança urbana. O estudo contribui ainda para o debate teórico, ao apresentar diretrizes práticas para a implementação de um city branding participativo. |