ABSTRACT
Authors: Kelly GREENOP & Sébastien DARCHEN (2015) - The University of Queensland
Brisbane is Australia's third-largest city and the capital of the state of Queensland. It has a sprawling "urban footprint" and connections with neighboring metropolises that could create a "200 km city". Brisbane's governing body controls Australia's largest municipality, giving it an unrivalled opportunity to influence both urban planning and marketing for the center and suburbs. Brisbane is home to over a million people and its population has grown rapidly in recent decades, doubling in the last 40 years. Brisbane represents the quintessential city with an emerging quest for urbanity, both in terms of brand and physical form.
The relationship between the city's urbanism and its brand image is not well examined, despite the obvious entanglement between these two strategies. The authors use a case study analysis of Brisbane (called the Central Business District) and a suburban area, Inala, to examine how urban territorial identities and brands are constructed in relation to their social context and governance, with particular reference to the importance of city branding and its relationship with urban planning strategies.
An analysis of place branding, planning strategies and residents' responses to place, drawing on planning, architecture and anthropology, is proposed as an alternative reading to the marketing-dominated approach generally favored in brand analysis.
The authors recommend integrating a more complete vision of Brisbane in the construction of an "authentic" urbanity. In their view, recognizing the inhabitant-centered identity of place as part of the branding strategy will produce both more socially sustainable metropolises and more authentic territorial brands.
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