Remaking the nation of Latvia: Anthropological perspectives on nation branding

This paper considers how nation branding is thinkable as a response to a particular problematisation of nation and self in the new Europe. It is written from within the disciplinary terrain of anthropology and thus adheres to certain scholarly practices of the discipline. These pertain to research methods, analytical frames and textual representations. Research for this paper involved extended semi-structured interviews with the staff of government agencies, representatives of the private sector, academics and nation branding experts/practitioners; review of theoretical and policy material and of media coverage; and media coverage of image building or nation branding in Latvia. The aim of this paper is to trace the discourses and practices of those who are (or were at the time of the research) actively involved in nation branding or were identified as supportive or critical of nation branding efforts. The paper focuses on the ways of thinking and acting that nation branding presupposes and constitutes rather than representative views on nation branding. The analytical frame and style of writing correspond to anthropology's attempts to recognise the positionality of the author which is never entirely neutral, but rather always already situated in the world. The boundaries between a knowing subject and the object of their knowledge are not strictly enforced, but rather constitute a site of reflection on how both subjects and objects are (re)made through production of knowledge.