The Sexual Politics of Nation Branding in Creative Luxembourg

A Queer Perspective

Authors

  • Karine Duplan University of Geneva & University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Keywords:

Nation branding, creative city, sexual citizenship, queer theory, heteronormativity, Luxembourg

Abstract

This paper offers a queer reading of the sexual politics of nation branding in the context of creative Luxembourg through an intersectional perspective. While creative city discourses and policies have been largely scrutinised by critical scholars who have pointed out their classed, gendered and racialised exclusionary ways of working, nation branding has largely been overlooked in its relationship to the entrepreneurial urban shift. The ways it shapes desirable forms or subjectivities and citizenship while reworking the boundaries of sexual in-/exclusion needs however further scrutiny. I argue in this paper that nation branding, defined as a communication tool for creative cities to promote their image and remain competitive at a global scale, contributes to the reiteration of social inequalities through the production of neoliberal urban subjectivities that are sexually normative. Nation branding provides hence a heteronormative framing of sexual subjectivities and citizenships, as related to privileges associated with neoliberal politics and practices that are aligned with heterosexuality and class privileges of consumption.

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Published

2021-07-02

How to Cite

Duplan, K. (2021). The Sexual Politics of Nation Branding in Creative Luxembourg: A Queer Perspective. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 20(3), 272–293. Retrieved from https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/2005