Towards corpo-nationalism: a Bourdieusian study exploring the relationship between national branding and the reproduction of Polishness (1999 - 2010).

Abstract

This thesis interrogates the relationship between the emerging transnational field of nation branding practice and Polish national identity discourse. It sets the analysis of its findings in the contexts of the dominant neo-liberal political economy and promotional culture in Poland, but its examination considers the socio-historical conditions of the post-Soviet era accompanying nation branding as a nation building process. By considering specific settings, it outlines a reflexive case study, addressing a shift in the economy of practices at the crossovers of the Polish state’s structures, business groups, the mass media, and cultural intermediaries of nation branding. This study draws from Bourdieu’s theoretical oeuvre, nationalism scholarship, and corporate communications models. First, it demonstrates the growing impact of corporate communications models on the state as a democratic polity. Second, it sketches out the foundations for the empirical part of the study. Methodologically, it uses an interpretive approach to reveal collective action accompanying the nation branding exercise in Poland. It draws from a range of data to reconstruct the contested vision of the field of nation branding and the dynamics of the relationship between institutional and individual actors performing nation branding in Poland. The findings of this study unfold the implications of the imposition and invasion of nation branding within the Polish field of power, specifically with regards to the marketisation of Polish national identity, its co-construction and reproduction; attempts to further corporatise overseas propaganda on behalf of the Polish field of power; and a growing impact of private sector consultants on public policy making in post-Soviet Poland. Primarily, this thesis argues that one of the biggest consequences of the invasion of nation branding in Poland is the emergence of corpo-nationalism - a form of economic nationalism which was a weak component, until now, of political economy changes in Poland, post 1989.