‘Surowiec explores a fascinating and under-researched area – the role played by

nation branding in post-communist transition. His work will make a major inter-
vention into debates surrounding transition and Europeanisation. The strength of
this book lies in the combination of a sophisticated approach to global issues
grounded in a Bourdieusian perspective with a deep knowledge of the national
politics and sociology of Poland.’
Stuart Shields, Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy,
University of Manchester, UK

‘This is an original and topical book about a country searching for a dignified
place on the modern map of Europe. Readers learn not only about Poland, but
also about blending nationalism with neo-liberalism and about adjusting the old-
fashioned diplomacy to the digital age.’
Jan Zielonka, Professor of European Politics, St Antony’s College,
University of Oxford, UK

‘I like this book for two reasons. It is stimulating to see Bourdieu’s work applied
to the investigation of promotional practices. As a Pole, I am delighted to see this
careful analysis of institutional discourses of Polishness and the experiences that
flow through them.’
Magda Pieczka, Reader in Public Relations, Queen Margaret University, UK
Nation Branding, Public Relations and
Soft Power

Nation Branding, Public Relations and Soft Power: Corporatising Poland

provides an empirically grounded analysis of changes in the way in which vari-
ous actors seek to manage Poland’s national image in world opinion. It explores
how and why changes in political economy have shaped these actors and their use
of soft power in a way that is influenced by public relations, corporate communi-
cation and marketing practices.
By examining the discourse and practices of professional nation branders who
have re-shaped the relationship between collective identities and national image
management, it plots changes in the way in which Poland’s national image is
communicated, and culturally reshaped, creating tensions between national iden-
tity and democracy. The book demonstrates that nation branding is a consequence
of the corporatisation of political governance, soft power and national identity,
while revealing how the Poland ‘brand’ is shaping public and foreign affairs.
Challenging and original, this book will be of interest to scholars in public
relations, corporate communications, political marketing and international
relations.

Paweł Surowiec, Ph.D, is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Media and

Communication, Bournemouth University, UK and Research Fellow at Charles
University in Prague, Czech Republic. He lectures in Political Economy of Public
Relations and leads a module on International Relations. His scholarly research is
driven by questions relating to the re-invention of classical models of propaganda
praxis and socio-cultural changes in European politics.
Routledge New Directions in Public Relations and
Communication Research
Edited by Kevin Moloney

Routledge New Directions in Public Relations and Communication Research is a

new forum for the publication of books of original research in PR and related
types of communication. Its remit is to publish critical and challenging responses
to continuities and fractures in contemporary PR thinking and practice, and its
essential yet contested role in market-orientated, capitalist, liberal democracies
around the world. The series reflects the multiple and inter-disciplinary forms PR
takes in a post-Grunigian world; the expanding roles which it performs, and the
increasing number of countries in which it is practised.
The series will examine current trends and explore new thinking on the key
questions which impact upon PR and communications including:

• Is the evolution of persuasive communications in Central and Eastern

Europe, China, Latin America, Japan, the Middle East and South East Asia
developing new forms or following Western models?
• What has been the impact of postmodern sociologies, cultural studies and
methodologies which are often critical of the traditional, conservative role of
PR in capitalist political economies, and in patriarchy, gender and ethnic roles?
• What is the impact of digital social media on politics, individual privacy and
PR practice? Is new technology changing the nature of content communi-
cated, or simply reaching bigger audiences faster? Is digital PR a cause or a
consequence of political and cultural change?

Books in this series will be of interest to academics and researchers involved in

these expanding fields of study, as well as students undertaking advanced studies
in this area.

A full list of titles in this series is available at:

Nation Branding, Public Relations Social Media and Public Relations

and Soft Power Fake friends and powerful publics
Corporatising Poland Judy Motion, Robert L. Heath and
Paweł Surowiec Shirley Leitch

Public Relations and Participatory Strategic Communication, Social

Culture Media and Democracy
Fandom, social media and community The challenge of the digital naturals
engagement Edited by W. Timothy Coombs,
Amber Hutchins and Jesper Falkheimer, Mats Heide
Natalie T. J. Tindall and Philip Young
Nation Branding, Public
Relations and Soft Power
Corporatising Poland

Paweł Surowiec
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2017 Paweł Surowiec

The right of Paweł Surowiec to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
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Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission
to reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from
any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to
rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or

registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Names: Surowiec, Pawel, author.
Title: Nation branding, public relations and soft power : corporatising
Poland / Pawel Surowiec.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2017. | Series: Routledge new directions
in public relations and communication research
Identifiers: LCCN 2016005694| ISBN 9781138818835 (hardback) | ISBN
9781315744995 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Poland—Economic policy—1990- | Corporatization—Poland. |
Social responsibility of business—Poland. | Public relations—Poland. |
Democracy—Poland.
Classification: LCC HC340.3 .S8557 2016 | DDC 352.7/4809438—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016005694

ISBN: 978-1-138-81883-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-74499-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by FiSH Books Ltd, Enfield
Contents

List of figures viii

Abbreviations and Polish names of actors ix
Acknowledgements xi

Introduction 1

1 From ‘total wars’ to ‘total markets’ 18

2 Soft power, nationalisms and globalism reconsidered 36

3 Reforming the Polish statecraft: foundations for ‘corporatisation’ 57

4 Mapping out the Polish field governing soft power 77

5 Field habitus and legitimisations of nation branding for

soft power 93

6 Political economy of nation branding practice in Poland 119

7 Articulating branded vision of Polishness for soft power 136

8 Poland as markets’ playground: towards a new statecraft 157

9 Conclusions: updating the field and the future of soft power

research 178

Document archives 190

References 196
Index 211
Figures

3.1 Historical outline of key institutional developments 67

4.1 The position of agents in the field in 2009 80
6.1 Outline of key nation branding projects 124
8.1 Dissemination of nation branding 173
Abbreviations and Polish names of
actors

AAA Advertising Agencies Stowarzyszenie Agencji

Association Reklamowych
AP Ad Press Orginal Name – In English
APA Advertising For Poland Stowarzyszenie Reklama Dla Polski
Association
BNA Brand Nature Access Orginal Name – In English
BFP Brief For Poland Brief Dla Polski
CP Corporate Profiles Original name – in English
CU Communication Unlimited Original name – in English
CEO Chief Executive Officer Prezes
CPR Ciszewski Public Relations Original name – in English
DEP Department of Economic Departament Promocji
Promotion Ekonomicznej
DEI Department of Economic Departament Informacji
Intelligence Gospodarczej
DMI Department of Marketing Departament Instrumentów
Instruments Marketingowych
DP Department of Promotion Departament Promocji
DPCD Department of Public and Departament Dyplomacji Publicznej
Cultural Diplomacy I Kulturanlej
DMS Department of Marketing Departament Strategii
Strategy Marketingowej
DSI Department of Support Wydział Instrumentów Wsparcia
Instruments
DE Polish Embassy in Dublin Ambasada Polska W Dublinie
EG Escadra Group Grupa Eskadra
EEO EXPO Exhibition Office Biuro Pawilonu EXPO
GNOES Grandeskochonoes Grandeskochonoes
LE Polish London Embassy Instytut Adama Mickiewicza
IAM Institute of Adam Mickiewicz Polska Ambasada W Londynie
IPB Institute of Polish Brand Instytut Marki Polskej
IPA Institute of Public Affairs Instutut Spraw Publicznych
MF Ministry of Finance Ministerstwo Finansów
x Abbreviations and Polish names of actors

NCC National Center of Culture Narodowe Centrum Kultury

NC New Communications Original name – in English
ONM Orbita New Media Original name – in English
PCHC Polish Chamber of Commerce Krajowa Izba Gospodarcza
PAEC Polish Agency for Enterprise Polska Agencja Rozwoju
and Development Przedsiębiorczości
PIIA Polish Information and Polska Agencja Informacji I
Foreign Investment Agency Inwestycji Zagranicznych
PL.2012 PL.2012
PMFA Polish Ministry of Foreign Polskie Ministerstwo Spraw
Affairs Zagranicznych
PMS Polish Ministry of Economics Polskie Ministerstwo Gospogarki
PO Press Office Biuro Prasowe
PTO Polish Tourist Organisation Polska Organizacja Turystyczna
SBC Saffron Brand Consultants Original name – in English
S&P Staefiej & Partners Stafiej I Partnerzy
Y&R Young & Rubicam Poland Original name – in English
Acknowledgements

First, I would like to acknowledge colleagues who facilitated the development of

the initial version of this book – Dr Kevin Moloney, Prof. Barry Richards and Dr
Mike Molesworth. I also thank Dr Magda Pieczka and Dr Stuart Shields for their
comments on the first draft of this study. Special recognition for his editorial help,
Socratic wisdom, sense of humour, and for his role as an ‘academic priest’, and
for being an engaged listener in an on-going debate between Continental idealism
and Anglo-Saxon pragmatism is in place for Dr Kevin Moloney.
Second, I would like to thank Dr Tomasz Podgórski, Jemma Truss, Dr Anna
Śledzińska-Simon, Marta and Didier Franche, Artur and Beata Pyza, Dr Jenny
Alexander, Piotr Drukier, Nathalie Muijtjens, the Leadley and the Pachulski
families for their supportive friendships, and my family for their words of encour-
agement.
Third, I would like to thank colleagues from the CELSA, Sorbonne IV and
other academic institutions for invaluable comments and stimulating conversa-
tions that led, I believe, to the enhancement of this book. In particular, I would
like to acknowledge: Dr Dominique Pagés, Dr Nadia Kaneva, Dr Magdalena
Kania-Lundholm, Dr Gyorgy Szondi, Dr Mateusz Krycki and Dr James
Pamment, Prof. Beata Ociepka and Prof. Sabinne Einwiller for their intellectual
engagement with the subject. I would like to acknowledge Dr Heather Savigny
and Phil MacGregor for providing comments on sections of this book. Further, I
would like to thank consultants, policy makers, and communication professionals
at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economics, the Institute
of Adam Mickiewicz, the Polish Tourism Organisation, the Polish Agency for
Enterprise Development, the Polish Chamber of Commerce and other participants
of this study. With thanks to you all.
Finally, I would like to thank members of the Bournemouth Athletic Club for
providing me with a sense of perspective on academic life. It has been a long, but
satisfying run.
With thanks to you all.
I dedicate this book to my parents, Lucyna and Mieczysław Surowiec.

Bournemouth, 25 April, 2016

Introduction

Inspirations, expressions and ‘plotting’ this book

In the run up to the European Union (EU) accession (1 May, 2004), policy
makers, including governors of soft power resources, business organisations and
media commentators in Poland began to pay more attention to the management
of Poland’s global reputation. Whether Poland’s reputation was addressed in a
sufficient way to achieve foreign and domestic policy goals is still the subject of
debate, but Poland’s EU membership was unquestionably one of the defining
political events shaping the governance of its soft power resources. At that time,
I was a postgraduate student of International Relations (IR) at the University of
Wrocław, and I knew how the nexus of foreign policy–media–public opinion
might impact on the reputation of any state (see Mercer, 1996). Soon after grad-
uation, I moved to England and this experience in itself has made my reading of
Poland’s reputation and my relationship to this state more complex. Having been
exposed to the British media, I became even more sensitive to Poland’s represen-
tations in the foreign media, and to the ways in which those might have translated
into ‘national reputations’. Yet, in Poland, public discussion on national reputa-
tions centred on nation branding. I witnessed how the media in Britain reported
on issues relating to Poland’s public and foreign affairs which were problematic
for policy makers governing Poland’s soft power: the Iraq War (2003), the rise of
the populist right (2005), mass emigration of Poles (2004 onwards) or the exis-
tence of the CIA secret prisons in Poland, to name but a few. I witnessed heavily
biased and poorly sourced journalistic accounts in the British media coverage of
Poland. The emergence of the above, and other issues, and ways in which they
were covered by the British media triggered questions about Poland’s reputation
and enthused interest in the studies of soft power.
Nye (2004, p. 6) describes the IR concept of soft power as being

more than just persuasion or the ability to move people by argument, though
that is an important part of it. It is also the ability to attract, and attraction
often leads to acquiescence. Simply put, in behavioural terms soft power is
attractive power.
2 Introduction

While I am interested in IR, soft power and its communicative resources such as
propaganda, public and cultural diplomacy, I began to question why newcomers
to this area – nation branders – became leading voices on the governance of soft
power and the management of Poland’s reputations, and what could, if anything,
nation branding bring to this area of statecraft. Moreover, I wanted to find out
what nation branding practice involved, and how it links to other, previously insti-
tutionalised resources of soft power. After all, states have varying soft power
capabilities, but I tried to make connections between concepts and actors in this
field in Poland. I turned my civic curiosity into an academic one and embarked
on doctoral studies about nation branding in Poland. Ironically, I noticed that
nation branding practice was being abandoned by governments elsewhere. In the
UK, ‘Cool Britannia’, and in the US ‘Share Values’, both signified as nation
branding campaigns, faded away under pressure from critics. Yet, in Poland
nation branding was, and still is, a topic in circles governing soft power.
As with most books, this monograph is a result of multiple discussions, self-
reflection and new developments in the field of study. It is a rethinking of my
doctoral study, supplemented by additional data. Its rationale stems from intuitive
and academic arguments. The intuitive arguments have developed as a result of
news media reading; exploration of online sources; and reading of professional,
marketing and public relations magazines in Poland. At one point, the Polish
nation branding programme was pompously described as ‘the biggest nation
branding programme of all times’ (Saffron, 2007). I thought this was somewhat
of an exaggeration and so it became apparent that nation branding in Poland
requires in-depth interrogation. Although, in light of my preliminary exploration,
it would be convenient to argue that I have selected Poland as a context for my
study because this state has been undergoing a ‘branding exercise’ (Reed, 2002;
Szczepankiewicz, 2006; Znoykiewicz, 2008) or, as professional marketing peri-
odicals suggested, Poland needs ‘branding’ (Kiszluk, 2010), principally; Poland
offers interesting, non-Western settings for analysing links between nation brand-
ing, collective identities, and the governance of soft power. While my initial
readings left many questions open, they stimulated my ‘academic curiosity’ to
explore nation branders as an occupational interest group shaping the contempo-
rary notions of Polishness.
Since the mid-1980s, the Western academic discourses on political communi-
cation have been gradually influenced by concepts derived from corporate
communications studies and practice. Although this trend has emerged in public
affairs scholarship (Moloney, 2007), despite being detectable in foreign policy, it
remains under-researched in the studies on soft power. In fact, public relations
models had already been shaping the landscape of foreign policy resources (e.g.
Koschwitz, 1986). By the virtue of its exegesis, the introduction of nation brand-
ing within the state structures (Anholt, 1998) fits into this trend and offers
opportunities to advance multi-disciplinary analysis of soft power by connecting
corporate practices, statecraft, and foreign affairs with the governance of its
communicative resources (Bohas, 2006).
Capturing the imagination of many, actors in global politics engage in nation
 Introduction  3

branding: in the UK, the ‘Cool Britannia’ campaign (1997) was the first reported
make-over of collective identities by the New Labour government; branding was
a feature of the ‘GREAT’ campaign (2011–2015) accompanying marketing of the
UK globally in the context of the 2012 London Olympics; in the US nation brand-
ing emerged via the ‘Shared Values’ campaign (2002), and by the appointment of
a former advertising executive, Charlotte Beers, as the undersecretary of state.
While the US’ and the UK’s political cultures gave rise to nation branding, other
actors in world politics have been re-imagining their identities as a ‘brand’:
Germany with its ‘The land of ideas’ campaign (2005); Sweden and its ‘Curators
of Sweden’ online campaign (2012) as well as Botswana, Syria, Chile, Romania,
Bulgaria, Jamaica, Estonia and Poland (Aronczyk, 2013). Nation branding is
worth analysing by the virtue of its abilities to change the way we think about soft
power (Pamment, 2014).
Poland provides an interesting case for the analysis of nation branding as a
resource of soft power as it marks the shift in scholarship: non-Western orienta-
tion, tensions between its ‘Sovietised past’ and ‘neo-liberal present’,
consolidating democracy and forming of political culture (see Pachulska, 2005),
and it offers opportunities to explore the destiny of new communicative practices
implemented into foreign affairs and foreign policy realms: their adoption, adap-
tation or rejection. While in this book Poland constitutes an analytical ground, the
processes discussed also emerge in other national settings (Aronczyk, 2013). In
the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, Poland, however, is as at the
forefront of articulating soft power in marketing terms: its Western-leaning poli-
cies, institutional reforms, and investment in resources reveal that Poland treats
its soft power as a voice of leadership in the CEE region and beyond.

Invocation and solo voice of the key argument

This monograph uses a Bourdieu-inspired framework to discuss changes in the
way the state as an actor exercises soft power. By aligning soft power – IR
concept – with political economy contexts and practices, this book examines the
interplay between institutionalised forms of political and marketing communica-
tion, and advances the thesis on corporatisation of soft power. Its development is
based on genealogical reading of the literature in the fields in communication and
International Relations studies, and supported by extensive empirical evidence.
The main focus of this book is the relationship between the Polish state and
agency of newcomers to its structures: advocates, consultants and other actors in
world politics arguing for adoption of nation branding to statecraft. The evidence
presented in this study illustrates diffusion of soft power. This research analyses
how new entrants into the Polish political field have influenced public and foreign
affairs, and its central thesis argues that nation branding is a feature of the corpo-
ratisation of soft power.
After period of systemic domestic marketisation, that is the structural introduc-
tion of laws and pro-market policies (Berendt, 2009) in Poland, also the realms of
foreign policy of this state has been shaped by neo-liberal market forces.
4 Introduction

Consequently, those external pressures created environments in which policy

makers in Poland were mesmerised by corporate-style solutions in facilitating the
development of competitive advantages of the Polish state in a transnational polit-
ical economy. Those processes are focal points of my analysis: the central
argument of this book is that the interactions of ‘nation branders’ (Aronczyk, 2009,
p. 295) with the state actors governing soft power resources and their practices
have changed institutional practices in this sub-structure of the Polish state. This,
I argue, marks a corporatisation as voluntary ‘efforts to make state owned enter-
prises to operate as if they were private firms facing a competitive market’
(Shirley, 1999, p. 115) introduced as a soft power measure to signify Poland a
more competitive state actor in the world politics.
The above backdrop provides an opportunity for the analysis of implicit
aspects on nation branding and its links with soft power. In this book corporati-
sation is understood as application of modes of thinking, business solutions, and
communicative practices derived from corporate sector into the statecraft –
specifically to institutions governing communicative resources of soft power. To
that end, the aim of this book is to contribute to the debate on processes and prac-
tices leading to the diversification of communicative resources of soft power.
Poland has been at the forefront of market and democratic reforms in CEE and
the Polish state’s collective identities have been changing as a consequence of
structural (Shields, 2008) and institutional (Bohle and Greskovits, 2007) political
economy transformations. Against this background, it is important to interrogate
how nation branding has been deployed as a ‘communicative resource’ (Mosco,
2009, p. 9) to align it with a transnational political economy and a ‘cohesive
vision’ of national identity exercised by actors governing Poland’s soft power.
To date, writings on nation branding have been dominated by a number of
publications approaching the subject from an functionalist perspective (Olins,
1999; Anholt, 2007; Dinnie, 2008), the critical scholars have introduced a
research agenda on the subject (Kaneva, 2011) and made a contribution to social
theories inspired analysis of nation branding in an edited book (Kaneva, 2012) or
a monograph (Aronczyk, 2013). Following in the footsteps of those authors, this
monograph approaches the analysis of nation branding in an empirical, relational
and reflexive way. This monograph, however, aims to contribute to the existing
scholarship on nation branding and discuss it in relation to broader developments
in the scholarship and reveal their implications for soft power capabilities and, in
that regard, to International Relations scholarship.
To accomplish this task, this book combines several theory frameworks and
relevant bodies of literature to closely interrogate nation branding in the local
settings of Poland. By applying Bourdieusian social theory of praxis (1977), his
views on the resources held by the state (Bourdieu et al., 1994), theories of
nationalism (e.g. Brubaker, 1996), and a critique of corporate branding practice
(e.g. O’Reilly, 2006), this book brings those frameworks together to amalgamate
the IR concept of soft power with studies on the development of new communi-
cation practices. It further develops Browning’s (2015) thesis on the
‘competitive-state’ and demonstrates how resources of soft power are supposedly
 Introduction  5

being transformed to match global demands of the Polish neo-liberal state. The
exploration of nation branding presented in this book covers the period from
1999–2014 – from the point of its emergence in Poland to the end of the field-
work which informed the corporatisation of soft power thesis.
This examination covers two meta-themes. On the one hand, in response to
Pamment’s (2014) call for interpretative examination of nation branding and soft
power, at first, it offers a new taxonomy of practices, including a definition of the
‘field of national images management’. Second, by considering sensibilities of
cultural studies (Kaneva, 2012; Aronczyk, 2013), this monograph provides
insights into an ongoing process of corporatisation exceeding transferability of
corporate communications models into new ‘contexts’. The emergence of nation
branding provides a rich material for the discussion of changes in political culture
within this field: marketisation, privatisation, commodification explicit within the
Polish state structures, and revealing the impact of promotion culture on foreign
affairs. On the other hand, following Adler-Nissen’s (2012) views on applying
Bourdieu’s work to international relations, by bringing together IR theories and
reality of a political field, this book aims to report on new knowledge on the
governance of Poland’s soft power. By adopting theory of practice, this book
discusses another step in a shift of Poland towards the ‘competitive-state’.

Setting the scene: new stage for Poland’s soft power

Since 1989, the Polish state has been undergoing changes driven by neo-liberal
political economy. Although social theorists have already explored social forces
responsible for the introduction of neo-liberalism in Poland (Sidorenko, 1998),
there is little evidence regarding the relationship between systemic changes in the
Polish political field, its sub-field governing resources of soft power and newcom-
ers to this social space. Although neo-liberalism has fascinated the Polish political
class, ontologically it did not undermine the Polish state, but created a setting in
which policy makers needed to consider global reputations of Poland accompany-
ing its transformation into a player in global economy. Simultaneously, the speed of
neo-liberalisation overpowered a sense of economic nationalism (Szlajfer, 1997),
and the Polish state lacked an explicit nation-building process that would suit
worldviews on the globalising economy. A group of newcomers into the Polish state
structures – nation branders – offered consultancy that responded to this demand.
The political economy of neo-liberalism has reinforced the neo-Darwinian
notion of competitiveness among business organisations in Poland, and left
Polish state policy makers in an assumed position to consider their reputations on
global markets. While the policy discourse on economic interdependence of the
Polish state emerged in the political field soon after the imposition of ‘shock ther-
apy’ (1990), the foreign policy planning to integrate with Western political
economy structures accelerated public affairs’ discourses on linking the Polish
state interests and its overseas reputations (Kukliński and Pawłowska, 1999). At
that time, the Polish government launched soft power efforts to represent national
markets as foreign capital friendly. The initial, post-1989 attempts at marketing
6 Introduction

Poland globally involved institutional participation in exhibitions, production and

distribution of brochures and gadgets, media relations, commissioning advertori-
als and transnational advertising campaigns. One of those campaigns, ‘Poland:
towards the year 2000’, represented political economy changes in Poland in the
following way: ‘An historic process is under way; Poland is reforging her iden-
tity by seizing and creating opportunities for the new Europe’ (Time International,
1991). This marks the beginning of a powerful narrative of a ‘neo-liberal success’
story by actors exercising Poland’s soft power.
Over the years, the Polish state’s campaigning efforts took various bureau-
cratic avenues and its governance within the state institutions exercising soft
power in Poland and overseas became diversified (e.g. Polish Embassies, the
Adam Mickiewicz Cultural Institutes). For the actors in the Polish political field,
however, the accession to the EU proved particularly challenging in terms of
management of Poland’s global reputations (Ociepka and Ryniejska, 2005). This
became an opportunity for interest groups to struggle for solutions to bridge
national competitiveness on global markets with national identities and national
reputations.
While ad hoc transnational campaigns on behalf of the Polish state were
commissioned soon after 1989, a codified ‘promotional policy’ making has been
taking place since the mid-1990s within the Polish state structures and its sub-field
of governing soft power resources. Today, its enactment involves private sector
actors, some of whom, over the years, attempted to shape the policy directions.
Throughout this study, my analysis leads to the reconstruction of initiatives of the
actors engaged in nation branding and primarily concerns governmental, business
interests groups, and a professional class of nation branders. Their collective
actions, aligned with the Polish state’s bureaucracy, have been further mediated
and enacted in the structuring entities of the mass media, businesses, Polish acade-
mia and market research organisations. These actors have contributed to the
perpetuation of nation branding and were used as facilitators for its dissemination.
Principally, nation branding programmes are ‘bottom-up’ initiatives that have been
enacted at the crossovers of the Polish state and corporate interests among the
actors involved in policy discourse on the promotion of Poland.

Components of ‘libretto’
Before I embark on the analysis of nation branding practice in Poland, there are
a few initial clarifications that are required. Scholars have long recognised that
perceptions of the state largely depend on its position within the international
system power structures (Boulding, 1959). However, its reception is context-
dependent and gives scope to influence domestic and world public opinion in the
pursuit of policy goals in public affairs and foreign affairs. In this book, I make
references to academically recognised communication models and empirical
studies exploring the field of national images management.
This book understands this field as the state coordinated institutional structure,
made up of actors empowered by means of legal and policy commitments, to
 Introduction  7

govern political or marketing communications resources of soft power to exert

influence (Pamment, 2014) and to manage the reputation of the state and/or the
nation. The critical assessment of European and Anglo-American academic liter-
ature in this area reveals parallel, relatively complementary coexistence of
professional practice and academic research exploring relationships between
collective identities constructions and their reception as images. In fact, there are
two lucid themes emerging from this examination. First, nation branding emerges
in academic and professional discourses as a ‘new’ concept competing with prop-
aganda and its discursive re-inventions. Second, nation branding explicitly aims
to bridge a gap between nationalism, national identity, national images and
national reputations.
Although scholars (Moloney et al., 2003) argue for the development of
systematic models of ‘public’ and ‘private’ political message production and
consumption within domestic realms of government communications, foreign
policy making and its mediation is defined by its own dynamics that merges
global and local dialectics. Thus far, scholars have developed models of overseas
government communication, but I argue that this approach is limiting in terms of
accounting for specific state actors and new entrants into the state structures
bringing their discourses and practices into the new spaces. This ‘static’, ‘model-
ling’ approach, I argue, poses a challenge in terms of accounting for how the type
of political economy and culture creates both opportunities and threats for new
practices. Sensitive to Mosco’s (2009) views on the political economy of commu-
nication, this study considers nation branding as a resource of soft power, shaping
changes in the political field. By drawing from the social theory of Pierre
Bourdieu, this study adopts a reflexive epistemology in the exploration of the
relationships between actors within state structures and reveals the logic and the
consequences of articulating Polish national identity as a ‘brand’.
As far as studies on nation branding are concerned, there is still ambiguity
regarding its practice, which is particularly under-researched by scholarship on
the governance of soft power. Among the arguments emerging in contemporary
scholarship, there are those based on quantitative and qualitative reasoning. The
first suggest the growing amount of actors involved in exercising soft power
(Chong and Valencic, 2001, p. 3).1 The latter reveals the introduction of norma-
tive approaches into this area inquiry (Manheim, 1994). This field originates in
the early modernist state bureaucracies’ propaganda practice, which either has
been analysed in the settings of public affairs or foreign affairs. For example, the
socio-historical accounts from the UK (L’Etang, 2001) reveal that, at the institu-
tionalisation stage, the field was limited in size and explicitly used ‘propaganda’
as being of primarily interest to military and diplomatic bureaucrats. Similarly,
there is evidence to reveal that propaganda was the first institutionalised resource
applied by the Polish state’s policy makers in foreign affairs at the outset of the
modernist era, back in 1917 (Szczepanik, 2005).
The reading of this book requires understanding of formerly institutionalised
communicative practices by the Polish field governing the resources of soft
power. Those practices are also referred to in professional accounts by the
8 Introduction

management of institutional field actors participating in this study. Among them

are: ‘public diplomacy’; ‘cultural diplomacy’; ‘investment marketing’; and
‘destination marketing’. At this stage, it has to be emphasised that my fieldwork
took place at the time when the aforementioned practices had been adopted insti-
tutionally and nation branding was considered by policy makers in Poland as one
of the models in the discourse on the governance of soft power resources.
Therefore, this book primarily explores trajectories of actions by advocates of
nation branding. Throughout the fieldwork, participants involved in nation brand-
ing make references to formerly institutionalised communicative practices by the
Polish state. I define them below as per pre-existing academic accounts. Scholars
working with the propaganda model define this form of persuasive communica-
tions as:

Deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions,

and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of
the propagandist.
(Jowett and O’Donnell, 1999, p. 6)

Although IR scholars (Nye, 2004) analysing soft power or social theorists

analysing national identities (e.g. Hobsbawm, 1990) use the term propaganda,
communication studies scholars began to reinvent a propaganda model by offer-
ing new terminologies, often used without any empirical grounding. Manheim
(1994, p. 5) identifies two streams of propaganda studies relevant to the analysis
of soft power. The first focuses on the psychological effects of propaganda influ-
ence. The second reveals propaganda techniques which lead to interest in ‘public
relations, advertising and marketing which tends to be expressed in more anec-
dotal and generally normative terms’ (ibid., p. 5). The argument that public
relations and marketing models are directly applicable to exercise soft power
echoes in the academic definitions. For example, Wilcox et al. (1989, p. 395), in
their definition of international public relations, suggest that this practice is
enacted by governments as: ‘Planned and organized activities of organization,
institution or government to establish mutually beneficial relations with the
publics of other nations’.
While it is not clear from the above definition what establishing mutually
beneficial relations involves in practical terms, the further impact of the norma-
tive public relations model (Grunig, 1992) on the academic field of national
images management is revealed. This is particularly so in the conceptual merger
with the ‘public diplomacy’ model (Gilboa, 2008). Throughout the Cold War era,
this term has been gaining currency. Public diplomacy as a communicative prac-
tice has been defined as: ‘A government process of communicating with foreign
publics’ (Tuch, 1990, p. 3).
Yet another area which is closely aligned with public diplomacy is that of
‘cultural diplomacy’. This practice has also been institutionalised within the
Polish field governing resources of soft power. Cummings (2003, p. 1) defines it
as a practice involving:
 Introduction  9

The exchange of ideas, information, art, and other aspects of culture among
nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding.

While in the world of business propaganda has lost much of its legitimacy and has
been dominated by a pro-business conceptual reinvention of public relations
(Moloney, 2006), public and cultural diplomacy (Dizard, 2004) – traditionally
considered by scholars as ‘political communication’ – has also been subject to
reinvention. In terms of production and reception of messages, they can also
include economic messages (Cull, 2008). Marketing practice, on the other hand,
is by definition committed to legitimising capitalist social order and the marketi-
sation of new fields (Marion, 2006). In fact, two areas of marketing which have
been institutionalised within the Polish state are ‘investment marketing’ that is
used as one of the institutional practices aimed at attracting foreign direct invest-
ment (Zhang, 2005) and ‘destination marketing’ (Pike, 2008, p. 27),
institutionalised within the Polish state structure as an extension of the tourism
policy. Therefore, nowadays, differentiation between ‘political’ and ‘marketing’
communications is in flux and blends under the political economy of practices
aligned with structures of the Polish state.
Although it is beyond the scope of this research monograph to explore every
single one of those models in details, I introduce them at this stage as they emerge
in the academic discourse on nation branding, and importantly, emerge in the
findings of this study. The aforementioned definitions, including that of ‘propa-
ganda’; ‘international public relations’; ‘destination marketing’, and ‘investment
marketing’ refer to frequently discussed models in the academic field of national
images management. Within this book, they are thought about as one of many
communicative resources of soft power. While there are more variations of them
emerging in communication and IR studies, I leave them out of the main discus-
sion of this book as nation branding conceptualists do not engage in the debate
with authors of those taxonomies.2 Their presence in the scholarship demonstrates
both a fragmentation of ideas, terminological inconsistencies, conceptual merg-
ers, and, as I will demonstrate, a competition of new concepts with already
existing communicative models of soft power resources.

Composing reconstruction of performance: methods and

doing research in Poland
Studies of communicative resources of soft power have been gradually develop-
ing into a multi-disciplinary area of inquiry in which scholars draw from different
academic traditions and methodological approaches (Reus-Smit and Snidal,
2008). Given that this book aims to bring communication and IR studies closer
together, this study predominantly uses interpretivist reasoning to analyse nation
branding practice. By using Bourdieu’s theory of field, his views on the state as
well as theories of nationalism, this study magnifies the field governing Poland’s
soft power and reports on its dynamics by using Bourdieu’s lenses on ‘the social’.
His sensibilities are applied to the design, fieldwork and analysis in this study.
10 Introduction

This book subscribes to Bourdieu’s (1989) ‘structuralist constructivism’ onto-

logical position. His understanding of social realities is embedded in the notion
of double structuring: social structures exist in the objectivity constituted by the
material and non-material resources. In research terms, this approach is referred
to as praxeology: it starts off with mapping out objective structures, followed by
analysis of lived experiences of actors in the field (Everett, 2002). While the
vision of the field is informed by Bourdieu’s ontology, this study also aspires to
account for cultural features of actors governing soft power. This vision of the
world is complemented by the philosophical underpinnings of Critical Theory.
The intellectual legacy of the Frankfurt School offers this study a compelling
ontological vision of the structural relationship between political economy and
collective identity. For Adorno (1997) specifically, the bridging mechanism
between structure and agency is that of ideology. In his interpretation, identity is
the primal form of all ideologies. In Terry Eagleton’s words (2007, p. 126) ‘ideol-
ogy for Adorno is thus a form of “identity thinking”’.
In reporting research findings, Bourdieusian epistemology has been followed.
Bourdieu’s stance on knowledge generation echoes in the Anglo-American
academic traditions preoccupied with empiricism in IR and communication stud-
ies. According to Bourdieu, epistemological underpinnings of the research
practice are three ‘R’s’: research, relationism and reflexivity (Maton, 2003). This
study keeps those principles in sight. First, Bourdieu’s oeuvre has left
researchers with a meta-theory that can be applied to different research settings.
His analytical categories – field, habitus, and capital – gain meaning, if they
have been put into the context of empirical research (Swartz, 1997). Second,
Bourdieu’s route to understanding the interdependency between objective and
subjective features of ‘the social’ is based on the relational positions taken by
agents. Relational thinking aims at breaking up epistemological monism. In light
of this principle, the relational mind set allows extraction of an object of inquiry
from practical interests of everyday life (Bourdieu et al., 1991). It is the rela-
tionships between agents in the field that should be examined rather than the
elements that constitute it. The last epistemological feature in Bourdieu’s soci-
ology of knowledge is the notion of reflexivity. Bourdieu’s reflexivity is under
laid by a view that, by investigating social reality, the researcher produces infor-
mation that can contribute to the construction of reality. Given the symbolic
dimension inherent to academic practice, researchers have the ability to exercise
symbolic power. Bourdieu and Waquant (1992) advocate reflexive academic
practice to reduce risks accompanying researcher’s ability to exercise symbolic
power.
With this in mind, the reflexive case study design of nation branding has led to
the reconstruction of the field dynamics. Following the review of literature
(Andrews, 2003), the desk stage of this research led to the development of the
following questions:

1 Who are the actors involved in nation branding in Poland?

2 How do actors enact nation branding in Poland?
 Introduction  11

3 How has nation branding been institutionalised in Poland?

4 How do outputs of nation branding practice contribute to nation-building?

Following Grenfell’s (2008) view on Bourdieusian research, this study aims to:

1 Map out agents performing nation branding in Poland and establish their
relationship to the field of power;
2 Analyse the habitus of nation branders in Poland;
3 Analyse discourses and practices of nation branders in Poland;
4 Explore the relationship between nation branding practice, soft power and
reproduction of Polishness.

This study follows Bourdieusian procedures summarised by Grenfell (2008, p.

220):

1 The construction of the research object;

2 A three-level approach to studying the field of the object of research;
3 Participant objectivation.

The first of the above points relates to relational thinking in analysis of nation
banding in Poland; the second, includes procedural techniques to do with
mapping out the field; its relationship with the field of power; and analysis of
habitus. The third point involves consideration of reflexivity as central to the field
theory analysis. This case study was designed with methodological polytheism in
mind whereby methods in Bourdieu-inspired studies correspond with the research
problem. Done this way, the cross-examination of data facilitated the develop-
ment of this case study, in which the approach to nation branding is both a critical
and reflexive one, and nation branding as a new and emerging resource of soft
power is not taken for granted. Three data sources were used to meet the research
objectives of this study: policy and consultancy documents, semi-structured inter-
views and field notes.
I collected documents enabling me to unfold the perpetuation of nation brand-
ing in ‘time and space’. The discursive texts that I considered as relevant included
the phrase ‘nation branding’ or ‘nation brand’ or its equivalents in Polish (‘marka
narodowa’). Overall, the documents assembled offered insights into the Polish
state policies; they revealed actors behind their development, disclosed large
portions of the contextual data, and revealed progress in ‘implementation’ of
nation branding. Upon completion of this task, the collection of documents were
scanned in accordance with Scott’s (1990) quality criteria and categorised as per
genre as part of my discourse archive:

1 Polish state policies: policy documents; mission statements of the field

actors; policy speeches; parliamentary questions; financial reports; evalua-
tion and assessment reports; public bidding notices; press releases, campaign
features.
12 Introduction

2 Corporate artefacts: consultancy reports; policy proposals; relevant

websites; reports and professional research on the state of the industry; press
releases; professional presentations; conference materials; projects docu-
mentation.
3 Additional documents: research reports; biographical notes.

Documents were clustered by their relevance and categories (e.g. policy type;
political agenda; policy directions; historical background; practices; national
identity features). Principally, documents facilitated informing research objec-
tives 3 and 4 (p. 11).
The second set of data primarily aims at establishing relationships between
agents in the field; their habitus; legitimisations and understanding of nation
branding. I used this set of data to inform objectives 1 and 2 (p. 11). The inter-
views took place during three fieldtrips conducted in London and Warsaw: 25
July–19 September 2009; 7 April 2010–25 April 2010, and 20 July 2010–3
August 2010 (n=43) and were updated between 18 August–5 September 2014
(n=5). Some excerpts cited in this book were translated from Polish to English
whereby I attempted to present their meanings closer to the ‘targeted language’
(Malmkjær and Windle, 2011). With regards to the Polish state field actors, I
followed the ‘affiliation issue’ and targeted, in the first instance, press officers and
later, middle or senior management. In the case of the private sector actors, nation
branding consultancies, I strived to gain direct access to key players. The inter-
view data was facilitated with the field notes. Those enabled me to capture
additional cultural clues about participants, their surroundings, and interviews
setting as well as proved fruitful in terms of recording their observed tastes and
other features of their ‘class’.

Participants: ‘networked’ actors and discursive ‘arias’

For the purpose of generating interview data I applied a snowballing technique to
recruit participants to my study. This procedure has been defined by Bryman
(2004, p. 100) as a process whereby ‘a researcher makes a contact with a small
group of people who are relevant to the research topic and then uses them to
establish contacts with others’. Indeed, the field testing stage led to the recogni-
tion of organisations engaged in nation branding discourse from which interview
informants were identified. Initially, I made contact with a few brand consultan-
cies and think tanks. From there, I followed personal recommendations as well as
other agents emerging from the documents’ initial scanning. The interview crite-
ria were based on decision-making capabilities; participation in directions of soft
power policy formulation; engagement in consultancy; research and in creative
aspects of nation branding practice.
Bourdieu (1991, p. 78) considers language as a dynamic feature of practice
and, for him, ‘discourses are always to some extent euphemisms inspired by the
concern to “speak well”, to “speak properly”, to produce the products that
respond to the demands of certain markets’. In that respect, language is referential
 Introduction  13

– it is socially constructed and constructing – and corresponds with class habitus

(Myles, 1999). Discourse is a means by which ‘speakers’ express dispositions
significant to understanding their worldviews, actions and relationships with ‘the
other’ field players. I apply a Foucauldian approach to discourse to reconstruct
the field dynamics. Although the objective structure is crucial to the field analy-
sis, I did not want to lose track of the relational principle that is at the heart of this
study’s epistemology. Furthermore, it is the subjective relations between the
agents that engender social change in which I am interested. Methodologically,
‘problem-orientated’ discourse analysis enables consideration of contextual
features. It is considered as ‘an institutional way of talking that regulates and rein-
forces actions and thereby exerts power’ (Link, 1983, p. 60).
As my study problematises social change and considers the notions of identity
and power, Foucaudian analysis is intellectually closer to this study. In the analyt-
ical process, I have considered the features of discourse not merely as ‘textual’ or
‘oral’ representations of practice (Van Leeuwen, 2008). In order to address the
‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of nation branding, in the analysis process, I remained
conscious of contextual features of discourse. To maintain critical analysis, I
considered Foucauldian discourse analysis principles as outlined by Parker
(1994), and particularly by Hook (2005). With this in mind, my analysis focuses
on making connections between legitimisations of nation branding, performative
speech acts, and subjective relationships between actors in the field (McNay,
2002). For that reason, policy documents and professional accounts of the field
agents enable me to capture ‘performative discourse’ (Bourdieu, 1991; Lane,
2006) on nation branding as dynamic, flux and changeable. The above outline of
the methodology does not include all details presented in the original outline of
this study. It is the publishing conventions and my concern for the readers that
stopped me from reporting on all of its nuances. With this in mind, I refer more
methodologically curious readers to its original text (Surowiec, 2012).
Every study poses methodological challenges. In their Bourdieusian study,
Eyal et al. (2000) note that their fieldwork in Poland and other CEE states, resem-
bled a ‘detective investigation’ rather than sociological inquiry. Indeed, I reflect
on three similar issues that I have encountered during my fieldwork: limited trust,
data access and attempts to influence the shape of the study. I reflect on them one-
by-one. During my four months’ fieldwork in Poland, it occurred to me that
participants who lived the majority of their lives during the Sovietised era were
more distant and explicitly defensive. Initially, my Western location facilitated
fixing the interviews. It is only in the face-to-face situations when some partici-
pants expressed uncertainty or they explicitly accused me of having a ‘fixed
thesis in my mind’ that allegedly I was trying to prove as a result of my ques-
tioning. Some of my participants were amazed that I bothered so many
interviews. To gain their trust I took a proactive stance: if required, I offered
explanations exceeding basic introductory statements; I offered explanations that
my interviews were not a knowledge test. Yet, on a few occasions, I was made to
feel that I was interrogating a terrorist plot, not nation branding or soft power.
While the state actors frequently displayed defensive behaviour, attempted to
14 Introduction

influence the design of this study, denied access to publically funded data, or
deployed a ‘wait-and-see’ strategy, participants representing the private sector,
nation branders and related research organisations, were welcoming and came
across as genuinely interested in sharing their views on nation branding. In light
of my fieldwork experiences, I began to wonder whose culture I was studying: is
it my culture? Is it the participants’ culture? These ongoing questions encouraged
my willingness to analyse changes to Polish national identity. My mind set
accompanying the fieldwork in Poland was based overall on considering my
participants as fellow countrymen discussing their vision of Polishness. Over
time, I have established ongoing relationships with those participants closer to my
age or that have similar academic interests.

Academic ‘self’: the object of the study and ‘I’ as a researcher

Following principles of reflexive social theory, I provide the reader with self-
reflection narrative. Primarily, this exercise follows Bourdieu’s (1992)
epistemology regarding research reflexivity, but it is also informed by other
methodologists working within this social theory tradition (Alvesson and
Sköldberg, 2009). This statement serves as a self-awareness exercise and as a
clarification of how biases and preconceptions were ‘bracketed’ from the research
process. To reduce biases, reflective components are spelled out to explain my
position on this study vis-à-vis knowledge formation.
According to Marton (2003) autobiographical reflection requires an explana-
tion of interest in the particular research. Although my initial interests focused on
exploring Poland’s soft power and its relevant communicative resources, the
emergence of nation branding, also in Poland, drew my attention to this concept.
Previously, my interest in government and corporate communications had been
shaped by reading Polish academics’ works as a MA student. I quickly realised
that the majority of those texts were based on ‘imported’ Western models, lacked
empirical insights, and were exceedingly descriptive. Initially, my aim was to
merge International Relations studies with research on Poland’s soft power.
Throughout the desk stage of research, however, I discovered that there is a need
to ask fundamental questions about relationships between the Polish state, the
governance of soft power, national identity, and nation branding.
I begin this self-awareness narrative with identifying existing preconceptions
regarding the subject that I investigated. Having established that nation branding
writers advocate neo-liberal agendas (Bolin and Ståhlberg, 2010) and marketisa-
tion of national identity, I would like to highlight here that I am against neo-liberal
marketisation of every aspect of public policy or field. I am, however, in favour of
modern economic nationalism. While this study attempts to reveal the construction
of national identity, indirectly this research is a personal quest to understand
changes to my own national identity. While the Polish technocratic class (Hardy
and Clark, 2005) and their policies of ‘capitalism without a human face’
contributed to the biggest wave of migration from Poland, nation branding concep-
tualists imply that, myself as an expatriate, should be a ‘brand ambassador’. I was
 Introduction  15

intrigued by this redefinition of my relationship with the Polish state. I was keen
to better understand what narrative of Polishness I was expected to present to the
world and assess whether I agree with it.
As far as my political worldviews are concerned, I define myself as a political
liberal; a social-democrat with regards to economics issues; and a conservative as
far as social matters are concerned. Like Bourdieu, I was educated and raised with
republican values where history and tradition played a greater role in the forma-
tion of national identities than a business ethos. Unlike Bourdieu, however, I grew
up in a state dominated by an authoritarian regime. I belong to the generation of
Poles which has experienced systemic social changes. However, throughout my
schooling (1994–1998), I was neither subjected to business classes nor marketing
courses. On the contrary, within my social networks, marketing practice at the
time of my education was considered as shallow, and marketing careers as
second-rate. When I entered the University of Wrocław, it was clear that the rising
popularity of marketing in Polish academia was a sign of advancing neo-liberal
hegemony.
The social class also plays a role in this research. Schwartzmantel (2006, p.
250) notes how socialist versions of nationalism were embedded in national
cultures. After the Second World War, the Polish state favoured ‘socialist nation-
alism’. Indeed, my parents adopted certain aspects of ‘socialist living’ (e.g.
popular culture, aesthetics) but within my family network the imposition of neo-
liberalism and re-introduction of democracy in Poland in 1989 triggered new
reflections on Polishness. Capitalism allowed me social mobility, but this has
happened at a cost. My sedimented class legacy merges with certain pre-under-
standings of Polishness, including: political history of Poles, Catholic aesthetics,
republicanism, and traditionalism. Regardless of those, and other cultural bonds,
I decided to reject the Polish capitalism, and in 2003 I settled in England. In my
experience, the English version of ‘professionalising’ neo-liberalism encouraged
my reflection on this version of globalising political economy. While I declare
Polish roots and admiration for European cultures, my residency in Britain has
led to renegotiation of my national identities; it has opened up new avenues of
thinking about the contemporary Poland, its reputations and the position in
Europe. Moreover, my residency in England also developed a sense of resistance
against the reification of collective identities that had been reinforced by
Thatcherism. The exposure to ‘English living’ has put my relationship with
Poland into a new perspective thanks to which I better understand the
Westernisation of Poland.
Importantly to this study, my academic habitus has been predominantly formed
by my parents, teachers at the K.K. Baczyński High School in Wrocław, Wrocław
University, and my professional life at Bournemouth University, UK and the
Sorbonne, Paris. Formally speaking, I am at the beginning of my academic career.
In my practice, I aspire to take a critical view on corporate communications and
consider its socio-political contexts and ideological features. Likewise, this
research does not serve any political agenda; it has neither been financed by any
government nor interest groups. Its direction has been shaped by a motivation to
16 Introduction

develop research skills and explore ways in which Poland’s soft power is used to
articulate its new collective identities in a global society. While those motives
drove my curiosity, at this point, the relationship with my academic institutions
and department requires considerations as reflexivity ‘constantly assesses the
relationship between “knowledge” and the ways of “doing knowledge”’ (Calás
and Smircich, 1992, p. 240). By now, I have worked for three academic institu-
tions, each of which is based in Europe. All academic institutions have the ability
to exercise their ‘pedagogic power’ and shape research directions. Senior
colleagues who provided guidance on this study used Socratic approach: they did
not imply a selection of a framework or methodological approach of this study,
but questioned my thinking on the subject. This study is autonomous in design
and does not conform to specific agendas. If anything, it is an academic
‘commentary’ on contemporary Poland.

The curtain goes up: overview of the ‘acts’

This monograph is a contribution to the post-Kleinian (2000) tradition of
commercial branding that triggered a body of academic works exploring cultural
and ideological notions attributed to branding practice. The next chapter unfolds
taxonomy used in nation branding, reveals existing conceptual debates and
discusses empirical research on nation branding. Chapter 2 develops the concep-
tual framework for the empirical part of this study and introduces relevant
theories explaining the relationship between nationalisms, media, power and
globalism. Throughout this chapter I also present an outline of Pierre Bourdieu’s
concepts guiding this study. Chapter 3 reveals the condition for institutional
changes to Poland’s soft power and reasoning for studying nation branding in
Poland whereas Chapter 4 maps out the structure of the field in which nation
branding was enacted. Chapter 5 discusses habitus of actors engaged in perfor-
mative discourse of nation branding and explains ways in which it translates to
action in the field. Chapter 6 unpacks emic findings and discusses economy of
practices in the field. Chapter 7 reports branded narratives of Polishness produced
by nation branders and Chapter 8 provides an epic analysis of nation branding and
discussion. Concluding this study, the final chapter presents the consequences of
the imposition of nation branding within the Polish state structures, offers an
update on the field, and provides a commentary on its consequences for soft
power. The conclusions also discusses the potential for further research in the area
of nation branding.
Finally, I would like to make a note on the language used in this book. This is
both a warning to the readers and an introduction to the palette of linguistic
flavours accompanying reflexive approach to IR. Among the linguistic tokens
frequently occurring in this book are signifiers such as ‘structuring
structures’;‘structured structures’ ‘field’; ‘habitus’; ‘praxis’; and ‘praxeology’.
Given that academic discourses have the ability to shape meanings, at the outset,
I would like to disclose that throughout the writing stage, I aspired to remain
faithful to academic and professional discourses informing this book. Given that
 Introduction  17

this study draws from different strands of scholarship, the taxonomic complexity
at times has been challenging to overcome. In the findings and analysis chapters,
I have attempted to use the language as close as possible to the one used by my
participants. Outlining the conceptual framework for this study has been done in
a similar way. Throughout the part devoted to Pierre Bourdieu’s features of this
study, I have, however, attempted to reduce his verbosity wherever possible.

Notes
1 Chong and Valencic (2001) refer to the body of academic works that examines the
importance of images in International Relations scholarship. They include a body of
literature explaining the significance of images and long-lasting reputations in foreign
policy. Among them are: Jervis (1970), ‘Thelogic of images in international relations’;
Brecher (1974), ‘Decisions in Israel’s foreign policy’; Jervis (1976), ‘Perception and
misperception in international politics’; Jervis, Lebow and Stein (1985) ‘Psychology and
deterrence’; Vertzberger (1989), ‘The world in their minds: information processing,
cognition and perception in foreign policy decision making’; and Mercer (1996),
‘Reputation and international politics’.
2 Gilboa (2000) provides categorisation of public diplomacy specialisms:‘media diplo-
macy’, where governmental officials use the media to promote conflict resolution;
‘media-broker diplomacy’, where journalists temporarily assume the role of diplo-
mats and serve as mediators in international negotiations”. His work on public
diplomacy recognises even more terms appearing in the literature:‘teleplomacy’;
‘photoplomacy’; ‘sound-bite diplomacy’; ‘instant diplomacy’; ‘real-time diplomacy’;
‘television diplomacy’, or the ‘CNN effect’. A starting point in his categorisation is
acknowledgement that public diplomacy has been used as a euphemism for propa-
ganda, but he continues to use the term public diplomacy, as it is rooted in the US
academic tradition. The ‘CNN effect’, initially introduced by Livingston (1997) refers
to the area of foreign policy where the mass media can perform the following roles:
a) accelerate decision-making; b) obstruct foreign policy process; and c) and set the
political agenda. Finally, Seib (1997) offers a descriptive account of ‘headline diplo-
macy’.