Promoting the Nation: Between Traditional Values and Economic Arguments
Type
presentation
Date Issued
2011-09-08
Author(s)
Abstract
It is the aim of this paper to examine how the business location Switzerland is promoted in the daily business of the Swiss Office of Commercial Expansion (Osec). I'm particularly interested in a) the discursive strategies through which Switzerland is constructed as a selling point, and b) in how Osec's discourse is performed and adapted to its target audience in order to encourage foreign investments on Swiss territory.
As a reaction to the internationalization and liberalization of the economic markets (Appadurai 1996) and in order to attract new investors, the Swiss Federal Government mandated Osec, a private service provider, with the branding and promotion of the national economy. I thus propose to analyze how Osec and its employees manage to discursively construct and perform Switzerland as a marketing factor (Duchêne 2009) in the context of several consulting activities and other promotional events organized by the institution. My contribution will draw on ethnographic data (observation notes, audio recordings, semi-structured interviews, institutional documents etc.) generated in the framework of an ongoing multi-site research project focusing on three organizations promoting Switzerland.
The ethnographic data allows a close examination of the institutional, historical and socioeconomic conditions of possibility of the discourses on Switzerland. Furthermore, a critical analysis of discourses (textual documents of internal and external organizational communication (Smith 2005, Blommaert 2005)) enables me to produce some knowledge about the strategies, procedures and ideological foundations underlying Osec's promotional and marketing activities which derive from within the logics of a new entrepreneurial culture. Finally, a critical analysis of the discursive construction and performance of Switzerland by Osec, as well as the discussion of the significance of these practices for the promotion of the country as a business location, highlight the emerging tension between traditional identitary values and the economic potentiality of Switzerland in hyper-modernity, both aspects being subjected to commodification in the promotional discourse of Osec (Duchêne & Heller in press).
As a reaction to the internationalization and liberalization of the economic markets (Appadurai 1996) and in order to attract new investors, the Swiss Federal Government mandated Osec, a private service provider, with the branding and promotion of the national economy. I thus propose to analyze how Osec and its employees manage to discursively construct and perform Switzerland as a marketing factor (Duchêne 2009) in the context of several consulting activities and other promotional events organized by the institution. My contribution will draw on ethnographic data (observation notes, audio recordings, semi-structured interviews, institutional documents etc.) generated in the framework of an ongoing multi-site research project focusing on three organizations promoting Switzerland.
The ethnographic data allows a close examination of the institutional, historical and socioeconomic conditions of possibility of the discourses on Switzerland. Furthermore, a critical analysis of discourses (textual documents of internal and external organizational communication (Smith 2005, Blommaert 2005)) enables me to produce some knowledge about the strategies, procedures and ideological foundations underlying Osec's promotional and marketing activities which derive from within the logics of a new entrepreneurial culture. Finally, a critical analysis of the discursive construction and performance of Switzerland by Osec, as well as the discussion of the significance of these practices for the promotion of the country as a business location, highlight the emerging tension between traditional identitary values and the economic potentiality of Switzerland in hyper-modernity, both aspects being subjected to commodification in the promotional discourse of Osec (Duchêne & Heller in press).
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Event Title
The Sixth International Conference on Discourse, Communication and Enterprise (DICOEN VI)
Event Location
Hong Kong
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
205378