Theorizing “value” in sustainable urban branding strategies

While cities are increasingly engaging in planning and branding for sustainability, to date, there has been insufficient attention or scrutiny applied to what these new ends and means are and might need to look like. In particular, little attention has been devoted to reflecting on how sustainability is calling into question our understanding of one of the English language’s most slippery concepts, “value.” The domination of the “exchange value” mindset in the city branding literature, we argue, is hindering the development of place branding as a tool to achieve “sustainability.” Building on the concept of “sustainable development” but recasting it as its own noun by displacing “development,” sustainability is identifying a different end beyond mere increased exchange value as the objective of political economic action.