1st Edition
Branding Berlin From Division to the Cultural Capital of Europe
This book is a cultural history of post-Wall urban, social, political, and cultural transformations in Berlin.
Branding Berlin: From Division to the Cultural Capital of Europe presents a cultural analysis of Berlin’s cultural production, including literature, film, memoirs and non-fiction works, art, media, urban branding campaigns, and cultural diversity initiatives put forth by the Berlin Senate, and allows readers to understand the various changes that transformed the formerly divided city of voids into a hip cultural capital. The book examines Berlin’s branding, urban-economic development, and its search for a post-Wall identity by focusing on manifestations of nostalgic longing in documentary films and other cultural products. Building on the sociological research of urban branding and linking it with an interpretive analysis of cultural products generated in Berlin during that time, the author examines the intersections and tensions between the nostalgic views of the past and the branded images of Berlin’s present and future.
This insightful and innovative work will interest scholars and students of cultural and media studies, branding and advertising, urban communication, film studies, visual culture, tourism, and cultural memory.
Introduction Part 1 – A Cultural History of Post-Wall Berlin 1. From Utopian Longing to Nostalgia for Babylon 2. Post-Wall Berlin Documentary Films Part 2 – Transformations in Berlin’s Topography (1990-1999) 3. Urban Space 4. Berlin Babylon Part 3 – Transformations in Berlin’s Symbolic Economy and Branded Identity (1999-2009) 5. Branding, Creativity, and Diversity 6. In Berlin Part 4 – Nostalgia for Babylon (2009-now) 7. Nostalgia, Longing, and Identity 8. Der Weg den wir nicht zusammen gehen 9. Mauerpark Conclusion
Biography
Katrina Sark is an associate professor in the Department of Media, Design Learning, and Cognition at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU). She specializes in cultural analysis, cultural history, media, gender studies, fashion studies, sustainability, and decoloniality. She is the founder of the Canadian Fashion Scholars Network, and the co-founder of the Urban Chic book series. Copenhagen Chic: A Locational History of Copenhagen Fashion (2023), Montréal Chic: A Locational History of Montreal Fashion (2016), and Berliner Chic: A Locational History of Berlin Fashion (2011). Her other publications include the edited volume on Social Justice Pedagogies (2023), a special issue on Ethical Fashion and Empowerment in Clothing Cultures (2021), as well as contributions in Cultural Topographies of the New Berlin (2017) and World Film Locations: Berlin (2013). She is the host of Chic Podcast, dedicated to fashion, design, culture, sustainability, decoloniality, media, and technology.
