The city as narrative: Storytelling alternatives to place marketing in the age of VUCA and mediatization
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15633/sce.01304Keywords:
urban narrative, storytelling, spatial communication, place promotion, mediatization of space, media convergence, place identityAbstract
This article reconceptualizes the contemporary city as a narrative ecosystem—a space that not only organizes social functions but also enables the production and circulation of meanings. Building on critiques of territorial marketing and the homogenization of urban space, it develops the concept of the city as both an interface and a narrative sandbox. Rather than treating the city as a brand or a marketable product, the analysis approaches it as a dynamic figure of meaning whose identity takes shape through interaction, ritual, memory, and everyday practice. Drawing on recent research on mediatization, media convergence, and participatory storytelling, the article identifies four key paradigm shifts in urban thought: from product to process, from promotion to relation, from center to network, and from identity to narrative figure. It argues that urban storytelling holds significant potential as a tool for reconfiguring communities, relationships, and meanings within contemporary processes of spatial communication.
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