This dedicated symposium is part of a broader research programme committed to analysing the interactions between topos (place) and demos (local community) within territorial communication discourses and practices. Adopting a critical perspective, it seeks to examine the social, political, and symbolic conditions under which institutional, media, and citizen actors produce, challenge, or reinvent ways of narrating, representing, and constructing their territory through diverse communicational, political, and media devices (Habermas, 1987; Arendt, 1995).

Contemporary territorial communication policies operate at the intersection of several dynamics: the rhetoric of participatory governance (Blondiaux, 2008; Psylla, 2000), public marketing (Kavaratzis, 2004; Anholt, 2007), the mediatization of local issues and the construction of mediated public spheres (Couldry & Hepp, 2017; Stevenson, 2003), as well as the symbolic production of place (Debarbieux, 1995; Monnet, 1998; Muller & Surel, 1998; Boutaud & Veron, 2007).

By combining these perspectives, the symposium aims to explore the tensions, hybridizations, and reappropriations that traverse contemporary territorial communication strategies. It seeks to open an interdisciplinary dialogue among researchers to analyse the production, circulation, and reception of discourses that shape today’s territorial imaginaries.

I. A Critical Approach to Territorial Communication

This axis invites critical examinations of territorial communication strategies, both from an epistemological standpoint and through the analysis of concrete case studies drawn from diverse European contexts. Case studies are expected to assess implemented mechanisms — strategies, tools, and narratives — as well as the debates and controversies surrounding their definition and application within contrasting political and social environments (Harvey, 2000; Serafis, 2023).

This axis also encourages reflections on how critique and contestation of existing models foster the reappropriation of concepts and strategies in territorial communication. Such dynamics can contribute to the emergence of alternative models aimed at sustaining local activities, strengthening community resilience, encouraging citizen participation, and promoting sustainable development.

Contributions may address place branding policies (Kavaratzis, Warnaby & Ashworth, 2015; Baygert, 2014) and their effects, as well as critical analyses of territorial communication models (Awono, 2015). Papers focusing on citizen-led reappropriation practices and co-construction processes in territorial strategies (Klijn et al., 2012) are also welcome.

II. Consumerism versus Local Culture and Heritage

Drawing on often essentialized representations of culture or heritage, territorial communication may tend to construct an identity “from above,” perceived as artificial or reductive by local communities. This axis therefore invites explorations of how “consumerist” identities for territories are constructed and how these strategies are perceived by inhabitants (Bauman, 2004).

It also aims to question the relationships between public and private actors, which may align or clash in the implementation of cultural or heritage infrastructures and activities conceived within broader development or communication strategies. Contributions examining contemporary forms of (re)invention and transformation of local identities (Debarbieux, 2012) are particularly encouraged. Analyses of heritage-making policies and their effects on communities (Davallon, 2006), territories, and collective imaginaries are also welcome. This axis will further include studies addressing tensions among public, private, and associative actors in the conception and implementation of cultural events and infrastructures (Froment & Salone, 2024).

III. Narrating the Territory: Media and Territorial Communication

This final axis focuses on how media productions contribute to the construction of territories by shaping narratives that influence their perception in the public sphere. It questions how media engage with territorial issues, produce narratives about places, and contribute to building representations and collective imaginaries.

Contributors are invited to examine how media portray the actors, discourses, and dynamics that structure territories. Special attention will be given to how media discourse reveals territorial tensions, discursive oppositions over visions of place, pursued objectives, or circulated images (Hovik et al., 2022; Mitchell, 2003).

Papers may therefore address the narrative and visual mechanisms used in media representations of territory (Raoul, 2020), the media construction of territorial tensions and identities, as well as the collective imaginaries produced and disseminated by media (Noyer et al., 2013).