Brand Europe? An analysis of the interactions between brands, media and national cultures

This thesis examines the inter-connected relationships between global brands and Brand Europe and the relationship between the European Union and the complicated processes of globalization. By focusing on a case study of the operation of brands in the European Union, the thesis explores the relationship of brands to neoliberalism and how the global balance of global production, marketing and consumerism is shifting. These issues are examined through the creation of 'Brand Europe', which seeks to articulate the EU's historical development, its gradual expansion, formalization and the cultural and political relationship of Europeans to the broader political entity of this union. The thesis argues that Europe's brand is one that has developed over time and not imposed by the process of integration. Facets of the brand such as its strong social welfare focus are common and integral throughout all nations of the EU, forming part of the common cultural beliefs of these nations and now integrated into the socio-political framework of broader European government. More broadly, the thesis examines how globalization affects the European Union's identity and how this works with its own socio-economic and political duality. It argues that the process of market integration through reduction of internal trading barriers, combined with its framework of worker protection and social welfare, creates a scenario that seems to contradict traditional market-driven, neoliberal theory. At the same time, the process has also generated a closed system of free trade that uses economic mechanisms to close out global free trade, commonly referred to as 'Fortress Europe'. The thesis argues that these seemingly contradictory tendencies are to some extent reconciled through the mechanism of branding, which seeks to promote the most advantageous aspects of the system while obfuscating its less desirable attributes.