Citizens as problems or resources: power, diplomacy and the contested voice of the nation

Works in public diplomacy, nation branding, and soft power generally disregard conflict and disorder, depicting the relationship between states and citizens as harmonious and productive. This is a relevant blind spot that overlooks several social, political and technological transformations –such as the emergence of digital media– which have destabilised the monopoly of states over the representation and communication of the nation. Actors outside the state nowadays have greater capacity for cultivating and disseminating alternative versions of national identity which may disrupt those produced by authorities. This chapter outlines these transformations, focussing on two areas where tensions between states and citizens are notorious. The first one refers to episodes of protest, when, due to their coverage by different forms of media, the perception of political elites as the main conduit of the national voice becomes unsettled. The second one denotes attempts by authorities to incorporate citizens within processes of national representation and communication, through apparently ‘bottom-up’ initiatives that may cast people as resources or as individuals to be disciplined about their ‘correct’ identities. An acknowledgement of these tensions has relevant implications for the study and practice of public diplomacy and nation branding, opening empirical and normative questions about the role of ordinary citizens in the task of representing and communicating the nation. Moreover, it interrogates the extent to which democratic ideals of participation and representativeness align with a set of initiatives that to date have prioritised the concentration of symbolic power in the hands of the state.