The territorial politics of nation branding: marketing education in the UK and Scotland

This article advances a territorial politics perspective on nation branding, investigating it in contexts where territory and sovereignty are contested and where multiple national communities overlap. Focusing on the UK and Scotland and taking Brexit as a critical juncture in their territorial rescaling, the study examines government-led ‘education nation branding’ initiatives aimed at attracting international students. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of UK and Scottish policy discussions around education nation branding from 1999, when the UK's first education brand was developed, to 2023, the analysis traces the narratives around them and considers if and how these have shifted alongside the rescaling of the UK’s territorial arrangement. Findings point to different and shifting discourses both between and across the UK and Scottish cases, challenging the notion of nation branding as an isomorphic trend. The findings also suggest that territorial politics have a significant bearing on nation branding discourses. Ultimately, the study supports the need to overcome certain binaries in global politics, notably challenging the commonly contrived divide between economy and nation, and domestic and foreign policy.