Proceso productivo de conjunto de pijama para varón

This case study interrogates nation branding in Poland using an exploratory research design that aims to bring different categories of data to reconstruct the field. By definition, a case study is “an intensive examination, using multiple sources of evidence (qualitative, quantitative or both) of a single entity which is bounded by time and place” (Daymon and Holloway 2002, p. 105). Principally, a case study is

concerned with the uniqueness of phenomena under investigation – that is nation branding in Poland. Specifically, qualitative case studies aim to reveal commonalities and differences within the investigated field (Denzin and Lincoln 2008). Sensitive to its features (Stouffer 1941), I consider practices understood as nation branding; the contexts of their enactment (e.g. historical, economic, political, legal, and aesthetic);

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their physical setting; reflect on my findings in relation to other case studies; and involve the respondents through which the case of nation branding in Poland is known.

This outline of case study principles marries with Bourdieu’s epistemology. Bourdieu (1989b, p. 10) explicitly asserts his “absolute rejection to the sectarian rejection of this or that research method”. His methodological polytheism suggests however that method must correspond with the research problem and must be

constantly reflected upon in actu. According to Bourdieu and Waquant (1992, p. 30), in reflexive sociology “one cannot dissociate the construction of the object from the instruments of construction of the object and their critique”. Therefore, this study follows Bourdieusian procedural principles summarised by Grenfell (2008, p. 220):

1. The construction of the research object;

2. A three-level approach to studying the field of the object of research; 3. Participant objectivation.

The first of the above points relates to relational thinking whilst engaged in exploration of nation banding in Poland; the second, includes procedural techniques to do with mapping out the field; its relationship with the field of power; and analysis of habitus. The third point involves consideration of reflexivity as central to

reconstruction of the field dynamics. Done this way, the cross-examination of

qualitative and quantitative data facilitates development of this case study. With this in mind, by exploring discourses and practices of nation branders in Poland, that is the strategies of institutional agents involved in the field, this thesis takes the form of a reflexive and exploratory case study. At this point one clarification ought to be made: I do not define a reflexive case after methodology theorists who tend to describe it as a way of theory testing or hypothesis testing (Yin 2009). My approach to nation

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This case study answers questions about the influence of nation branding on statehood and nationhood as this thesis searches to explore how corporate branding, rooted in promotional culture (Wernick 1991) merges with political agendas and competes with republican (Delanty and O’Mahony 2002), Catholic (Porter 2001) and other types of Polish national identities. Moreover, in this thesis, an ‘exploratory’ analogy (p. 114) refers to the research direction and its rationale (Yin 2009). Enthused by previous critical works on nation branding (Kaneva 2007a; Kaneva 2007b), I extend my investigation into new frontiers. Thus, I do not intend to develop a branding model. Neither, is this a study in macro-marketing. Instead, it is a reflexive study, in the sense that it asks questions regarding merging practices drawn from traditionally different fields. To clarify: this study does not set out to produce a ‘business case’ or ‘marketing case’, many of which exist in a functionalist approach to nation branding (Gilmore 2002; Dinnie 2008). In this study, I merge reflexive and critical

epistemologies, structure-agentic ontologies with a case study design.

Principally, the case study design serves as the operational fieldwork and analytical structure. In the effort to explore the Polish case of nation branding, this thesis is underpinned with four main guiding principles. First, it is a single case as it is concerned with the uniqueness of the research settings – Poland as a site of

engagement with nation branding. Second, it is a unique case in the sense that it is sui generis of only one setting. Third, by drawing from different data, it takes a multi- dimensional approach to design. Finally, because of the complexity of the social space it aims to explore, it adopts a latitudinal approach (Yin 2009). It explores material and symbolic relationships between agents engaged in nation branding in Poland.

As aforementioned, research feasibility has played its role in developing a research design. On the whole, the achievability aspect has reinforced undertaking of a case study design. Among academic reasons contributing towards adopting this

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variety of methodologies. While feasibility is crucial to accomplishment of this study, its design enables consideration of the world-lives of the informants. As with most case studies, I draw from triangulated sources of data (Denzin and Lincoln 2008). The complexity of case studies matches the epistemological assertions of the conceptual framework (Stake 2008). As it stands, exploratory case studies, aspire to distance themselves from preconceived notions. This largely ethnographic notion is emphasised by case study theorists (ibid. 2008) who point out the differences between building cases by searching particular types of data and considering versatile world lives. This design concern has been captured by Malinowski (1984, p. 9):

...preconceived ideas are pernicious in any scientific work, but

foreshadowed problems are the main endowment of a scientific thinker, and these problems are first revealed to the observer by his theoretical studies.

Indeed, this was a mindset accompanying the design of this study and one that matches the Bourdieusian notion of reflexivity. It was intended to search for all types of

perspectives on nation branding in Poland - accounts of those who agree with nation branding claims and those who express resistance to it.