Title: The role of landscape and strategic communication in managing legitimacy between a state and its citizens

Authors: Sean M. McDonald; Simon J. Moore

Addresses: Global Studies Department, Bentley University, 175 Forest Street, Waltham, MA 02452-4705, USA ' Information Design and Corporate Communication Department, Bentley University, 175 Forest Street, Waltham, MA 02452-4705, USA

Abstract: The physical landscape has historically played a vital role in defining a polity to people, but modern states have not adjusted it to the needs of the information age. We argue in this conceptual paper that: (1) Modern states should include landscape when communicating their identity. (2) Landscapes possess an emotional equity that could be magnified by social media and other information age media. (3) History demonstrates that premodern and later states understood the communication power of landscape. (4) A shift from natural landscape to culturally perceived boundaries undermined the legitimacy of many states partly by weakening their identity. (5) A return to historical, often premodern perception of landscape as a communication asset would help states harness landscape's communication power.

Keywords: culture; history; identity; landscape; legitimacy; states; strategy; values.

DOI: 10.1504/EJCCM.2017.084526

European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management, 2017 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.263 - 277

Received: 04 Nov 2016
Accepted: 26 Feb 2017
Published online: 12 Jun 2017 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article