CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2013
| Author | Crowley, Neil Colin |
|---|---|
| Title | More Armenian Than Armenian: Diasporan Tourism Programs and the Rebranding of "Armenia" as Transnation |
| Summary | The following research aims to investigate how “Armenianness” is being redefined and rebranded through diaspora tourism programs – through the consumption of space to create a new narratives that include stronger connections between the Diaspora and the Homeland. In the first theoretical section I provide the theoretical framework, outlining the three major tenets of the project at hand – national identity construction, nation branding theory, and tourism and diaspora tourism. In the second theoretical section the modern (and arguably postmodern) environment of diaspora is discussed, focusing on the tandem growth of technology and diaspora and the role of choice present in sufficiently multicultural/pluralistic societies. A chapter is dedicated to the genesis of the Armenian Diaspora, and the relations with the Homeland of the Republic of Armenia, that discusses the narratives of both and the divides that still play an integral role in understanding the “Armenian nation” today. I examine in detail the representations of Armenian identity in diasporan tourism program literature available to prospective participants, using Birthright Armenia as a case study, through critical discourse analysis. The conclusions of which suggest that the branding narratives of Birthright Armenia seek to not to brand Armenia with the immediate goal of being competitive, but to create a new “Brand Armenia” that removes the negativity of the current narrative by supplanting it with a new narrative of the Armenian transnation in which both members of the Diaspora and the Republic are enfranchised. |
| Supervisor | Miller, Michael Laurence |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2013/crowley_neil.pdf |
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