Changing the perception of the post-socialist city: Place promotion and imagery in Lodz, Poland

Little is known about changing attitudes to place in post-socialist East an d Central Europe (ECE), but place promotion as a key element of local econo mic development strategy is increasingly being adopted there. Given that pl ace promotion has attracted criticism it is important to evaluate its use i n the post-socialist context. This paper presents a description and evaluat ion of place promotion in Lodz, Poland. It outlines the problems faced by t he city, including its poor image, and the organizations, promotional strat egies and imagery which have been developed in response. Place promotion is then evaluated in terms of the ability of the organizations involved to pr oduce a coherent strategy and the suitability of the imagery produced. The paper demonstrates that there are attempts to change the image of Lodz both internally and internationally. However, problems with political collabora tion, strategic objectives and the imagery used suggest that a review of wh ether current place promotion activities are appropriate should be undertak en.