Mg.sc.soc. Lolita Ozoliņa – Guest Researcher

Lolita Ozolina is a PhD student and lecturer at the Latvian Academy of Culture and a guest researcher at the University of Latvia Livonian Institute. Her academic interests are related the sustainability issues of the place branding and its multilateral integration of the community-based and land-based sense of place – how the manifestations of multifaceted practices of the intangible cultural heritage and its contemporary forms provide sustainable and authentic narratives of the self-identification within the cultural landscape?

“The concept of place brand identity in the majority of cases of place brands in Latvia is demonstrated by visual and verbal decorativeness and a lack of sustainable narration. The challenging issue is identifying the necessary place-identity attributes and engaging residents in the process of co-creating their place’s brand, in order to develop an identity that is credible, competitive and sustainable in the minds of the stakeholders it serves.”