Nostalgia for the Future: Diversity Branding and the Creation of the Now South

• In Event: 095 - Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Culture and Place Identity

Abstract

This paper explores the marketing strategies used to promote Atlanta as a tourist destination in relation to an increased focus on diversity and a growing Black tourist class. I argue that marketing efforts attempt to individualize historical narratives, while also presenting history in the broadest of terms—a one size fits all approach to history. In the process, paradoxically, development, preservation, and tourism become connected concerns and progress and nostalgia are presented as two sides of the same coin.

Author

• Sara F. Mason, University of North Georgia