Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Through a linguistic anthropological analysis of a corpus of storytelling practices that have emerged from interviews that I conducted with Northern Italian executives (2011–2023), I examine how collective, Made-in-Italy branding identities are (co)constructed and translated through the scalar chronotopic stances that these managers take vis-à-vis both the historicity and the contemporary, artistic uniqueness of their companies. More specifically, I describe how the executives in small Northern Italian family-owned firms use their corporations’ histories to associate moral discourses of cultural values, responsibility, and authenticity with the Made-in-Italy brand. Executives’ narrative shifts translate Made in Italy from a national brand that allegedly represents all goods produced in Italy to more localized, town-based branding identities. To do so, I am inspired by an inter-semiotic approach to translation, one that allows me to study these identification processes from a more fluid and dynamic perspective.
Source: Signs and Society
DOI: 10.1017/sas.2025.14
Author: Sabina M. Perrino
Institution: Binghamton University
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,550
OpenAlex ID: W4410617200