Paper short abstract:

This presentation aims to explore which cultural initiatives Portuguese flag carrier TAP Air Portugal has deployed over the last decade to eventually shift between white (continental) and mixed (Atlantic) representations of being or 'feeling' Portuguese in a postcolonial, global world.

Paper long abstract:

My PhD, which developed research on an intercultural music festival in Lisbon, confirmed Bela Feldman-Bianco's contention that Portugal's 'metamorphosis' into a modern European nation - when it became an EU member in 1986 - not only recreated old imageries of universal Atlantic vocations, but also disguised its former colonial bonds between race and nation by promoting Portugal as a white, homogenous country. This awareness, combined with the idea of the CPLP-Community of Portuguese-Language Countries, founded in Lisbon in 1996, inspired me to analyze current strategies used by players in the field to both deconstruct and resignify European post-empires as potential places of hope. In this presentation, I focus on Portugal's flag carrier TAP Air Portugal, which has arguably played a central role in the construction of Portuguese cultural identity over time. Framing my work conceptually within current debates on the use of social memories and cultural narratives, I aim to shed more light on the ways in which notions of national belonging have come to be used by TAP. My specific objective is to study how over the last decade, this national airline has converted popular representations into a marketing model that extends to postcolonial communities of customers which it aims to both educate and fidelize. Particularly, which visual, sonic and discursive elements have conveyed feelings of hospitality or similar evocations of reconciliation in a postcolonial perspective? Ultimately, I am interested in finding out whether TAP's cultural strategies may eventually promote intercultural understandings, turning the societies it involves more inclusive.