Branding spaces: Place, region, sustainability and the American craft beer industry

The craft beer industry is of increased interest to academics and geographers are beginning to not only chart a "geography of beer"; but also the local economic development implications of the industry. Indeed, we posit that the growth of the craft beer industry resides at the nexus between nature, place, and identity or what we consider an applied geography of growth that is necessarily informed by sustainability and the closely allied geographic concepts of human-environment interactions and place. Further, we examine the branding of nature and place as co-determined spatial mechanisms for market differentiation and economic growth including neo-localism. Specifically, we examine real world examples of authentic branding initiatives that extend from dynamic place-based human-environment interactions that promote the overall sustainability of communities and the craft beer industry. In doing so, we propose an economic development framework based in an applied geography organized around the concepts of place, region, and sustainability. The framework can be used in a variety of economic development contexts and across multiple industries. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.