GEOPANDERING

Abstract Postage stamps are information products of a state that reflect how the state wishes to present its place in the world. Two changes in stamp production may affect this self-presentation. “Geopandering” (place manipulation) is an extreme form of self-promotion. Stamps of many small and relatively poor sovereignties account for most geopandered stamps, which have little or nothing to do with the sovereignty’s culture, history, or place in the world. Driven by the profit motivation to produce stamps for a worldwide clientele of collectors, these stamps serve as a source of revenue that is contractually shared with the private sector company that designs, produces, markets, and/or distributes them. A second construct is “hypernationalism,” which refers to an extreme focus on indigenous themes, people, places, and events with less concern about the intrinsic appeal of these stamps to worldwide collectors. More benign forms of hypernationalism are nothing new. Most stamps issued before the 1960s were of this type—celebrations of domestic achievements, events, and personalities that served both educational functions and “banal nationalism”—an often taken-for-granted and overlooked means of reinforcing patriotism and loyalty to the state. We illustrate the concepts of geopandering and hypernationalism using examples of stamps from different countries.