Title:

Managing the International Attractiveness of Subnational Territories: A Case Study of the Paris Region in Light of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games

Abstract:

In the contemporary landscape characterized by heightened global competition and imperatives of sustainable economic prosperity, the strategic management of international attractiveness among subnational territories emerges as a pressing challenge. Despite the proliferation of investment promotion agencies (IPAs), a significant research gap persists in comprehending the mechanisms underlying coordination efforts among sub-national territories to strengthen their international attractiveness. The study will investigate the complexities of coordinating international attractiveness efforts within subnational territories and focus on the case of the Paris Region, in light of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Paris Region’s IPA, “Choose Paris Region” (CPR), faces multiple challenges in its endeavor to manage the international attractiveness of the Region: The Paris Region can be characterized by a great diversity of territories and a complex administrative structure. This complexity poses difficulties for CPR when aiming to coordinate the region’s international attractiveness. A further difficulty is the internationalization of places, driving territorial actors to seek to distinguish themselves and develop their own international initiatives.

Therefore, the study will analyze the following research question: How do sub-national attractiveness agencies coordinate international attractiveness actions of sub-territories?

The paper will mobilize a comprehensive theoretical framework to analyze international attractiveness management. It integrates Collaborative Public Management (CPM) as an alternative to traditional models to identify Coordination Mechanisms for effective coordination strategies. The approaches of Inter-Organizational Relations (IOR) will be used to highlight the crucial role of IPAs as pivotal actors in fostering collaborative efforts. Drawing upon a continuum of IOR that characterizes the different types of possible collaboration between organizations, the paper will investigate the connections, positioning, and meta-organizational effects involving various actors and their strategies. Additionally, the study will employ Governance and Territorial Attractiveness concepts to examine governance structures and attractiveness strategies. Place Marketing and Branding theories offer insights into how territories promote their international attractiveness.

For this paper's research design, I will adopt a qualitative case study approach to answer the introduced research question. To examine the complexities of managing international attractiveness in the Paris Region, I created and analyzed a comprehensive database of stakeholders and conducted in-depth interviews with regional and local stakeholders. The first interview took place in February 2024. In total, I aim to conduct 30 interviews.

The stakeholder analysis and the analysis of the qualitative interviews seek to unravel the intricacies of stakeholder relationships, coordination mechanisms, and management strategies employed by regional attractiveness agencies. Furthermore, this analysis could allow for the identification of obstacles and levers encountered in managing international attractiveness, thereby paving the way for future research directions.

First results show the importance of the development of the "Comité des Territoires", serving as a pivotal coordinating body within the CPR agency. This committee serves as a platform for engaging diverse stakeholders, including local authorities, agencies, and urban development authorities, in the coordination of initiatives aimed at enhancing international attractiveness. Furthermore, territorial partners stressed the evolution of the Choose Paris Region agency towards the role of manager of the Region's international attractiveness and its opening up to the territories. Despite criticisms, stakeholders acknowledged the agency's expertise and inclusive approach, highlighting the necessity of its coordination mechanisms. These findings underscore the agency's transformation into a meta-organizational entity dedicated to enhancing regional and territorial attractiveness, thus paving the way for further exploration of effective coordination processes.

Considering these findings, the paper will set a comprehensive research agenda aimed at unraveling the complexities of managing international attractiveness. Key areas of inquiry encompass a thorough investigation of organizational mandates, an exploration of management methods and coordination bodies, and an identification of challenges encountered in the process.

In conclusion, this paper will aim to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on managing international attractiveness in subnational territories, focusing on the case of the Paris Region. By employing a qualitative case study approach and drawing upon theoretical frameworks of collaborative public management and inter-organizational relations, this study seeks to analyze how sub-national attractiveness agencies coordinate international attractiveness actions of sub-territories.

By offering insights gathered from both theoretical analysis and empirical inquiry, this study seeks to inform policymakers and practitioners in subnational territories, ultimately contributing to the advancement of knowledge in the field of public management, territorial governance, and place attractiveness.

698 words

Global crises require increasingly complex policy responses at the local level. Traditional functional differentiation of services is not sufficient to address critical challenges like immigration, climate change, and gender inequity. Local level response to challenges like these require complex policy fields that include critical actors from the nonprofit sector (Stone & Sandfort, 2009).

In US and German cities, integration is coordinated between policymakers, public administrators, and nonprofits. As the needs of immigrants and refugees exist at the intersections of multiple policy domains, the traditional differentiation of services does not support integration. Nonprofits have experience navigating issues caused by functional differentiation (Ferreira, 2014; Will, Roth, & Valentinov, 2018), making them assets to city integration work. Nonprofits are not only implementers of policy designed and assigned by local authorities; their contribution is more diverse and proactive (Salamon, 1995; Salamon & Toepler, 2015; Smith & Lipsky, 1993). However, the exact role nonprofits play in complex policy fields at the local level is not yet established.

This research looks closely at migrant integration as a policy field from a comparative perspective through case studies of Seattle, USA, and Cologne, Germany, utilizing desk research, expert interviews, and ten years of integration council meeting minutes in each city. Comparing migrant integration in two cities that share similar policies while existing in countries with very different immigration and welfare contexts illuminates the scope of local migrant integration work, context specific government and nonprofit cooperation, and policy structures and networks.

Research indicates that migrants who face obstacles due to a lack of citizenship and language barriers depend upon nonprofits to facilitate engagement with receiving society and local governments (de Graauw, 2016; Ramakrishnan & Bloemraad, 2008). In the US and Germany, migrant serving nonprofits have played a key role (Bendel, 2014; de Graauw & Bloemraad, 2017; Levy et al., 2021; Penninx, 2003). As in other fields of nonprofit engagement, the role extends beyond simple implementation of services. The research on integration is diverse, focusing on different policy domains (Korntheuer et al., 2017; Levy et al., 2021; Musterd, 2003) or target groups (Faist, 1996; Viramontes, 2008). Alternately, organized into dimensions or areas relating to citizenship, welfare, and diversity (Caponio, 2010; Freeman, 2004; Garcés-Mascareñas & Penninx, 2016). It is not often described as a distinct local policy field.

The analysis utilizes Stone and Sanford’s (2009) policy field framework combined with Garcés-Mascareñas and Penninx’s (2016) three dimensions of integration to outline the policy field and determine its scope; identify and map which entities influence decisions; and determine how the field structure influenced decision making. The results show that an overlap of the policy domains in each city supports the idea of integration as a distinct policy field. Most local integration policies were instigated by nonprofit organizations and movements, and many now exist as coordinated efforts between local government and nonprofits. In both cities, nonprofits hoping to influence integration policy used their knowledge of the policy field structures to choose the strategy and venue for engagement. These results can be used to determine if the scope of integration policy domains is shared in other political contexts and if similar mechanisms and structures could apply to other emerging complex policy fields.

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