Guillaume Fournier – Urban mobility governance in the smartphone era. Reshaping stakeholder dynamics and platformization of organization

By bursting onto the urban scene, the digital revolution and the democratization of smartphones have led to the creation of mobility offers and services. These are provided by new entrants whose model is based primarily on that of platforms. This phenomenon is disrupting the French model of mobility governance and management, which is organized around concessions and structured mainly around the two players: Mobility Organizing Authorities (AOM) and public transport operators. This research focuses on the effects of these disruptions on mobility governance in French cities, with a particular emphasis on the changing role of traditional mobility operators. Conducted in a consulting firm, a subsidiary of a large urban public transport group, this thesis is based on empirical data and draws on approaches from political science and management science to shed light on the trajectories of traditional actors and the reconfiguration of their interactions in a rapidly changing urban public service. The results of this research show that, despite the disruptions caused by the digital revolution and the democratization of smartphones, the French model of governance and management of urban mobility organized under concession is strengthening around the AOM-public transport operators partnership. However, this evolution is leading to transformations in the governance of urban public services, whose management model is becoming hybridized around already familiar contractual practices and new platform-based approaches.