For the past twenty years, interest groups representing private companies have been (re)structuring their collective action in the cities of Paris and London. These groups are the regional Chambers of Commerce (CCI Paris Ile-de-France, LCCI), regional employers' unions (Medef, CBI) and recently formed groups (Paris Ile de France Capitale Economique and London First). Formerly focused on internal and organizational concerns at the local level, these groups are now publicized, assertive, and speak with an unprecedented voice: at the regional metropolitan level.
Our work is based on two lines of inquiry.
On the one hand, research on collective action by businesses is marked by a debate that questions the idea that collective action by general economic interests is necessarily politicized. Some authors show their inability to build lasting collective action to exert influence, as this interest is "naturally" marked by the logic of collective action based on membership (Olson 1971).
On the other hand, the reference scale for this collective action—the metropolitan region—poses a problem insofar as its governmental and institutional base is unclear (Ile-de-France region, Greater Paris metropolitan area?) or relatively recent and weak in terms of power (London and the GLA) (Jouve and Lefèvre 2004).
Our research therefore attempts to answer the following question: Does the (re)structuring of collective action by economic interest groups in London and Paris Ile-de-France aim to influence its political environment? If so, how can we explain the choice of the metropolis as the spatial scale for this restructuring?
By retracing the history of these groups' collective action (part 1), studying their internal and external operating logic (part 2), and showing that they represent the specific interests of the companies driving globalization (part 3), we argue that these groups are developing a genuine strategy of influence.
Using the example of transport in particular, we show that the metropolis is one of the scales of their space of dependency (Cox 1998), but also that this space is multi-scalar. As a result, the metropolis appears more as their new space of engagement (Cox 1998). This specific economic interest finds here the means to synthesize all of its scales of dependence: from the local to the global. Defense on Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Doctorate: Spatial Planning, Urban Planning
Case studies:
Ile de France, Greater London
Year of thesis registration:
2008
Doctoral school:
VTT – City, Transportation, and Territories