Ismaïl Hamoumi – The institutionalization of the smart city: public entrepreneurs, interstices, and the circulation of models

The thesis analyzes how the "smart city" is becoming institutionalized within French local authorities. It draws on the concepts of local public entrepreneurship, interstices, the circulation of models, and translation. It focuses on three different areas: La Rochelle, a medium-sized city; Paris-Saclay, part of a metropolis; and the Communauté de Communes du Pays Haut Val d'Alzette, a rural area on the border with Luxembourg. Across all three areas, there is a clear quest for existence on the part of the departments in charge of information systems. Their directors, who are effectively local public entrepreneurs, sometimes working with elected officials, play a pivotal role: they take advantage of institutional gaps to experiment locally with socio-technical systems (urban data platforms, digital services) and strive to interest other local actors in these digital innovations, thereby strengthening their own local authority. These initiatives do not arise in a vacuum: national and European funding is essential, as is the presence of various advisors and consultants. These localized projects are thus part of a dynamic and sometimes contested circulation of various public and private models. In all cases, the crystallization process that leads to the commoditization of the "smart city" is the result of a long process of repetition, displacement, and extension.