The Attractiveness Myth

Michel Grossetti & translated by Oliver Waine — 2024-06-11T05:00:00Z

Drawing on more than a decade of research, Michel Grossetti debunks theories suggesting that cities have the means to attract “innovative” businesses and “creative” workers.
For elected officials and their advisers, the attractiveness of the territories they represent—whether a city, a region or a country—has become a constant concern. They have to attract companies, business activity, executives, entrepreneurs, students—in short, everything that is supposed to contribute to economic growth

- Essays / attractivité, métropolisation, mobilité résidentielle, développement

In the Name of Metropolitan Attractiveness

Clément Barbier & translated by Oliver Waine — 2023-12-08T06:00:00Z

By comparing two urban renewal projects in Lille and Hamburg, Clément Barbier shows that the staging of attractiveness by local authorities contrasts with their powerlessness to attract businesses and new residents, and that this policy is not without effects on the working-class areas concerned.
Since the early 1990s in Europe, the injunction to promote “territorial attractiveness” seems to have become widespread at all levels of government. In several conurbations, including Lille (in

- From the Field / attractivité, politiques territoriales, renouvellement urbain, métropole, projet urbain, quartiers populaires, Hambourg, Roubaix, Lille, Tourcoing

Metropolitics

The Attractiveness Myth

In the Name of Metropolitan Attractiveness