Bringing the City Back In: Three Scandinavian Capitals and Eurocities Membership: A Quest for Autonomy

Abstract

Cities are international actors. In the past 10-20 years researchers have started to speak of a ‘foreign policy’ for cities. This is in many ways a paradox as most cities are contained within a state. Foreign policy has long been a state prerogative. Admittedly, international cooperation and interaction between cities has a long history, yet researchers argue that we now see something new: The rate at which new cities are engaged internationally differs, and the shape that this takes is changing. While city-to city cooperation used to be the preferred form of international city engagement, the main channel today is that of Transnational Municipal Networks (hereafter TMNs). These are networks of cities cooperating across state borders. Thus, what we have seen in the past 10-20 years is that cities are becoming more organized in their international efforts. This dissertation investigates cities’ engagement in TMNs. The purpose is to understand more clearly why and how cities participate. This is carried out, first by looking into their rationale for participating in the TMN and what they seek to achieve by doing so. Second, the specific configuration that this takes and the organizational elements of these forms of cooperation are studies. Further, the thesis investigates how these questions relate to the concept of autonomy asking: “How can cities’ membership in a TMN can be understood as a search for autonomy?” This is broken into two questions: 1) Why do cities seek autonomy through TMNs? 2) How can TMNs can enhance cities’ autonomy? These questions are examined by focusing on three case cities that are all Scandinavian cities: Copenhagen in Denmark, Oslo in Norway, and Stockholm in Sweden. The three cities are members of the European TMN, Eurocities. The research questions are addressed in three research articles. Article 1 investigates participants’ reasoning for their city’s membership in TMNs and enquires into the logics behind the participation. Article 2 studies the organizational qualities of Eurocities and how this affect membership behavior. Article 3 studies why cities engage in lobbying towards the European Union (EU) and what affects their choice of lobby channel. Lobbying is only one of several components in TMNs’ activities, yet in the case of Eurocties, it is an important channel for cities that want to influence EU legislation. Another side of TMN membership is the importance of identity formation and legitimation. Some participants do not have clearly stated goals, but they value the internal and external legitimacy that come with TMN membership. Thus, the engagement is not only fueled by a strategic calculus but also by a drive to be where the other important cities are. The overarching argument in this thesis is that cities engage in TMNs in a quest for autonomy, specifically more autonomy in the shape of opportunities. This is understood as autonomy to take on new responsibilities, to perform one’s tasks adequately and handling the new challenges that cities face. The sense of a common fate and a shared responsibility does not necessarily imply that participants always have a clear view of what they want to achieve, but they gain a sense of increased opportunities that may or may not be realized. A TMN like Eurocities is well suited to increase autonomy through opportunities because it does not require cities to cede self-rule while having the resources and organizational capacity to produce change and even address the EU should the member cities wish to do so. Article 2 addresses the specific organizational configuration of a TMN like Eurocities and argues that it may be fruitful to view it as a metaorganization, that is, as an organization with other organizations as members. On a range of parameters, such as structure and membership requirements, meta-organizations lie somewhere in between a network and an organization. For member cities, this is important because Eurocities has a comparatively large secretariat and organizational capacities, while it does not have access to the full menu of sanctions that some organizations do to streamline participation. Therefore, member cities in this TMN may wield their membership in many ways and up- and downscale their activities as and when they like while remaining members. Applying a meta-organizational perspective also helps explain why identity formation plays such an important role in Eurocities.