City Diplomacy by Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi

Author:Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030607173
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Urban Entrepreneurialism: Mayors as Entrepreneurs

The spread of economic city diplomacy largely depends on its inclusion, by elected officials, in the local political priorities.

In particular, impactful economic city diplomacy has often emerged as a consequence of a new approach to local economic development implemented by many mayors and characterized by a proactive, risk-taking attitude toward the international market, namely regarding the attraction of capitals, people, and ideas. This political focus on the global positioning of the city and on supporting locally produced goods and services has led to the definition of mayors as “city entrepreneurs,” whose attitude goes by the term of “urban entrepreneurialism” (Brenner 2004; Acuto 2013).

This trend has deeply impacted city diplomacy, notably through the multiplication of entrepreneurial missions in friends cities—with the mayor acting as the head of local intrapreneurs’ delegations—and the mayor’s participation to business forums both at home and abroad (Stren and Friendly 2019).

In the search for the best conditions to enable this approach, many cities in the Global North took the decision to enhance the local economy through bilateral and multilateral partnerships with cities in other high-income, or fast-paced economies (e.g., China, Singapore, the Gulf monarchies, Brazil), sometimes to the expenses of existing partnerships with the least developed countries.

Moreover, just like in the other dimensions of city diplomacy, the success of the economic one largely depends on the municipality’s capacity to empower local stakeholders and reinforce their international remit. To harness the full economic potential of a city, the World Bank highlights the role of the “mayor’s wedge” in making economic development a local priority and creating “growth coalitions.” These include local economic actors and other public entities such as neighbor cities,1 regions, and the central government (World Bank Group 2015).

Finally, one of urban entrepreneurialism’s key components consists of city branding, a practice originating from the private sector that cities use to link their perception by external public and actors with a set of unique and attractive assets and qualities. Branding campaigns are generally designed to encompass all economic dimensions of the city by supporting the external visibility of the goods and services, and by making the city more appealing to foreign companies, investments, talented professionals, tourists, and students.

As it will be further expanded in Chapter 8, this practice’s outcome largely depends on the participation of local public and private stakeholders, such as the tourism office, the chamber of commerce, and the cultural and creative industries.

Box 5.1: The Spread of Economic Development Agenties

Over the last few years, a rising number of cities has created economic development agencies to enhance urban economic dynamism and national and international competitiveness by means of strengthened cooperation between the public and the private sectors.

They usually consist of mixed economy companies, supporting the city economy by providing a set of services, many of which related to economic city diplomacy, such as:

City branding;

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