The making of an international city: human capital, social geography and public policy

Most people when they think about what makes a city an international city would first identify a certain number of structures-usually linked to international mobility, such as an airport, or to international tourism and prestige, such as a museum, a landmark building or a cultural event-that would quality a city as being an international city and/or a concentration in economic capital that is usually associated with globalized economic exchanges. Less attention has been given to the actual people who make a city international, that are to the people who are participating in a social space in which a certain number of their sociological characteristics are pertaining to knowledge, expertise and practice about the international. This presentation will concentrate on three different models of international city-Brussels, Geneva and Oslo-and illustrate how each provide a certain way to understand what makes an international city via the people that constitute it.

Each of the aforementioned cities possesses a large contingent of individuals working in international related companies, organizations and institutions, so the questions the presentation will principally concentrate on is about how to offer a sociological reading of what international cities are by engaging who are its actors in the "international" sector (i.e. IOs, IGNOs, national organizations pertaining to international dimensions, etc.). The presentation will also reflect about the possibility to offer a method to compare between cities, and to establish what are the hierarchies, strategies, legitimacies at work, via which actors, and how they are sought, developed, designed, etc. This will lead on a discussion about the public policies linked to the development, management and design of international cities by reflecting on four processes-professionalization, geographic concentration, private connections and international circulations-which form the core of the "international capital" possessed by individuals constituting the international city.