ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

Press and social media as a relay for municipal action: building an argument and taking action to regulate the last mile of delivery in Paris

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 04 | GOVERNANCE

Speaker

Mr Pierre-henri BESNARD (Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, ED VTT, LVMT)

Description

For about twenty years, the last mile of delivery has become a category of public policy in Paris. The left-wing coalition (socialist, environmentalist and communist) currently in power in the French capital has addressed this issue several times during the last municipal term. This is evidenced by two "shock operations" (Halpern, 2020) that this paper examines. On the one hand, between 2020 and 2023, the arrival of quick-commerce players in Paris triggered a strong reaction from the municipality. Indeed, the rise of dark stores, small opaque warehouses designed for the ultra-fast delivery of consumer goods, led the city to launch a crusade against this new iteration of the digital economy of delivery platforms. On the other hand, in 2024, the city of Paris introduced an experimental Limited Traffic Zone (LTZ) in the Paris Center area (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th districts). By prohibiting through traffic in this area, the implementation of this measure restricted traffic. Logistics companies, merchants, bus operators, motorists and even elected officials have expressed concern about the challenges posed by the introduction of this tool, which already exists in other French cities (Nantes, Grenoble and Rennes) and European cities (notably Milan and Turin).
The most visible manifestations of the construction of the problem around dark stores in quick commerce or traffic restrictions in Paris can be found in the media or on social networks, which act as amplifiers for the elected officials responsible for these issues. In particular, the media echo the threats of a "logistical ubiquity" represented by dark stores or, conversely, the transformation of Paris into a huge restricted traffic zone. These two events are sources of moral panics (Cohen, 2011), which are conveyed by both municipal officials and urban delivery professionals.
From a methodological point of view, this part of the thesis is based on an analysis of different media sources: print media (local, regional and national), digital media and social networks. The study includes an analysis of the discourses and representations conveyed. The whole is examined from a cultural perspective in order to reveal the close links between media, political, and professional arenas (Cefaï, 2016). On the social network side, discourse analysis combines narrative and interactional analysis, focusing on the posts of elected officials, platform workers' unions, and local residents involved in these issues.
Thus, these media phenomena explicitly reflect normative stances and assertions of municipal agency in addressing the intensification of urban logistical mobility (digital platform capitalism and increased circulation). They illustrate the trajectory of a public issue and its management by a coalition of municipal representatives. Moreover, in the background, these discourses show how, by positioning itself as one of the laboratory cities for regulating the last mile of delivery, the governance of this issue polarizes partners (a network of French and European cities) and adversaries (the state, the region, right-wing elected officials, and digital economy players). Similarly, a few years earlier (Aguilera, Artioli, and Colomb, 2019), short-term rentals (Airbnb) also served as a battleground, clashing with the policies of Emmanuel Macron 'first as Minister of the Economy, then as President of the Republic.'"

References

Aguilera, T., Artioli, F. and Colomb, C. (2019) ‘Les villes contre Airbnb ? Locations meublées de courte durée, plateformes numériques et gouvernance urbaine’, in Gouverner la ville numérique, pp. 27–45. Available at: https://hal.science/hal-03193222 (Accessed: 12 December 2023).

Cefaï, D. (1996) ‘La construction des problèmes publics. Définitions de situations dans des arènes publiques’. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3406/reso.1996.3684.
Cefaï, D. (2016) ‘Publics, problèmes publics, arènes publiques…’, Questions de communication, (30), pp. 25–64. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4000/questionsdecommunication.10704.

Cohen, S. (2011) Folk devils and moral panics: the creation of the Mods and Rockers. London New York: Routledge (Routledge classics). Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203828250.

Halpern, C. (2020) ‘L’agenda environnemental des municipalités’, L’Économie politique, 85(1), pp. 87–98. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3917/leco.085.0087.

Neveu, É. (2022) ‘Chapitre 5. Populariser. Porter les problèmes vers l’espace public’, in Sociologie politique des problèmes publics. Paris: Armand Colin (Collection U), pp. 161–189. Available at: https://www.cairn.info/sociologie-politique-des-problemes-publics--9782200633301-p-161.htm (Accessed: 19 February 2024).