Are Paris and London condemned to be the subject of competitive comparisons or can they imagine a shared future?
This is the question that Apur and the Sciences-Po Paris MA course “Governing the Large Metropolis” have tried to answer. In the competition between global metropolises, seeing Paris and London no longer simply as competitors but as two cities which could offer each other mutual support by playing up their complementary qualities, opens new perspectives. What are the particular characteristics of this vast metropolitan area, which acts as a benchmark for the large, global metropolitan regions? What do the two cities have in common and in what areas can they feasibly co-operate?
This work was carried out in 2017 within the framework of a partnership between the Paris Urbanism Agency (Apur) and the Sciences-po Paris MA course “Governing the Large Metropolis”. The study presents different areas of possible co-operation between Paris and London, based on a review of the literature and about twenty interviews with public and private key players.
The Paris-London duo is put into perspective by an analysis of three examples of co-operation between large metropolises located in several countries: Hong-Kong-Shenzen-Macao, Seattle-Vancouver, Copenhagen-Malmo.
The study was written in English and presented to the Greater London Authority in June, 2017. The work continues in 2018 with a survey of Eurostar passengers, in partnership with Sciences-po. In terms of mobility, the Eurostar is undeniably the strongest symbol of the metropolitan integration of Paris and London. With 10 million passengers in 2016, it has become a real link between the two cities.
