INTERNATIONAL
CALENDAR
       

Webinar: "Internationalisation and metropolitan spaces"

Introduction

Currently, local policy management and the exercise of the corresponding powers by local government entails the need to build connections with international stakeholders and to incorporate them in this field. In addition, International Agendas are settings for decision-making in which representation, visibility and influence must be put into practice, considering the repercussions and challenges that result from decisions taken in the local sphere.

Nevertheless, in a context with scarce resources and pressing social and economic challenges, external actions cannot be considered a “luxury good” by local government, which, instead, must see this as a robust and effective mechanism to provide citizens with better living conditions. In a dynamic in which large cities and metropolitan areas stand to gain from their participation in the international arena, what can these cities and areas provide global citizenship in return?

The recent changes to the international action taken by local governments envisage simultaneous phenomena, such as the exponential growth regarding their international activism, a change in focus on how local governments relate to the rest of the world—no longer only as cooperating actors (donors or beneficiaries), but as stakeholders involved in the global agenda in every sense—and an evolution on how they relate to the outside world, which is increasingly professional in nature. Internationalization has gradually gained cross-cutting space within the institutional, political and territorial objectives of local administrations, moving towards becoming a strategic action and, eventually, public policy.

Metropolis and “Proyecto AL-LAs” are offering a webinar based on the Metropolis Observatory’s Issue Paper 9 “The Internationalization of Metropolitan Spaces”, to provide local governments with tools on how to build strategic public policy on international action in a metropolitan context.

 

Contents

  • Internationalization and public policies
  • Cooperation and international strategies
  • Global impact of metropolitan measures
  • Communication: a key element for public policy legitimization
  • Analysis of internationalization strategies around the world
  • Recommendations for the internationalization of metropolitan spaces

 

Who should attend

  • Local Governments officials (international relations offices)
  • Practitioners
  • Decision makers
  • International relations students and researches

 

Draft programme

Moderation by Octavi de la Varga, Secretary general of Metropolis

  • Welcome (4 min.)
  • Introduction by AL-LAs, ¿Why does international action of metropolitan spaces have to be a public policy? (5 min.)
  • Dr. Elham Fakhari, member of Tehran City Council, Tehran – (10min)
  • Ian Klaus, Senior Fellow, Chicago Council of Global Affairs – (10min)
  • Maria Gonzalez, Principal, International Relations, Greater Manchester – (10min)
  • Questions & Answers (15 min.)
  • Conclusions by AL-LAs (4 min.)
  • Closing (4 min.)

 

Specifications

The webinar “Internationalization and Metropolitan Spaces” is open to anyone and completely free. It will take place on the 22nd July, at 3.00 pm (CET), and will be held in English.

All people interested in participating are invited to register here: https://forms.gle/JevxPP5cRdd7HR5y8