A highly acclaimed doctoral thesis on regional attractiveness

On 16 September 2026, Bastien Marchand successfully defended his thesis on the future of regional attractiveness in the Anthropocene era, supervised by Diego Landivar (ESC Clermont) and Claude Paraponaris (AMU, LEST CNRS). Carried out under a CIFRE agreement at the consultancy firm AUXILIA, this work offers an original contribution to the organisational theory of capture.

A reflection on the obsolescence of regional appeal

Bastien Marchand examines whether the concept of territorial attractiveness may be becoming obsolete. He traces the emergence of this catchphrase and outlines the approaches and strategies adopted by certain regional organisations to avoid it — to move away from it.

The Anthropocene is wearing down both people and things. Ecological systems are disappearing; infrastructure is faltering; production and consumption processes are in turmoil; and the gap is widening between organisational techniques, strategies and objectives, and the phenomena they are supposed to address.

This formidable wave of zombification also affects the abstract entities that govern and shape us: our ideas, our concepts, our epistemological categories, our myths, and so on.

This is true of the key concepts underpinning local public policy — development, competitiveness, etc. — one of whose manifestations this thesis examines: attractiveness.

The thesis takes obsolescence seriously — a concept that is, of course, contested, open to debate and subject to power dynamics — and which is said to affect a region’s attractiveness today. It provides a clearer understanding of the issues surrounding the following research question: How do organisations created for and governed by a slogan that is losing its appeal attempt to move away from it?

A «subtractive critique»

This thesis discusses the Critical Management Studies (CMS) and contributes to discussions relating to their crisis — in other words, to the critique of the critique.

Noting the limited positive and decisive impact that management critique has on workers’ experiences, some studies argue that it should contribute to the development, testing and dissemination of practical improvements.

Whilst it endorses this notion of the additive nature of criticism, this thesis advocates the perspective of a subtractive criticism. It does not examine the adoption by territorial organisations of alternative concepts — liveability, hospitality, resilience, etc. — but focuses on the way in which organisations seek to distance themselves from the concept of ‘attractiveness’. In this respect, it draws on the recent ‘ecology of dismantling’.

The organisational theory of decision-making

With this in mind, the thesis draws on the theory of the catch, which has its roots in pragmatist sociology and was developed for the study of objects with an uncertain ontological status. This approach has not yet been adopted in the field of organisational studies, despite having been developed over thirty years ago.

The subtractive operation under consideration is formulated in an intermediate form here. What does it mean to adopt a guiding principle, and how can this be implemented at an organisational level?

Beyond its theoretical interest, it is the evocative power of the term ‘grip’ – as in the storming of the Bastille, rock climbing, judo, etc. – that interests the author. This semiotic richness, in turn, points to the strategic possibilities available to organisations.

The thesis thus shows that, in order to move away from this appealing slogan, The organisations under study seek both to exert influence over him, to reduce his influence, and to promote alternative slogans.

An original contribution to management science

The doctoral thesis was praised by all members of the examination board for its academic quality and the strength of its theoretical framework: since territorial attractiveness is an «Anthropocene» zombie idea, organisations built around the agency of this concept must break free from it and abandon it.

The jury highlighted a a substantial and original contribution to management sciences, offering an organisational theorisation of the concept of ‘prise’. The richness of the data collected, the rigour of the methodological approach, the depth of the theoretical grounding and the strength of the writing all bear witness to genuine intellectual and academic maturity.

The jury also congratulated Bastien Marchand on his proposal for’«subtractive approach», which focuses on ways of dismantling «ideal» entities, is particularly welcome for developing ideas and tools for regional degrowth.

This thesis therefore makes an original contribution to the field of organisational studies. It is notable for its intellectual ambition, which is matched by the scope of the research, the richness of the data collected and the depth of the analyses presented.