Améliorer la qualité de l'air : un objectif ambitieux face à un système public empreint de tensions paradoxales

Air pollution is responsible for many premature deaths each year. Faced with this, local authorities are obliged to work collectively to define and implement strategies and actions in favor of air quality. In other words, local actors are developing inter-organizational relationships as a result of a state injunction. However, these relationships, like territorial management practices, are conducive to the development of paradoxical tensions. We seek to know in what way territorial public actors can develop and manage inter-organizational relations in the face of management paradoxes. This paper presents part of the results of Fiore's (2022) doctoral dissertation work, which is based on a multiple case study with embedded design. Our results indicate that local public actors are constrained in multiple ways and on multiple levels. These tend to accumulate to the point of forming paradoxical tensions. All of these difficulties are finally illustrated through a recursive loop, or in other words, a vicious circle.