This research article offers a bibliometric analysis of paradiplomacy. The analysis addresses three dimensions. The first characterizes the context of scientific publications on the subject: number of publications, types of documents published, language, and countries of origin of the documents. The second is the impact of these publications: representative authors, concentration of citations by authors, and relevant journals. The third, regarding content, identifies recurrent and emerging issues on paradiplomacy research. A quantitative methodology is used with statistical mechanisms and collection of information in Scopus from 1984 to 2021. It is concluded, among other issues, that, although paradiplomacy is at a time of development and research consolidation, efforts should be made to consolidate specialized media to disseminate articles and to establish networks among paradiplomacy researchers.
Este artículo de investigación ofrece un análisis bibliométrico de la paradiplomacia. El análisis aborda tres dimensiones. La primera caracteriza el contexto de las publicaciones científicas sobre el tema: número de publicaciones, tipos de documentos publicados, idioma y países de origen de los documentos. La segunda es el impacto de estas publicaciones: autores representativos, concentración de citas por autores y revistas relevantes. La tercera, de contenido, identifica temas recurrentes y emergentes en la investigación de la paradiplomacia. Utiliza una metodología cuantitativa con mecanismos estadísticos y de recolección de información en Scopus desde 1984 hasta 2021. Se concluye, entre otras cuestiones, que, si bien la paradiplomacia se encuentra en un momento de desarrollo y consolidación investigativa, se debe trabajar en la consolidación de medios especializados para difundir artículos y establecer redes entre investigadores de la paradiplomacia.
Bibliometrics is considered a methodological structure aligned towards the analysis of information, but it focuses mainly on scientific publications. Some needs and interests for carrying out a bibliometric analysis include the desire of many scientific fields to obtain an overview of the literature (
The concept of paradiplomacy emerges in the 1980s linked to the discipline of International Relations (IR) as a result of political transformations and the progress of the globalizing process. It intends to explain some international dynamics and actions of subnational entities. In the following decades, this type of actions and relationships became more intense, common, and complex, consolidating it as a field of study of IR.
The main objective of the article is to specify, through a bibliometric analysis, the investigative evolution that the concept of paradiplomacy has undergone, since its appearance in the 1980s, through the identification of aspects, such as: behavior of publications annual reports, origin of the articles, authors with the respective level of citation and referencing, establishment of co-authorship networks, journals with the highest frequency of publication of articles on paradiplomacy and the identification of the most recurrent keywords used in the articles.
The relevance and originality of the article rests on the fact that it became the first bibliometric work, with the characteristics described, which presents the investigative evolution of a concept that increasingly obtains both practical and investigative relevance and is positioned as a field of study within of the discipline of International Relations. The article is presented as a contribution to the state of the art on paradiplomacy and the like, which provides, for future research, the identification of research trends on the subject.
This article is divided in four parts. The first provides the conceptual foundations concerning paradiplomacy. The second part details the methodological structure designed to carry out bibliometric analysis: variables analyzed, search formula and sources of information. The third part presents the analysis and discussion of the data collected. Finally, the findings are in the fourth section
The studies that originated the concept of paradiplomacy date back to the 1980s. In
The paradiplomacy concept has experienced great progress in its activities, study, and analysis. Gradually, the academic community has accepted the studies in this field. It has become one of the topics in vogue in the discipline of International Relations which makes it a very wide object of study that can be analyzed from different fields, perspectives, and methods.
Author | Year | Introduced Concepts | Definition |
---|---|---|---|
Duchacek |
|
Paradiplomacy | Only states the concept but does not define it. |
Cross-Border regionalism | Informal partnership processes between provinces or Federated States that share borders. | ||
Global micro diplomacy | Direct contacts between domestic “constituent governments” with foreigners. | ||
|
Cross-Border regional micro diplomacy | Formal and informal contacts conditioned by geographical proximity and by the similarity of common problems and their possible solutions. | |
Transregional micro diplomacy | Connections and negotiations between non-central governments that are not contiguous, but their states are. | ||
Global paradiplomacy | Political contacts of non-central governments with distant nations, not only for trade or business but also for establishing social and cultural ties. | ||
Global protodiplomacy | The external actions of non-central governments of separatist connotations in search of their sovereignty. | ||
|
Cross-Border regionalism | Categorizes them as “paradiplomacy activities” and describes them as correlated concepts but does not define them again. | |
Global micro diplomacy | |||
|
Cross-Border regionalism Regional paradiplomacy | Regional interactions usually between provinces and states, with subnational actors that share borders. | |
Transregional paradiplomacy | More formal contacts between subnational actors that are not geographically neighbors, but their countries are. | ||
Global paradiplomacy | Interactions of subnational actors with their peers from non-contiguous countries. | ||
Protodiplomacy | It applies exclusively to those subnational actors whose international management seeks to generate another sovereign state; a kind of action in the international sphere that seeks to generate a process of secession. | ||
Cross-Border regional paradiplomacy | Contacts of non-central governments with their peers along borders. | ||
Transregional paradiplomacy | Links or contacts of subnational actors with their peers, whose jurisdictions are not continuous, but their countries are. | ||
Global paradiplomacy | Contacts of subnational actors with central governments abroad. | ||
Soldatos |
|
Paradiplomacy | The direct and, in several cases, autonomous participation of Federated units in foreign affairs. |
Global paradiplomacy | The international activity of Federated units when their interest is related to the entire international system. | ||
Regional paradiplomacy | The involvement of Federated units in international affairs of regional relevance. | ||
Macro-regional paradiplomacy | The involvement of subnational actors in matters concerning non-contiguous communities. | ||
Micro-regional paradiplomacy | The international activity of subnational actors is related to geographically neighboring communities | ||
|
Paradiplomacy | The direct activity carried out by subnational actors (federated units, regions, urban communities, cities) supporting, complementing, correcting, duplicating or challenging the nation-state diplomacy; the “Para” prefix indicates the use of diplomacy outside the traditional nation-state framework. | |
Keating |
|
Paradiplomacy | It is a “part of the expansion of international affairs, in which states are no longer the only actors” |
Cornago |
|
Paradiplomacy | The participation of subnational governments in international relations, through the establishment of formal or informal contacts, permanent or ad hoc, with foreign public or private entities, with the aim of promoting socio-economic or political issues, as well as any other foreign dimension of their constitutional competencies. |
Kincaid |
|
Constituent diplomacy | Participation of local and regional governments in foreign policy and international affairs. |
Zeraoui |
|
Parallel diplomacy | International actions of local actors in parallel to state diplomacy. It supports top-level diplomacy and complements its actions at the local level. |
|
Convergent diplomacy | International action of the region complementary to national policy. | |
Mesa |
|
Endodiplomacy | It is a type of paradiplomacy that originates within the states, by their local actors and conducted by them, in order to generate development processes endogenous to their territories. |
Source: (
The foregoing explains what
Concerning the theoretical aspects of paradiplomacy, complex interdependence provides a general basis for it. However, as
Most bibliometric studies are based on studies of content, impact, or context of the particular topic to be analyzed. Therefore, this article proposes an analysis using variables and indicators that combine these three types of analysis.
The context analysis includes variables such as the number of publications, the period for the research consolidation of the topic, types of documents published, countries with the greatest number of publications, number of documents by authors, and languages of publication. The impact analysis is based on indicators such as the number of citations per document, the category of journals where the documents are published and the average number of citations per year. Content analysis is intended to determine research trends and emerging issues through concurrency analysis of keywords. The inclusion of content analysis of scientific texts, such as the identification and classification of keywords, offers the possibility of transcending the analysis towards the identification of research trends and emerging fields in this topic.
The search of the documents was carried out in Scopus. The choice of Scopus is based on the following reasons: it allows searches with extensive temporal coverage. It incorporates advanced search options that allow you to identify aspects such as title, abstract, keywords and content. It is considered one of the most important bibliographic databases, with more than 40,000 peer-reviewed scientific journals. It has a periodic updating system, which facilitates access to the most recent advances in knowledge. Finally, it offers the possibility of downloading the information in CSV Excel format, facilitating the processing of information in tools such as VOSviewer.
The procedure designed for the search and identification of documents included title, keywords, summaries and conferences containing the word “paradiplomacy”.
The term paradiplomac* is used to include the term paradiplomacy or paradiplomacia in the results. No temporality and geographic location filters were applied.
The treatment of the data obtained from Scopus was carried out as follows: these were downloaded in CSV Excel® format, later, the data were loaded into the VOSviewer version 1.6.16® software. The use of this software allowed the graphical representation in networks of normalized concurrence of keywords by means of a similarity index of strength of association, co-authorship of countries and cited authors, previously normalized. The first of these analyzes makes it possible to identify the thematic trends of an area, either over time or according to the degree of centrality and density (
The search was conducted on April 15, 2021 and yielded 186 records between 1984 and the date of search. It included research articles, book chapters, books, and other types of publications. These results are sorted as follows: 136 articles, 25 book chapters, 18 reviews, 1 book, 1 conference paper, 1 erratum, and one note.
English is the main language of the publications with 153 documents, followed by Spanish (16), French (6), Portuguese (6), Slovenian (4), Turkish (1), and Russian (1).
Scopus’s first paper on paradiplomacy was published by
Payanotis
From the late 1990s and the early years of the 21st century, paradiplomacy began to gain research dynamism. In the 2010s and 2020s, an average of 14 papers were published per year. The 2020s represent about 87% of the production on paradiplomacy since 1984.
Most publications on paradiplomacy are concentrated in the Federal States or those with a higher level of autonomy in their subnational entities. This is the case of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Spain. This supports Mesa´s (
Collaborative networks continue to emerge between researchers of different nationalities specialized in paradiplomacy. Relations between the five main nodes (Canada, Belgium, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United States) are sporadic, except in the case of Brazil-United Kingdom and Belgium-Canada, where the strength of the link is greater than in the others. In the latter case, the contributions of Stéphane Paquin stand out.
In the Scopus database, 160 authors have written on paradiplomacy.
Authors | Number of publications | % of total |
---|---|---|
Paquin, S | 10 | 5.5 |
Cornago, N | 4 | 2.2 |
Duran, M | 4 | 2.2 |
Schiavon, J | 4 | 2.2 |
Sergunin, A | 4 | 2.2 |
Albina, E | 3 | 1.6 |
Chaloux | 3 | 1.6 |
Criekemans, D | 3 | 1.6 |
Deforche, J | 3 | 1.6 |
Huijgh, E | 3 | 1.6 |
Joenniemi, P | 3 | 1.6 |
Nganje; F | 3 | 1.6 |
Tatham, M | 3 | 1.6 |
Source: Scopus data
Within this ranking, it is possible to categorize two types of studies among those authors with more than three publications: those who focused on analyzing case studies and those who contributed to the conceptual controversy of paradiplomacy.
The first group includes the contributions of Stéphane Paquin, whose analysis have focused on studying the paradiplomacy of the Canadian province of Quebec and its links with Europe; the contributions of Jorge Schiavon, recognized for analyzing paradiplomacy in the Mexican context and for developing typologies for its measurement; the research of Alexander Sergunin, who has worked on the analysis of the role of Russian subnational actors in the Arctic and Baltic Seas; and the contributions of Manuel Duran, which focus on paradiplomacy in France and in the Mediterranean region.
In the second group, Noé Cornago’s texts stand out. His contributions focus on the “normalization” of sub-state diplomacy and the role of paradiplomacy in matters of conflict and cooperation in the context of the redefinition of international security.
From the 186 documents analyzed, 132 have been cited at least once and 31 of them exceed 10 citations,
Authors’ citations 1986-2010 | Authors’ citations 2010-2021 | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Author | Doc. | Citations | Link Strength | Author | Doc. | Citations | Link Strength | |
Paquin, S | 3 | 39 | 0 | Duran, M | 4 | 15 | 13 | |
Duchacek, I | 1 | 58 | 1 | Cornago, N | 3 | 51 | 10 | |
Eatmon, T | 1 | 8 | 1 | Jackson, T | 2 | 10 | 7 | |
Aguirre, I | 1 | 25 | 0 | Paquin, S | 7 | 32 | 7 | |
Balthazar, L | 1 | 15 | 0 | Tatham, M | 3 | 74 | 7 | |
Boucké, T | 1 | 2 | 0 | Criekemans, D | 3 | 39 | 6 | |
Cornago, N | 1 | 19 | 0 | Lui, T | 2 | 8 | 6 | |
Devos, C | 1 | 2 | 0 | Song, Y | 2 | 8 | 6 | |
Kaiser, R | 1 | 10 | 0 | Nganje, F | 3 | 22 | 5 | |
Keating, M | 1 | 83 | 0 | Setzer, J | 2 | 17 | 5 | |
Michelmann. H | 1 | 8 | 0 | Bursens, P | 2 | 15 | 4 | |
Mingus, M | 1 | 13 | 0 | Cantir, C | 2 | 9 | 4 | |
Mitchell, J | 1 | 17 | 0 | Chaloux, A | 3 | 3 | 4 | |
Pasquier | 1 | 10 | 0 | Deforche, J | 2 | 15 | 4 | |
Rodrigues, G | 1 | 4 | 0 | Dittmer, J | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
Sharafutdinova, G | 1 | 25 | 0 | Ackrén, M | 2 | 12 | 2 | |
Smith, N | 1 | 6 | 0 | Albina, E | 3 | 7 | 2 | |
Soldatos | 1 | 8 | 0 | Huijgh, E | 3 | 15 | 1 | |
Totoricaguena, G | 1 | 7 | 0 | Morin, D | 3 | 4 | 1 | |
Vigevani, T | 1 | 8 | 0 | Poliquin, M | 2 | 4 | 1 | |
Vion, A | 1 | 5 | 0 | Schiavon, J | 4 | 9 | 1 | |
Vos, H | 1 | 2 | 0 | Van den Brande | 3 | 4 | 1 | |
Williams, B | 1 | 6 | 0 | Zamorano, M | 2 | 10 | 1 | |
Xifra, J | 1 | 12 | 0 | Bajc, G | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
Miranda, S | 2 | 3 | 0 | |||||
Santana, C | 2 | 3 | 0 | |||||
Sergunin, A | 4 | 11 | 0 |
Source: Scopus data.
The objects of analysis of International Relations and Social Sciences in general begin as factual facts and phenomena, bursting into social life as new realities, which require to be identified, known, and explained by the sciences. In this sense (
In this regard and based on
However, the second stage (2010-2021), which could be referred to as the discipline consolidation stage (
The total analyzed articles were published in 168 journals. Out of these, 82 have published only one article on paradiplomacy. Four scientific journals have more than 20% of the publications. These journals account for 32.9% of the total number of citations.
The different topics addressed in the studies on paradiplomacy evolved. In the initial phase (1984 - 2009), the concurrence of keywords shows a concentration on topics (
In the stage of discipline consolidation (2010-2021), there are multiple keywords, as shown in
# |
|
|
|
|
|
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
|
15 | 8.9 | 131 | 14.1 | The Netherlands |
2 |
|
9 | 5.4 | 152 | 16.3 | The United Kingdom |
3 |
|
5 | 3.0 | 7 | 0.8 | The United Kingdom |
4 |
|
5 | 3.0 | 16 | 1.7 | The Netherlands |
5 |
|
4 | 2.4 | 9 | 1.0 | The United Kingdom |
6 |
|
4 | 2.4 | 12 | 1.3 | Brazil |
7 |
|
3 | 1.8 | 9 | 1.0 | Slovenia |
8 |
|
3 | 1.8 | 2 | 0.2 | Brazil |
9 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 0 | 0.0 | Colombia |
10 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 13 | 1.4 | Canada |
11 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 12 | 1.3 | Canada |
12 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 0 | 0.0 | Brazil |
13 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 9 | 1.0 | The United States |
14 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 22 | 2.4 | France |
15 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 14 | 1.5 | The United Kingdom |
16 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 0 | 0.0 | The United Kingdom |
17 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 11 | 1.2 | The Netherlands |
18 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 10 | 1.1 | The United Kingdom |
19 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 23 | 2.5 | The United Kingdom |
20 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 1 | 0.1 | Canada |
21 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 0 | 0.0 | The United States |
22 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 13 | 1.4 | The United Kingdom |
23 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 0 | 0.0 | Slovenia |
24 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 1 | 0.1 | The United States |
25 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 21 | 2.3 | The United Kingdom |
26 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 5 | 0.5 | The United States |
27 |
|
2 | 1.2 | 2 | 0.2 | Brazil |
28 | Others | 82 | 48.8 | 437 | 46.9 | Several countries |
Total | 168 | 100 | 932 | 100.0 |
Source: Scopus data.
In the last decade, research on paradiplomacy has had an exponential growth. However, paradiplomacy is still in a development and consolidation stage as a differentiated field of study within the International Relations’ discipline. In order to strengthen it as a subject of analysis, it is required to establish research collaboration network, distinct and specialized publishing spaces, and research groups dedicated to the study of paradiplomacy.
The growth in paradiplomacy publications evidences the amount of activity and dynamism that subnational entities have, under certain limits, to plan, manage, and conduct their relationship with other actors in the international scene. Therefore, as this phenomenon intensifies and generalizes, an increase in research and scientific interest in paradiplomacy is expected.
Currently, articles in scientific journals are the preferred means for communication and dissemination of knowledge. These have a rigorous editorial process and concise documentation aligned to the scientific method. In addition, the scientific journals host the documents in large bibliographic databases that enable their search and dissemination, allow establishing dialogues and discipline debates, and provide spaces to create communities of experts, among others. Therefore, about 74% of research on paradiplomacy consists of scientific articles, followed by 14% of chapters published in research books.
In the paradiplomacy studies, there are two differentiated stages: the initial stage (1984-2009) in which the concept is created and the first ideas on the subject are developed; and the discipline consolidation stage (2009-2021) which provides a more developed and diverse field of study. However, efforts should be made to consolidate specialized means for the dissemination of articles and to establish networks among researchers dedicated to addressing paradiplomacy.
This article derives from the research project: Effects of Internationalization on the Development of Colombian Cities developed jointly between the Tecnológico de Antioquia and the Institución Universitaria Esumer.
It is emphasized, by the author Juan Camilo Mesa Bedoya, that the research for this publication is financed with resources from the National Financing Fund for Science, Technology and Innovation “Francisco José De Caldas”, within the framework of the call to strengthen vocations and training in Science, Technology and Innovation, for economic reactivation in the framework of the post-pandemic 2020, of Minciencias.
Este artículo se deriva del proyecto de investigación: Efectos de la Internacionalización en el Desarrollo de las Ciudades Colombianas desarrollado en conjunto entre el Tecnológico de Antioquia y la Institución Universitaria Esumer.
Se destaca, por parte del autor Juan Camilo Mesa Bedoya, que la investigación de esta publicación es financiada con recursos del Fondo Nacional de Financiamiento para la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Innovación “Francisco José De Caldas”, en el marco de la convocatoria Fortalecer Vocaciones y Formación en Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación, para la reactivación económica en el marco de la pospandemia 2020, de Minciencias.