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Webster, C. William R.; Leleux, Charles
2019 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-190132
The emergence of ‘Smart Cities’ is a contemporary global phenomenon which is closely aligned to a vision of modern technologically advanced sustainable urban environments. However, public policy and academic discourses differ about what constitutes a city that is either ‘smart’ or ‘sustainable’, and assumptions are frequently made about the positive impact of technology and its potential benefit to the environment. Whilst a smart city is not necessarily a sustainable city, the terms ‘smart city’ and the ‘sustainable city’ are increasingly being fused together in the concept of the Sustainable Smart City (SSC). This article seeks to explore the conceptual components of the SSC, with a particular focus on the participatory role of the citizen, where this involves the use of new digital technologies. Conventional eGovernment has tended to focus on service delivery rather than engaging citizens in participatory activity, whilst traditional discourses on sustainability focus on environmentalism rather than broader societal sustainability. Sustainability in the context of the SSC is a much wider concept, where the aspiration is also to improve the quality life by engaging citizens in participatory governance, by co-creating sustainability values, and by developing relationships, trust and sustainable mechanisms for ongoing engagement. In this respect, new digital technology is understood according to its transformational potential and the opportunities which it offers to citizens in delivery of services, meaningful participation and of sustainable societal solutions. This article explores the three underlying conceptual pillars of the SCC, namely insights deriving from perspectives associated with (1) sustainability, (2) new technology and (3) participation, where each of these perspectives offers up its own rationale and institutional logic. Here, it is argued, that whilst practice around SSC’s differs considerably, the ‘real’ SSC stands at the nexus of new technology, citizen engagement and sustainable outcomes.
Jiang, Huaxiong; Geertman, Stan; Witte, Patrick
2019 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-190130
Over the past decade, two dominant perspectives prevail on the governance of smart cities. From a public administration perspective, ‘smart governance’ emphasizes the importance of technology-based tools in transforming government institutions. From an urban planning perspective, the governance of smart cities focuses on the institution interaction with spatial challenges. Within this backdrop, these perspectives can learn from each other to arrive at new transformative smart governance approaches. This paper proposes a specific urban planning perspective on smart governance, labeled as ‘smart urban governance’. It is aiming specifically at the transformative governance of the socio-spatial context of urban challenges associated to smart cities via technological innovations and opening up new possibilities for city transformation. To this end, the meaning of smart urban governance is conceptualized from three dimensions: purposes, components and contexts. Based on a systematic literature review, these three dimensions are integrated into one holistic framework. A case illustration was applied to demonstrate the use and advantages of this framework. From this, this paper concludes that smart urban governance, by explicitly taking into account the specific socio-spatial context, can improve our understanding of the urban challenges associated to smart cities and contribute to its appropriate and ‘smart’ governance.
Moody, Rebecca; Plat, Victor; Bekkers, Victor
2019 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-180090
In this article we confront existing literature on barriers in big data implementation for policy making in municipal governments. We have conducted four cases in a Dutch municipality in which big data is implemented for policy solutions. This has led us to develop a new, comprehensive model which explains which barriers exist while making implementing big data. Dimensions such as the technological, the legal, the informational, the organizational, the ethical and the government-citizen relation dimension will be included in the study. It will be argued that ‘hard’ barriers, such as technological and legal prove to be of far lesser influence than literature suggests. On the other hand, the ‘soft’ barriers such as alignment issues and ethical considerations going further than legal aspects prove to be far more determining barriers for the policy making process in implementing big data solutions in municipal governments.
2019 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-190134
The debate on local governance and urban innovation has recently gained impetus due to the diffusion of the smart city approach. A city can be defined ‘smart’ if it adopts an innovative collaborative governance style to design urban policies aimed at improving citizens’ quality of life and at promoting environmental, economic, and social sustainability.Notwithstanding the fact that civic participation and inclusion should be distinctive characteristics of smart cities, gender inequalities are often disregarded both by academic literature and in the implementation of smart strategies. The paper is aimed at filling this gap by addressing three issues. Starting from a systematic analysis of literature the paper investigates whether, where, how and why gender discriminations could emerge in a smart city. Second, it proposes a set of tools to mainstream gender in smart city governance and possible areas of intervention to reduce gender inequalities in smart cities. Third it tries to identify main theoretical, methodological, and empirical challenges for local administrators that hamper the implementation of gender equality strategies in smart cities.
Ribeiro, Sergio Silva; Rezende, Denis Alcides; Yao, Jingtao
2019 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-190129
Technological and connected modern cities demand effective decisions by managers that are aligned with citizens demands. The strategic digital city that comprises strategies, information, services, and information technology resources can provide the necessary context so that decisions based on evidence are made possible at the municipal level of management. The objective of this study is to propose a municipal decision process model in the context of the strategic digital city. The research methodology employed was qualitative and applied to circumstantial theoretical reality, emphasizing exploratory and descriptive methods aided by bibliographic and documentary survey along with the non-participatory observation of the variables that make up the model. Similar models were identified and analyzed. The municipal decision process in the context of the strategic digital city was built from three constructs: decision, evidence, and strategic digital city. These constructs are interconnected by their thirteen variables, which are related to the conceptual base of the model developed. The conclusion reinforces the importance of using evidence to support the decision process, making it one of the strategic elements for digital cities aiming at improving their citizens quality of life.
2019 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-190128
The purpose of the article is to assess whether smart city projects developed in France represent continuity or a break with the established socio-technical regime of French cities. Our assessment attempts to establish a link between the main socio-technical features of French cities in existing literature and an exhaustive list of “smart city”-labelled projects compiled from twenty French cities. It reveals more of continuity than a break with the urban socio-technical regime generated by these projects. Technologies are not evenly developed along different domains: the fact that the most sophisticated innovations play out in the regulation of networks rather than in e-government reinforces an old two-speed urban modernisation. The mainly technological character of these projects is part of the continuity of a depoliticised strategy for managing technical matters. Co-production opportunities renew a tradition of local management and processing of grievances. Traditional public-private partnerships are only partially modified.
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