Public Participation in Smart-City Governance: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Public Comments in Urban China

Public participation is crucial in the process of urban governance in smart-city initiatives to enable urban planners and policy makers to take account of the real public needs. Our study aims to develop an analytical framework using citizen-centred qualitative data to analyse urban problems and identify the areas most needed for urban governance. Taking a Chinese megacity as the study area, we first utilise a web-crawling tool to retrieve public comments from an online comment board and employ the Baidu Application Programming Interfaces and a qualitative content analysis for data reclassification. We then analyse the urban problems reflected by negative comments in terms of their statistical and spatial distribution, and the associative factors to explain their formation. Our findings show that urban problems are dominantly related to construction and housing, and most frequently appear in industry-oriented areas and newly-developed economic development zones on the urban fringe, where the reconciling of government-centered governance and private governance by real estate developers and property management companies are most needed. Areas with higher land price and a higher proportion of aged population tend to have less urban problems, while various types of civil facilities affect the prevalence of urban problems differently.

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Public Participation in Smart-City Governance: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Public Comments in Urban China

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12208605 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (20) ◽

pp. 8605

Author(s):

Zhe Gao ◽

Siqin Wang ◽

Jiang Gu

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

Public Participation ◽

Smart City ◽

Urban Governance ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Urban China ◽

Private Governance ◽

Negative Comments ◽

Urban Problems

Public participation is crucial in the process of urban governance in smart-city initiatives to enable urban planners and policy makers to take account of the real public needs. Our study aims to develop an analytical framework using citizen-centred qualitative data to analyse urban problems and identify the areas most needed for urban governance. Taking a Chinese megacity as the study area, we first utilise a web-crawling tool to retrieve public comments from an online comment board and employ the Baidu Application Programming Interfaces and a qualitative content analysis for data reclassification. We then analyse the urban problems reflected by negative comments in terms of their statistical and spatial distribution, and the associative factors to explain their formation. Our findings show that urban problems are predominantly related to construction and housing, and most frequently appear in industry-oriented areas and newly developed economic development zones on the urban fringe, where the reconciling of government-centred governance and private governance by real estate developers and property management companies is most needed. Areas with higher land prices and a higher proportion of aged population tend to have fewer urban problems, while various types of civil facilities affect the prevalence of urban problems differently.

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Smart Governance of City’s Culture: Theoretical and Empirical Aspects

Socialiniai tyrimai ◽

10.21277/st.v43i1.300 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 5-19

Author(s):

Rytis Milkintas

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

Theoretical Model ◽

Smart City ◽

Smart Cities ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

General Level ◽

City Management ◽

Cultural Management ◽

Cultural Field ◽

City Culture

The goal of the research is to prepare a theoretical model of smart cultural governance and to evaluate the smart cultural management of Šiauliai city according to it. The background of creating a smart culture governance model is to define the theoretical constructs of smart city and smart culture management by looking for correlations between these concepts in order to closely link cultural management with the implementation of cultural policy in city management processes and to highlight the specifics of smart cultural management. A systematic model of a smart city is formed and presented, of which cultural management is an integral part. The model highlights the links between cultural management and other dimensions of the smart city. The theoretical model of smart culture management, which was adapted to investigate the expression of smart culture management in Šiauliai city, is presented. This kind of research has not been done so far in analyzing smart culture management in Šiauliai city. The need for the research was inspired by culture specialists of Šiauliai City Municipality Administration and heads of cultural institutions. The qualitative content analysis of theoretical sources of foreign countries and Lithuania was conducted as well as in-depth interviews to collect information that was processed through qualitative content analysis and systematized using matrices. The assessment of model expression based on the informants’ attitudes enabled the researcher to draw substantive conclusions.The research is relevant to Šiauliai city culture field institutions (private, subordinate municipality, subordinate to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania), Šiauliai city culture field policymakers. In a broader sense, the improvement in the quality of the intelligent social system highlighted in the study will significantly contribute to the general level of culture in Šiauliai. These positive changes will be experienced by the recipients of cultural services.Further research in the field of smart city cultural management is planned to analyze not only the situation of Šiauliai city but also the cultural field of Lithuania as a whole, in connection with the practices of the international cultural field. It is planned to study the smoothness of the transformation of cultural field institutions, adaptation to smart cultural management, and the emerging challenges. Further research is planned to analyze the scientific studies prepared by smart cities, to look for specific actions highlighted in them, challenges for the cultural sector in adapting to the gradual transformation of cities into smart cities.

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Smart City EU - Lighthouse Projects – Investigation of Economic Benefits

European Journal of Marketing and Economics ◽

10.26417/409ktp52j ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 37

Author(s):

Aik Wirsbinna

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

Cost Saving ◽

Smart City ◽

Economic Benefit ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

Economic Benefits ◽

Or Efficiency ◽

Horizon 2020 ◽

The Eu

The major European Smart City Lighthouse Projects have gained a lot of attention and importance from the designers of Smart City Initiatives (SCI) since 2014. The EU Commission's funding under the Horizon 2020 program is significant. The supported cities include the European metropolises but also several smaller cities. All these cities are repeatedly named Smart City pioneers. However, the research still has a gap when it comes to value generation. This article deals with the economic benefits of these Lighthouse projects. The own developed categories are applied and proved with Lighthouse projects. The range of economic benefits is shown and evaluated using the qualitative content analysis of the data from the EU - CORDIS database. The sustainability in the Smart City Initiatives is showcased as economic benefit is prioritized higher than cost saving or efficiency.

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User Perception of a Smartphone App to Promote Physical Activity Through Active Transportation: Inductive Qualitative Content Analysis Within the Smart City Active Mobile Phone Intervention (SCAMPI) Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.19380 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Anna-Karin Lindqvist ◽

Stina Rutberg ◽

Emmie Söderström ◽

Anna Ek ◽

Christina Alexandrou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Randomized Controlled Trial ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Mobile Phone ◽

Smart City ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Active Transportation ◽

Smartphone App ◽

Randomized Controlled

BACKGROUND Physical inactivity is globally recognized as a major risk factor for morbidity, particularly the incidence of noncommunicable diseases. Increasing physical activity (PA) is therefore a public health priority. Engaging in active transportation (AT) is a viable approach for promoting daily PA levels. Mobile health interventions enable the promotion of AT to a larger population. The Smart City Active Mobile Phone Intervention (SCAMPI) study was a randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the ability of a behavior change program delivered via a smartphone app to motivate participants to increase their PA by engaging in AT. OBJECTIVE This qualitative study aims to examine the acceptance and user experience of the app promoting AT that was used in the SCAMPI trial (the TRavelVU Plus app). METHODS A total of 17 residents of Stockholm County (13 women; age range 25-61 years) who completed the 3-month app-based behavioral change program (delivered through the TRavelVU Plus app) in the SCAMPI randomized controlled trial during 2018 agreed to participate in a semistructured telephone-based interview. These participants were well representative of the whole intervention group (n=127) in terms of baseline characteristics such as age, sex, and area of residence. The interviews were audiorecorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using an inductive qualitative content analysis. RESULTS The content analysis revealed 2 themes and 4 subcategories. The first theme, “main motivators: monitoring and messages,” highlighted that monitoring AT and being able to set weekly goals using the app were the primary motivators reported by study participants. The second theme, “acceptable but modifiable,” reflects that the app was well accepted and effectively encouraged many participants to use more AT. Nevertheless, there were functions in the app that require modification. For example, while the semiautomated travel tracking feature was appreciated, participants found it time-consuming and unreliable at times. CONCLUSIONS This study contributes novel insight into adults’ experiences of using a mobile app to promote the use of AT. The results showed that the app was well accepted and that self-monitoring and goal setting were the main motivators to engage in more AT. The semiautomated tracking of AT was appreciated; however, it was also reported to be energy- and time-consuming when it failed to work. Thus, this feature should be improved going forward. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03086837; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03086837 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR2-10.1186/s12889-018-5658-4

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Avatars of Eurocentrism in international political economy textbooks: The case of the Middle East and North Africa

Politics ◽

10.1177/02633957211054739 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 026339572110547

Author(s):

Hannes Baumann

Keyword(s):

Political Economy ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Middle East ◽

North Africa ◽

International Political Economy ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Other World ◽

The Ideal

The project to decolonise the curriculum revolves around rethinking margin and centre of the discipline. To the extent that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is at the margin of international political economy (IPE), it is the ideal entry point to decolonise the curriculum. I conduct a summative content analysis of the six most commonly used IPE textbooks. To what extent do they reproduce or challenge Eurocentric tropes in their treatment of MENA? The region is largely absent from IPE textbooks, suggesting it is accorded little agency in the making of the global political economy. To the extent that it is ‘brought in’, it is ‘ghettoised’ in a specialist chapter. A qualitative content analysis suggests the authors avoid overt orientalism but exceptionalise the region as a failure with too little democracy and economic growth and too much war. They acknowledge the role of continued colonialism in these failures but also deny agency of the colonised. They miss an opportunity to de-provincialise the Middle East by fostering ‘ecologies of knowledge’. The article provides an analytical framework for research on how IPE textbooks treat other world regions and of syllabi.

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Justification and knowledge

Journal of Asian Pacific Communication ◽

10.1075/japc.00015.mol ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 28 (2) ◽

pp. 323-344

Author(s):

Hamideh Molaei

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

News Media ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

Political Knowledge ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Primary Objective ◽

Media Content ◽

Political Talk ◽

Opinion Expression ◽

High Level

Abstract Everyday political talk, a significant type of political participation, is an important democratic activity. In this regard, the primary objective of this paper is to investigate the level of justification and knowledge in Indonesians’ informal political talk on Facebook. While previous studies addressed different aspects of informal political discussions such as their impact on political knowledge, influence on public opinion expression and relationship with news media use, they do not provide guidelines for analysing the modality of them. This study proposes an analytical framework for examining the users’ level of justification and knowledge. A qualitative content analysis reveals that only a small number of comments had a high level of justification and knowledge. In addition, some indications of the influence of Indonesian mainstream news media content were found on people’s arguments in discussions.

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User Perception of a Smartphone App to Promote Physical Activity Through Active Transportation: Inductive Qualitative Content Analysis Within the Smart City Active Mobile Phone Intervention (SCAMPI) Study

JMIR mhealth and uhealth ◽

10.2196/19380 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (8) ◽

pp. e19380

Author(s):

Anna-Karin Lindqvist ◽

Stina Rutberg ◽

Emmie Söderström ◽

Anna Ek ◽

Christina Alexandrou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Randomized Controlled Trial ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Mobile Phone ◽

Smart City ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Active Transportation ◽

Smartphone App ◽

Randomized Controlled

Background Physical inactivity is globally recognized as a major risk factor for morbidity, particularly the incidence of noncommunicable diseases. Increasing physical activity (PA) is therefore a public health priority. Engaging in active transportation (AT) is a viable approach for promoting daily PA levels. Mobile health interventions enable the promotion of AT to a larger population. The Smart City Active Mobile Phone Intervention (SCAMPI) study was a randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the ability of a behavior change program delivered via a smartphone app to motivate participants to increase their PA by engaging in AT. Objective This qualitative study aims to examine the acceptance and user experience of the app promoting AT that was used in the SCAMPI trial (the TRavelVU Plus app). Methods A total of 17 residents of Stockholm County (13 women; age range 25-61 years) who completed the 3-month app-based behavioral change program (delivered through the TRavelVU Plus app) in the SCAMPI randomized controlled trial during 2018 agreed to participate in a semistructured telephone-based interview. These participants were well representative of the whole intervention group (n=127) in terms of baseline characteristics such as age, sex, and area of residence. The interviews were audiorecorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using an inductive qualitative content analysis. Results The content analysis revealed 2 themes and 4 subcategories. The first theme, “main motivators: monitoring and messages,” highlighted that monitoring AT and being able to set weekly goals using the app were the primary motivators reported by study participants. The second theme, “acceptable but modifiable,” reflects that the app was well accepted and effectively encouraged many participants to use more AT. Nevertheless, there were functions in the app that require modification. For example, while the semiautomated travel tracking feature was appreciated, participants found it time-consuming and unreliable at times. Conclusions This study contributes novel insight into adults’ experiences of using a mobile app to promote the use of AT. The results showed that the app was well accepted and that self-monitoring and goal setting were the main motivators to engage in more AT. The semiautomated tracking of AT was appreciated; however, it was also reported to be energy- and time-consuming when it failed to work. Thus, this feature should be improved going forward. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03086837; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03086837 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) RR2-10.1186/s12889-018-5658-4

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