Place attachment and acceptance of smart city technologies
Recent studies on smart cities have emphasised thatsmart solution initiatives should take into accountcitizens’ different needs and concerns. The main aim ofthis paper is to examine the role of different types ofplace attachment – emotional bonds that residents havewith their city – in predicting the acceptance of futuresmart city technologies. In our study conducted amongresidents of multiple cities in Poland (N = 627), wefound that while active place attachment (i.e. consciousidentification with a place) predicted more favourableattitudes towards enabling technologies, traditional(natural and unintentional) place attachment waspositively associated with acceptance of surveillancetechnologies regarding everyday monitoring and anti–Covid-19 measures. We also found that therelationship between place attachment and acceptanceof future technologies is partially mediated by the useof existing smart city technologies. The implicationsfor city governments and planners are discussed.