scholarly journals Are Smart-City Projects Citizen-Centered?

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 309
Author(s):  
Sánchez-Teba ◽  
Bermúdez-González

Smart cities have become a new urban model for thinking and designing cities in the connected society. It is time to ask ourselves what kind of city we want and need. There is still a long way to go in relation to the role of citizenship in the field of smart cities. This autoethnography reveals different contradictions found during the preparation of my doctoral thesis, which studied the citizens’ perception of smart city policies in a city in southern Spain, in my double role as a doctoral student/researcher and public manager. Many of the statements and conclusions of different scientific research contrasted with the reality that I was experiencing in my daily work. My conclusions can help in the current debate on which cities we want to build at a time when the population is concentrated in cities and where it is necessary to respond to not only the economic, but also the social and environmental problems posed by sustainability

Author(s):  
Жуковский Андрей ◽  

This article shows that the deployment of modern high-tech companies in the regions affects the development of smart cities. In particular, it was noted that high-tech companies not only create high-tech products, but also are an example of optimization of management processes, economical consumption of various types of resources, and also serve as one of the factors for the accumulation of intellectual capital and the quality of life of the population in the regions. It is shown that modern advanced technologies of a smart city affect not only the social aspects of the region’s development, serve to improve its legislative, managerial and social foundations, but also encourage megacities to solve the problems of efficient use of the environment.


2020 ◽  
pp. 13-24
Author(s):  
Anna Pozdniakova ◽  
Iryna Velska

The paper analyzes the key steps taken by different cities worldwide and gathered into a clear step-by-step roadmap that can be useful for emerging smart cities. The Roadmap covers three main stages as we see them during the process of development: preparation, formation and spreading stages. We reveal how this is incorporated in the Ukrainian context. Our analysis of smart city solutions from all over the world (based on the BeeSmartCity database) showed that the tech component on its own is not enough to overcome urban challenges within different domains (environment, economy, government etc.), as we see each of the solutions has a human component involved in a form of knowledge generation and sharing, different forms of co-creation and partnership etc. Thus, ICTs are a required but not a sufficient element of building successful citizen-friendly and resilient cities.


Author(s):  
Hung Viet NGO ◽  
◽  
Quan LE ◽  

The world’s population is forecasted of having 68% to be urban residents by 2050 while urbanization in the world continues to grow. Along with that phenomenon, there is a global trend towards the creation of smart cities in many countries. Looking at the overview of studies and reports on smart cities, it can be seen that the concept of “smart city” is not clearly defined. Information and communication technology have often been being recognized by the vast majority of agencies, authorities and people when thinking about smart city but the meaning of smart city goes beyond that. Smart city concept should come with the emphasizing on the role of social resources and smart urban governance in the management of urban issues. Therefore, the "smart city" label should refer to the capacity of smart people and smart officials who create smart urban governance solutions for urban problems. The autonomy in smart cities allows its members (whether individuals or the community in general) of the city to participate in governance and management of the city and become active users and that is the picture of e-democracy. E-democracy makes it easier for stakeholders to become more involved in government work and fosters effective governance by using the IT platform of smart city. This approach will be discussed more in this paper.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1407-1427
Author(s):  
Carlo Francesco Capra

Smart cities are associated almost exclusively with modern technology and infrastructure. However, smart cities have the possibility to enhance the involvement and contribution of citizens to urban development. This work explores the role of governance as one of the factors influencing the participation of citizens in smart cities projects. Governance characteristics play a major role in explaining different typologies of citizen participation. Through a focus on Amsterdam Smart City program as a specific case study, this research examines the characteristics of governance that are present in the overall program and within a selected sample of projects, and how they relate to different typologies of citizen participation. The analysis and comprehension of governance characteristics plays a crucial role both for a better understanding and management of citizen participation, especially in complex settings where multiple actors are interacting.


Author(s):  
Rajan R. ◽  
Venkata Subramanian Dayanandan ◽  
Shankar P. ◽  
Ranganath Tngk

A smart city aims at developing an ecosystem wherein the citizens will have instant access to amenities required for a healthy and safe living. Since the mission of smart city is to develop and integrate many facilities, it is envisaged that there is a need for making the information available instantly for right use of such infrastructure. So, there exists a need to design and implement a world-class physical security measures which acts as a bellwether to protect people life from physical security threats. It is a myth that if placing adequate number of cameras alone would enhance physical security controls in smart cities. There is a need for designing and building comprehensive physical security controls, based on the principles of “layered defense-in-depth,” which integrates all aspects of physical security controls. This chapter will review presence of existing physical security technology controls for smart cities in line with the known security threats and propose the need for an AI-enabled physical security premise.


2022 ◽  
pp. 126-143
Author(s):  
Zsuzsanna Tomor

While the role of citizens in smart cities is hotly debated, there is a dearth of empirical research on the subject. This in-depth study of a European city, selected for its typical smart city ambitions, explores the roles that citizens actually play in smart city projects. The study examines twelve initiatives in the City of Utrecht (NL) using a framework that differentiates between types of citizen participation. The findings show that technology-enabled citizen participation in Utrecht is highly diverse and embraces all types of participation rather than simply taking the form of either “citizen empowerment” (as the advocates argue) or “citizen subjugation' (as the critics stress). The diversity found in the study highlights the need to conceptualize the role of the smart citizen at the micro (project) level rather than at the level of the city as a whole. The study shows that citizen participation in the smart city should not be understood as a technological utopia or dystopia but as an evolving, technologically mediated practice that is shaped by a variety of factors.


Genealogy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Letizia Bosoni ◽  
Sara Mazzucchelli

In the light of relevant and current debate on the changing role of fathers, this contribution is aimed at analysing the international literature on fatherhood, comparing two distinct periods of time, from the social, cultural and demographic point of view: the years 1980–1999 and the new millennium. This will contribute to identifying features of the fatherhood transformation in these two contexts, which in fact refer to two generations of fathers. The research questions to be answered are: Which aspects characterize the process of fatherhood transformation, in an intergenerational perspective? How are paternal childcare practices represented in different historical and social periods? An analysis of the academic publications on fathers in Scopus and Google Scholar will be conducted, in the two temporal periods indicated, using T-Lab software, in order to map fathers’ role representations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 204-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Argento ◽  
Giuseppe Grossi ◽  
Aki Jääskeläinen ◽  
Stefania Servalli ◽  
Petri Suomala

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of performance measurement systems as technologies of government in the operationalisation of smart city programmes. It answers the research question: how do the development and use of performance measurement systems support smart cities in the achievement of their goals? Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a longitudinal case study that uses an interventionist approach to investigate the possibilities and limitations of the use of performance measurement systems as technologies of government in a smart city. Interpretations are theoretically informed by the Foucauldian governmentality framework (Foucault, 2009) and by public sector performance measurement literature. Findings The findings address the benefits and criticalities confronting a smart city that introduces new performance measurement systems as a technology of government. Such technologies become problematic tools when the city network is characterised by a fragmentation of inter-departmental processes, and when forms of resistance emerge due to a lack of process owners, horizontal accountability and cooperation among involved parties. Research limitations/implications This paper is based on a case study of a single smart city, and outlines the need for both comparative and multidisciplinary analyses in order to analyse the causes and effects of smart city challenges. Originality/value This paper offers a critical understanding of the role of accounting in the smart city. The ineffectiveness of performance measurement systems is related to the multiple roles of such technologies of government, which may lead to a temporary paralysis in the achievement of smart city goals and programmes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 737-755
Author(s):  
Luiz Antonio Felix Júnior ◽  
Wênyka Preston Leite Batista da Costa ◽  
Luciana Gondim de Almeida Guimarães ◽  
Glauber Ruan Barbosa Pereira ◽  
Walid Abbas El-Aouar

Purpose The participation of society is a valuable aspect of the governability of cities, for it strengthens the citizens’ collaborative component. Such participation, which is seen as social, is considered an essential element for the design of a smart city. This study aims to identify the factors that contribute to social participation in the definition of budgetary instruments’ planning. Design/methodology/approach Concerning the methodological instruments, this study is characterised by a quantitative and descriptive approach and uses a multivariate data analysis with a sample of 235 respondents. Findings The study’s findings identified a framework that portrays elements that collaborate with the social participation in the definition of the public administration’s budgetary instruments, which are considered as elements that are able to develop the role of the popular participation and are characterised by the definition of a smart city by enabling more assertiveness in society’s needs. Practical implications Identification of a framework that brings out elements that are able to develop the popular participation in the definition of budgetary instruments. Then, one scale of elements that contribute to social participation in the definition of the public administration’s budgetary instruments theoretically represented and statistically validated, thus contributing to the continuity of studies on social participation. Social implications Through studies on social participation in budgetary planning, it is possible to guarantee a better allocation of public resources through intelligent governability. Originality/value The research can bring theoretical elements about social participation in the definition of budget instruments for a statistical convergence through the perception of the sample.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 115-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günter Knieps

The major objective of this article is to analyze the potentials of information and communications technology (ICT) for the evolution of smart cities, with a particular focus on the challenges faced by traditional public utilities in the areas of public transportation, energy, water supply, and wastewater management due to the entry of new players originating from ICT organizations and industries. The character of virtual networks for smart cities is demonstrated based on three pillars: (1) All-IP–based real-time and adaptive broadband communication networks, (2) global navigation satellite systems and their overlay position correction networks, and (3) the interoperability of ubiquitous sensor network applications, as they form the ICT basis for a multitude of applications that are important in smart cities. The heterogeneity of virtual networks for different smart city physical network services is based on these pillars, taking into account the different requirements for the quality of service (QoS) of data packet transmission, geopositioning, and sensor networks. It can be expected that prosumer activities and resultant networked commons become increasingly relevant for the smart city of the future. However, the increasing role of prosumer activities cannot replace the role of markets in solving scarcity problems within ICT networks as well as physical networks. The role of congestion pricing and QoS differentiation for network capacities in transportation and electricity markets as well as ICT is indicated. If, due to non-rivalry in usage, efficient congestion prices are pointless, the future role of subsidies from the state is considered.


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