scholarly journals The connection of smart cities approach and social innovation

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-246
Author(s):  
Dóra Szendi
Keyword(s):  
Urban Population ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
New Challenges

The enhancing globalization raises new challenges for the cities, like the increasing number of urban population, the rising environmental problems, or the overcrowding of some cities. Nowadays with the widespread of intelligent technologies, more and more cities are creating strategies for making themselves more innovative, and smart. That is why the inequalities among different cities are also rising, as some of them cannot adapt these challenges and turns to a relatively peripheral situation. In their case social innovation can be an adequate solution for solving the problems in a bottom-up way, and foster their development. The aim of this research is to analyse the connection of smart cities with the idea of social innovation, as they both have some similar characteristics.

Integration Challenges of Immigrants in Smart Cities

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-56
Author(s):  
Susana Bernardino ◽  
J. Freitas Santos
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Human Element ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Holistic Vision

The most recent interpretations of the concept of smart city (SC) highlight the need for adopting a more holistic vision of SC, which includes other relevant features for understanding the dynamism of urban development and face new challenges. The study of a social entrepreneurship initiative (SPEAK) that aims to empower immigrants living in the main Portuguese cities is the method used in this research to understand the extent to which social innovation can make smart cities more human and sustainable. The results illustrate how a social entrepreneurship initiative can positively impact the creation of social value to immigrants in cities. As the evidence shows, the full integration of foreign migrants in cities may contribute to the sustainable resolution (or avoidance) of many severe social dysfunctions, as well as for the improvement of the quality of life of foreign migrants and local citizens. The approach adopted, based on the empowerment of the human element, is able to produce a sustainable response and contribute to other dimensions of SC.

YOUTH EXPECTATIONS OF SMART CITY LIVING: AN IMPORTANCE- PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF YOUNG RESIDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES OF CITY GOVERNMENT

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-128
Author(s):  
Jason Cohen ◽  
Judy Backhouse ◽  
Omar Ally
Keyword(s):  
Performance Analysis ◽  
Young People ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
City Government ◽  
Diagnostic Tools ◽  
City Management ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The City

Young people are important to cities, bringing skills and energy and contributing to economic activity. New technologies have led to the idea of a smart city as a framework for city management. Smart cities are developed from the top-down through government programmes, but also from the bottom-up by residents as technologies facilitate participation in developing new forms of city services. Young people are uniquely positioned to contribute to bottom-up smart city projects. Few diagnostic tools exist to guide city authorities on how to prioritise city service provision. A starting point is to understand how the youth value city services. This study surveys young people in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, and conducts an importance-performance analysis to identify which city services are well regarded and where the city should focus efforts and resources. The results show that Smart city initiatives that would most increase the satisfaction of youths in Braamfontein  include wireless connectivity, tools to track public transport  and  information  on city events. These  results  identify  city services that are valued by young people, highlighting services that young people could participate in providing. The importance-performance analysis can assist the city to direct effort and scarce resources effectively.

scholarly journals Smart cities and robotic technologies for a model of integrated growth

2021 ◽  
pp. 237-252
Author(s):  
Elena Laudante
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Human Scale ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The City

The paper focuses on the importance of robotics and artificial intelligence inside of the new urban contexts in which it is possible to consider and enhance the different dimensions of quality of life such as safety and health, environmental quality, social connection and civic participation. Smart technologies help cities to meet the new challenges of society, thus making them more livable, attractive and responsive in order to plan and to improve the city of the future. In accordance with the Agenda 2030 Program for sustainable development that intends the inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable city, the direction of growth and prosperity of urban environments is pursued by optimizing the use of resources and respecting the environment. In the current society, robotic technology is proposed as a tool for innovation and evolution in urban as well as industrial and domestic contexts. On the one hand the users-citizens who participate dynamically in the activities and on the other the new technological systems integrated in the urban fabric. Existing urban systems that are “amplified” of artificial and digital intelligence and give life to smart cities, physical places that allow new forms of coexistence between humans and robots in order to implement the level of quality of life and define “human centered” innovative solutions and services thus responding to the particular needs of people in an effective and dynamic way. The current city goes beyond the definition of smart city. In fact, as said by Carlo Ratti, it becomes a "senseable city", a city capable of feeling but also sensitive and capable of responding to citizens who define the overall performance of the city. The multidisciplinary approach through the dialogue between designers, architects, engineers and urban planners will allow to face the new challenges through the dynamics of robot integration in the urban landscape. The cities of the future, in fact, will be pervaded by autonomous driving vehicles, robotized delivery systems and light transport solutions, in response to the new concept of smart mobility, on a human scale, shared and connected mobility in order to improve management and control of the digitized and smart city. Automation at constant rates as the keystone for urban futures and new models of innovative society. Through the identification of representative case studies in the field of innovative systems it will be possible to highlight the connections between design, smart city and "urban" robotics that will synergically highlight the main "desirable" qualities of life in the city as a place of experimentation and radical transformations. In particular, parallel to the new robotic solutions and human-robot interactions, the design discipline will be responsible for designing the total experience of the user who lives in synergy with the robots, thus changing the socio-economic dynamics of the city.

Social Innovation as a New Social Policy Tool for Regional Government Institutions in Smart Territories

2020 ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Muradiye Ates
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
Spare Time ◽  
Social Innovations

By aiming at improving social welfare and well-being, social policies, social innovation, and smart territories are closely related to each other. Local authorities are in direct contact with citizens and regional needs, which makes them an important actor in overcoming challenges ranging from housing, spare-time activities to education to improving democratic standards. There are many successful examples of social innovations, including FixMyStreet.com, participatory budgeting, and Open Government Vienna, which are supported by local governments that can contribute to the formation of smart cities and territories. By elaborating related examples from various perspectives, this chapter highlights the relation between social policy, social innovation, and smart cities.

scholarly journals Building Inter-Personal Competence in Architecture and Urban Design Students through Smart Cities at a Higher Education Institution

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7179
Author(s):  
Daniel S. Oh
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Personal Competence ◽  
Interdisciplinary Design ◽  
Design Workshop

As the smart city concept and applications continue to evolve, traditional architects and urban designers are facing an increasingly uncertain future. This paper outlines an innovative educational format to bolster and perpetuate the interdisciplinary nature of architects and urban designers that resonates with both sustainable development (SD) and smart cities (SCs). By applying ‘connective knowledge’ to the concept of interdisciplinarity education, a method was established that uses the SC concept to expand upon and create a bridge between distant disciplines in the context of higher education sustainable development (HESD). As a complementary educational pedagogy to the ‘whole institution approach’ to reduce barriers in higher education institutions (HEIs), this paper highlights an opportunity to apply the SC concept as a basis to construct an interdisciplinary design workshop to focus on building inter-personal competence, targeting university-level students majoring in architecture and urban design. The design workshop used microcontrollers and sensors as these are scalable and easily learnt building blocks of the Internet of Things and SCs. The inter-disciplinary workshop ran for 16 weeks with 14 students majoring in architecture and urban design and electrical engineering. Based on interviews and course evaluations, the experiment was vetted using capacities of inter-personal competence in sustainable development. A series of insights and findings from the design workshop indicated positive initial outcomes that were used to form a set of working criteria for the interdisciplinary design workshop. Future work will include structuring empirical data collection and analysis and expanding collaborations with other distant disciplines such as public administration and social innovation, as delineated by the SC concept.

scholarly journals Are Smart-City Projects Citizen-Centered?

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 309
Author(s):  
Sánchez-Teba ◽  
Bermúdez-González
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Southern Spain ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
The Social ◽  
Public Manager

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

scholarly journals A Real-Life Application of a Smart User Network

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Barone ◽  
Giovanni Brusco ◽  
Alessandro Burgio ◽  
Daniele Menniti ◽  
Anna Pinnarelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Innovation ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Control Logic ◽  
Optimal Load ◽  
Smart Community ◽  
Distribution Energy ◽  
Transmission And Distribution

Smart Community microgrids could help to improve overall energy efficiency reducing transmission and distribution losses and allowing the implementation of optimal load control and resource dispatching. In this context, the authors have proposed the realization of DC smart microgrids. They are considered as a future prospective according to the increase of DC loads and DC output type distribution energy sources such as Photovoltaic and energy storage systems. In this paper, a DC smart microgrid, called Smart User Network, realized in a real-life application as a part of pilot site under the national research project PON04_00146 Smart cities and Communities and Social innovation named “Reti, Edifici, Strade Nuovi Obiettivi Virtuosi per l’Ambiente e l’Energia” (RES NOVAE), is illustrated. The Smart User Network, is managed by a distributed and decentralized control logic, the DC Bus Signaling, which allows the converters to operate independently of each other according to a decentralized logic. It guarantees the reliability, the continuity and the quality of supply, optimizing the use of energy produced by renewable energy sources, also in stand-alone configuration. The most significant experimental results obtained both in grid-connected and stand-alone configuration are presented and discussed.

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