There is a growing body of knowledge and practice around the transformative potential of new ICTs in Smart city environments. Much of the focus has been on digitally enhanced public services and co-production of services. More recently, there is emerging interest in using the same Smart city technologies to engage citizens allowing them to participate directly in co-production of services/public policy, bringing influence to decision-making, and engaging in new forms of Smart governance. Citizens can now directly contribute to the evolution of more sustainable cities. New ICTs promise to transform urban governance into ‘Smart city governance’ when technologies are integrated in strategies for citizen participation and co-production. This article provides a multi-disciplinary understanding of Smart city governance, including new insights of the opportunities for citizen engagement in the co-production of service-delivery and decision-making.
Emphasising roles played by ‘smart’ technologies in fostering co-production of services, development of new urban infrastructure, evolution of services and governance arrangements, the article enhances our understanding of the requirements for sustainable urban development when drivers for sustainable and resilient societies are becoming increasingly technologically-orientated. Whilst much of the literature points to the transformative potential of ICTs it is unclear which technologies work best in which contexts or the factors critical in realising their potential. This gap is addressed through a systematic literature review of over 100 articles and an in-depth case study of the citizen-centred Future City Glasgow initiative. The article aims to establish, the breadth of Smart city initiatives which emphasise citizen-participation and co-production, and realities of delivering such initiatives in a complex city environment.
Smart cities are at the nexus of a range of data flows, emanating from new sensory devices, existing datasets and big data processes. They provide exciting opportunities for citizen engagement in service re-design and co-production. However, emergence of sustainable engagement and governance practices are dependent on variables, including:
• Data literacy of service users, government/public agency officials,
• Levels of citizen access to the Internet,
• Use of social media as a vehicle for engagement,
• Open access arrangements of public services to big data datasets,
• Established protocols for collecting and processing administrative/personal data,
• Level of established eGovernment practices,
• Existing practice of, and commitment to citizen participation/engagement.
Arguably, there is a disconnect between the perceived transformative potential of ICTs and their realisation in complex public service environments, where administrative solutions associated with service delivery may be easier to deliver than radical ICT-orientated engagement and co-production activities. There may be a discord between perceived benefits evident in the literature and the actual practices delivered ‘on the ground’. The article will therefore assess the divergence between, potential, policy and practice.
The research presented derives from ‘SmartGov’: ‘Smart Governance of Sustainable Cities’, a four year collaborative transnational-research project on the value of ICTs for engaging citizens in governance of sustainable cities. Funding Councils in the United Kingdom (ESRC); Netherlands (NWO), and Brazil (FAPESP) are co-funding the research. Partners: Utrecht University, (Netherlands); University of Stirling (UK), and Fundação Getulio Vargas, (Brazil).
C3 - Smart Cities: A Global Comparative Public Management Perspective
