Through Social Representation Theory (SRT), this study identifies how different groups of actors in Brazil conceptualize Smart Cities. From the perspective of SRT - that social representations determine human action - and in the context of different concepts regarding Smart Cities, we formulated the following research question: which elements constitute the central social representation of “smart cities” in Brazil, and which aspects are distinctive to the practitioners in the country?
SRT is adequate for studies focusing on the understanding of perceptions and values shared by individuals. It originated in a study by Serge Moscovici (1961), which established the integration between individual and social perceptive phenomena. According to Moscovici, the term social representations refers to the set of perceptions, concepts and explanations that originated in daily life, in interpersonal communications. In 1976, Jean-Claude Abric explored in SRT the concepts of the central and peripheral nucleus of representations. The central nucleus is a subset of representations composed of elements that, in their absence, would alter their meaning (ABRIC, 1976). The peripheral system is formed by subgroups that play complementary functional roles, it is relevant in studies of the behavior of individuals in a specific group.
In this interpretative study, we used 69 interviews conducted with public managers, from two projects of over a period of 2.5 years, in which one common question was: What do you understand by Smart City? From the responses, we obtained a list of terms, classified by how frequently they were uttered and how frequently they were the first term employed. The terms were then grouped into classes to obtain the central and peripheral nuclei of the social representations of the groups involved. In the discussion section, we dialogue with a collection of academic definitions of Smart City.
Delving deeper into the central elements of the concept of Smart City and its construction in academia and in practice will help to propose more sophisticated and consistent definitions (Meijer & Bolívar, 2016). Identifying the central and peripheral elements of the representation of Smart Cities in Brazil makes it possible to understand the perspective of the actors involved in the Smart Cities projects that guide their actions. Formulators of public policy on the theme can obtain useful insights, and an interesting field of research will be opened. Future studies can help to advance the way in which the academic conceptualization is reflected in the representation of professionals in the field. Furthermore, for emerging economies, they can help to show how the concepts of the literature and practice of technology-producing countries are reflected in practice in their cities.
Abric, J.J. (1976) Conflits et représentations sociales. Thèse de doctorat, Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence.
Meijer, A., & Bolívar, M.P.R. (2016). Governing the smart city: a review of the literature on smart urban governance. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 82(2), 392-408.
Moscovici, S. (1961). La psychanaliyse, son image e son public: Étude sur la représentation social de la psychanalyse. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Smart Cities – analysing rhetoric and reality from a public management perspective
Przeybilovicz_et_al_-_Smart_City_on_the_eyes_of_the_beholders.pdf 