Despite the rhetoric of “citizen-first,” which has been tokenized in recent years by the smart city administrations, what it means has long been unclear to many, including the public at large. Put simply, this rhetoric concerns the mindset of the members of a local community and places them at the heart of the smart city initiatives. In order to bring further clarity to this issue under the current neoliberal urbanism, this study aimed to identify the key indicators of citizen-centric smart cities from the perspective of participative governance practices and citizens’ responsibilities. To achieve this aim, this study involved a systematic literature review of the social inclusion indicators for building citizen-centric smart cities. The social inclusion indicators that were formed were verified by practitioners to suit the local contexts of an emerging and developing country, in this case, Malaysia. The findings of the review revealed that: (a) the acceptance of social inclusion indicators was mainly limited to the realm of democratic developed countries, leaders’ understanding of citizenship, the delegation of decision-making power in governance practices, the participative culture of societies, and individual citizens’ self-discipline; (b) the social inclusion indicators may not be welcomed in emerging and developing countries; (c) in the long term, these indicators would shed light on the rise of self-organizing cities that will gain popularity in potential city developments, be it in developed or developing countries.

A smart city is one that is highly developed, innovative, environment-friendly, and incorporates relevant aspects of the economy, technology, mobility, quality of life and other aspects that contribute to the well-being of its residents. To achieve the status of a smart city, several requirements, criteria or indicators need to be considered. Strategic decisions by planners of a smart city play an important role in determining how the city uses resources and opportunities through the harnessing of modern technology to build a framework of innovation that nurtures a healthy society in an economy that is dynamic and environment-conscious. Smart cities focus on various elements of humanity, learning, the environment, technological infrastructure, social development, and urban growth. The aim of this study is to examine these requisites of a smart city, and to use the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology in assigning weightage to each element that is considered essential to its development. Smart environment and smart mobility were found to be the top two important factors in the successful building of a smart city. The actual values that shape smart cities are based on a balance of factors such as smart environmental practices, smart governance, smart living, smart mobility, smart people, and smart economy. These principal key elements work together to exploit the technologies that help bring about the realization of a smart city.

Recently, the governors of technology-driven smart cities have been criticised for ignoring their citizens and limiting the role of the general public to being passive users. Even though the goal of realising citizen centricity has been embodied in the visions of most smart cities, it has remained to be a rhetorical notion. This paper was aimed to understand the citizen participation and citizen centricity phenomena in smart cities. The research method of this review paper applied the literature review framework of vom Brocke et al., with modification. Salient features such as the domains of smart cities, state of citizen centricity, Arnstein's ladder of participation, characteristics of the citizens, and management of the associated challenges have been elaborated in this theoretical study. It is postulated that citizen and participation factors are essential to build the citizen-centric smart cities. This proposition includes the characteristics of citizens and co-production, whereby the former encompasses the behaviours and roles of the citizens, while the later entails the engagement of citizens in the upper level of public within the rungs of partnership and delegated power, building of trust-capacity relationships between public professionals and citizens, as well as understanding of deliberative democracy. This research agenda will serve as a basis for further empirical research.

Consequent to the declaration of achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by United Nations in 2016, most of the countries with capitalist politics have chosen to adopt "smart urbanisation" as a tool to help them gear up for national development. However, research shows that most countries, including Malaysia, are not on the right track. Thus, this research paper aims to examine the alternative political policies besides that of a capitalist/liberal democracy, such as ecological democracy, that the Malaysian smart urbanisation movement should follow to achieve the SDGs. This study applied the method of case study analysis in examining empirical examples related to stakeholder partnerships and environmental cases in smart urbanisation in Malaysia. This paper argues that achieving the SDGs with the current capitalist hegemony poses a significant challenge to countries. However, with environmental ethics in mind, it is possible to achieve the SDGs with the trust granted by the government in the form of participatory politics. The SDGs also need to be overhauled and rewritten under the realm of ecological democracy. The implications of the findings include creating a call for support for an emerging ecological democracy that is particularly compatible with the SDGs as well as embedded in the natural environment, social and economic developments.

A smart city is one that is highly developed, innovative, environment-friendly, and incorporates relevant aspects of the economy, technology, mobility, quality of life and other aspects that contribute to the well-being of its residents. To achieve the status of a smart city, several requirements, criteria or indicators need to be considered. Strategic decisions by planners of a smart city play an important role in determining how the city uses resources and opportunities through the harnessing of modern technology to build a framework of innovation that nurtures a healthy society in an economy that is dynamic and environment-conscious. Smart cities focus on various elements of humanity, learning, the environment, technological infrastructure, social development, and urban growth. The aim of this study is to examine these requisites of a smart city, and to use the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology in assigning weightage to each element that is considered essential to its development. Smart environment and smart mobility were found to be the top two important factors in the successful building of a smart city. The actual values that shape smart cities are based on a balance of factors such as smart environmental practices, smart governance, smart living, smart mobility, smart people, and smart economy. These principal key elements work together to exploit the technologies that help bring about the realization of a smart city.

Crime is a manifestation of incivility that society attempts to curb, yet faces enormous challenges, as crime is a by-product of urbanization and human advancement. As more agglomeration of the population in cities around the globe, humankind’s safety from being threatened by crime needed to be safeguard to sustain everyday living in cities. Humans’ co-existence with crime and fear of crime in cities vis-a-vis efforts preventing it from occurring has been widely carried out in developed countries. An increasing trend is showing in emerging and developing countries. Therefore, this article provides empirical evidence regarding a safe city program launched in Malaysia. This study aims to identify the factors contributing to the prevention of crime and fear of crime. This study employed a survey questionnaire to 400 pedestrians’ perceptions of Kuala Lumpur city’s central business district. The result showed that prevention methods through the actor of “capable guardians” (i.e., authorities) are effective; however, methods through the actor of “suitable victims” (i.e., communities) is ineffective. Further studies should explore perspective of the actor of “likely offenders” (i.e., criminals) to fill in the gap of safe city program’s effectiveness and sustainability.

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Purpose -This paper aims to investigate to what extent knowledge inflows have taken place among professional Malaysian workforces and what the significant employee-related factors of knowledge transfer are. The development of technology parks at Technology Park Malaysia (TPM), Kulim High Tech Park (KHTP) and Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) is the focus of the discussion.Design/methodology/approach -Data were collected through a self-administered survey to 300 local professionals; and 51 percent responded. A multiple regression was used to identify the significant determinants of transfer of knowledge. Findings -Knowledge transfer from foreign expatriate, parent and peer subsidiary companies to local professionals is at a moderate level. The overall multiple regression shows that workplace learning, personal time management, symptom of replication, adaptation and innovation, and work experience significantly contribute to the transferring of expertise to local professional employees.Research limitations/implications -The success of companies in today's competitive economy lies more in their knowledge and intellectual capital rather than other resources. Therefore, transferring new knowledge from foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) to local workforces is a basic step for future sustainable competitive advantage. Empirical evidence from previous research shows that information and communication technology can facilitate the transfer of knowledge. This is not covered in this study. Practical implications -Training mechanisms must be designed in such a way to promote in-plant training or employee attachment at the parent company or foreign peer subsidiaries. Originality/value -The paper shows that the success of knowledge transfer depends on the absorptive capacity, the organizational learning climate and the willingness of foreign expatriates in multinational corporations to transfer knowledge. This is an empirical indication of knowledge inflows within Malaysian technology parks, which is a relatively new topic to be explored.