The Smart City as Global Discourse: Storylines and Critical Junctures across 27 Cities

Joss, Simon; Sengers, Frans; Schraven, Daan; Caprotti, Federico; Dayot, Youri

doi:10.1080/10630732.2018.1558387

Cited by 249 publications

(173 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(53 reference statements)

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“…A smart city should be defined less based on the IT solutions implemented and the number of digital devices used, but more on the optimization of its functions. Other authors go further to nine main dimensions, which are human capital, social cohesion, the economy, public management, governance, the environment, mobility and transportation, urban planning, international outreach, and technology [32] or even more [33]. Various approaches lead to contradictory rankings, as seen in Table 1.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart Cities—A View of Societal Aspects

Baltac

2019

Smart Cities

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Smart city projects are considered real challenges to the development of cities everywhere. The concept itself has many definitions, but a smart city should be defined less based on implemented IT solutions, and more based on optimization of its basic functions using new technologies. There are societal aspects of smart city implementations, similar to eGovernment early projects, and aspects of the use of digital technology that raise concerns. In most cities, the digital divide is still a problem. Smart city projects are the result of the fourth industrial revolution, but cities still lack a full implementation of solutions derived from previous industrial revolutions. Despite that, cities report a lot of smart city projects. Money still gets spent, as being a smart city is, in many cases, an artificial priority and a fashionable topic. Moreover, non-Internet technologies and their relations to a good smart city solution are also not considered. Digital divide bridging is one requirement for a full implementation of a smart city concept. A review of acceleration and deceleration factors shows the obstacles faced by smart city projects. Rankings of cities based on several smart city criteria are published frequently. Various approaches lead to contradictory rankings. A new set of comprehensive rankings developed by an international organization and based on reputable reports and statistics would be useful. The study is based on several smart city and eGovernment projects in Romania.In this paper, the concept of the smart city is reviewed and its relation to digital technologies is evaluated. The impact of the digital divide on smart cities' implementations, their acceleration and deceleration factors, and benchmarking are taken into consideration as societal problems. Smart City ConceptSmart city definitions are mostly related to the use of digital technologies in all their functions. One such definition is as follows [2]:"A Smart city is an urban area that uses different types of electronic Internet of things (IoT) sensors to collect data and then use these data to manage assets and resources efficiently. This includes data collected from citizens, devices, and assets that is processed and analysed to monitor and manage traffic and transportation systems, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, crime detection, information systems, schools, libraries, hospitals, and other community services".The definition provided is in agreement with many others that mostly cover technical matters related to the last digital revolution. However, many authors think that a smart city goes further optimizing its functions for the benefit of the citizen. In agreement with such authors [3-5], we could consider that a smart city is a city that has smart governance, smart economy, smart mobility, smart environment, smart people, and smart living (Figure 1).This implies that a smart city has a complete range of eGovernment services and a solid IT infrastructure, and practices open government (smart governance); moreover...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart Cities—A View of Societal Aspects

Baltac

2019

Smart Cities

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“…As it applies to the smart city, calculation can take place through smart‐city metrics, indicator systems, evaluation frameworks and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs; Joss, ). One example is the negotiation of the British Smart Cities Standard, which produces standardised, serial meanings around what it is to be a smart city in the UK (Joss et al., , in press). As Zook argues when critically analysing the use of Big Data in smart urban governance, “metrics don't simply measure … these data are simultaneously defining what cities are” (, p. 11).…”

Section: A Cultural Economy Of Smart Urbanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Varieties of smart urbanism in the UK: Discursive logics, the state and local urban context

Caprotti

Cowley

2019

Trans Inst British Geog

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The paper analyses the varieties of smart urbanism to be found in the contemporary urban landscape in the UK. In so doing, it builds on and extends two currently dominant sets of critiques of the smart city: those that call into question its technocratic and top-down modes of governance, and those that describe the smart city as an empty signifier. The paper makes sense of the UK's variegated local smart urban practices by tracing the emergence of a national, state-led cultural economy of smart urbanism. Based on an analysis of smart-city programmes in 34 UK cities, we identify two broad discursive logics through which varieties of smart urbanism are produced and performed. First, the invocation of crisis forms a discursive foundation on which place-specific logics are based. Second, sets of what we term variegated logics are differently combined to build on the "foundational story" of crisis in the construction of local smart agendas. We discuss three of these variegated logics: the city portrayed as technological simulacrum; the focus on specific sectoral activities; and a chameleonic tendency to envelop previous eco-urban agendas into smart urbanism. By making these logics visible, the paper opens up a new critical space for debate about alternative future pathways that smart cities might take. K E Y W O R D S cultural economy, digital economy, resilience, smart city, urban development, urban futures | INTRODUCTIONIt is increasingly popular to think about the urban future through the lens of smart city policies and imaginaries. However, the smart city has also been criticised as a temporary rhetorical device (de Jong et al., 2015) or an empty signifier (Davidson, 2010). The question arises of how to theorise and analyse the processes through which a nebulous concept such as smart urbanism can lead to tangible urban materialities. We understand smart urban discourses as constitutive of emergent urban materialities: as Kong & Woods; highlight, smart urbanism is, "in its abstract form, … a discursive construct that will morph over time and space; in its applied form, it is an urban response to the digital era" (2018, p. 698). We acknowledge both of these (discursive and practical) aspects by tracing the emergence of a cultural economy of smart urbanism in the UK, identifying some ways in which it is discursively performed at a local level in response to state-led steering. Making the discursive logics of this cultural economy visible opens up space for debate over the nature and purposes of smart urbanism-inflected visions of the urban future. Specifically, it highlights the key role of three intertwined factors: the use of ---

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“…This reinforces the observed trend that top ranked SCs put a very strong emphasis on human factors at both HUM and INS initiatives, and complement it with TEC initiatives to improve the technological and physical infrastructures, but do not consider technology as the primary goal of a SC. Therefore, the SC phenomenon seems to show a persistent socio-technical bifurcation, including "a slew of technological solutions," on one hand, and counselling a socially driven approach [20], on the other, which originates an innovative and disruptive effect in the existing social and political powers of the city governance models.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technological and Human Development of Smart Cities: An Empirical Characterization of EUROCITIES Case Studies

Cortés-Cediel¹,

Cantador²,

Bolívar³

2020

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

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Smart Cities are conceived as strategic models to confront the wicked problems that exist in urban contexts. The research literature, however, reflects a lack of consensus on the elements that make a city "smart." While some authors focus on technological aspects, others consider human factors as principal targets of the cities' initiatives. Aiming to shed light on this discrepancy and understand what makes a city smarter, in this paper, we analyze a large number of real case studies implemented in major European Smart Cities. From our analysis, we first characterize and categorize the cities according to theoretical Smart City models proposed in the literature. Based on the cities' characteristics and categories, we then compare them according to external variables, such as their positions in worldwide Smart City rankings, and their administrative contexts.1

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The Smart City as Global Discourse: Storylines and Critical Junctures across 27 Cities

Cited by 249 publications

References 57 publications

Smart Cities—A View of Societal Aspects

Smart Cities—A View of Societal Aspects

Varieties of smart urbanism in the UK: Discursive logics, the state and local urban context

Technological and Human Development of Smart Cities: An Empirical Characterization of EUROCITIES Case Studies

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