Citizen participation in building citizen-centric smart cities

e-Prosiding Persidangan Antarabangsa Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan (PASAK), 23-24 April, KUIS, Malaysia, 2018

While certain smart cities are lauded to be citizen-centric, they are actually not so in practice. Most cities clearly lack a conceptual understanding of the ideal characteristics of its citizens and their involvement in public life. Thus, the objective of this paper was twofold to identify the desired characteristics of the citizens of citizen-centric smart cities as well as to discuss the hurdles to citizens' participation in the initiatives of smart cities. This qualitative study has conducted interviews on smart city experts. Conceptually, instead of being passive data users or beneficiaries of services, citizens can actually be active and independent participants of public life, co-producers of public values, as well as human sensors who drive changes through deliberative democracy. It has been argued that the objectives and success of citizen-centric smart cities are completely reliant on a strong understanding of the citizens' characteristics and direct participation in public life. As such, the adoption of a participatory paradigm might support the successful creation of citizen-centric smart cities mainly through public awareness and acceptance of these values.

Local Government Studies, 2020

This article focuses on understanding the dynamics of citizen participation in smart city initiatives. The literature identifies citizens as key actors, however, our understanding of their roles and influence is underdeveloped. Using modes of urban governance to provide contextual depth, alongside the literature on citizen participation in smart cities, this article conducts an in-depth examination of the roles of citizens. The results of an empirical study of citizen engagement in smart city governance in Brazil, the UK and the Netherlands demonstrate that the roles and functions undertaken by citizens are not static, they participate in a dynamic mode that evolves and changes over time. Also, identifies three emerging patterns of contextually specific citizen interaction: contestation, acceptance and collaboration. This highlights how smart city initiatives have differentiated outcomes and how the mode of governance in a societal and institutional context plays an important role in shaping patterns of citizen participation.

The Penang International Invention, Innovation and Design Competition (PIID) 2023, 2023

The citizen-centric smart city (CCSC) model is conceptualized from the citizenship perspective, which stresses the citizen’s responsibilities and participatory governance practices in a smart city. This innovative conception argues that instead of the traditional view of fulfilling the citizen’s needs, the citizens should co-produce, participate and contribute to building a sustainable smart city together with the government and corporates. To construct the above CCSC model, two “forward-looking” cities were selected as case studies, namely the Cyberjaya and Petaling Jaya Smart Cities. This study is exploratory in nature and adopted the transformative mixed method sequential QUAL→Quan, including a systematic literature review, interviews, and surveys. The records for the systematic literature review of the social inclusion indicators for building citizen-centric smart cities were searched from the Google Scholar database (n = 21,026), and 79 final included papers were analyzed. The primary data collection techniques were in-depth interviews with 38 informants and surveys comprising 486 samples. Thematic analysis was applied to analyze qualitative data, while the quantitative data were assessed via inferential statistics using Spearman’s correlation. The themes and networks of sub- themes derived from the verbatim data have supported and facilitated the main constructs comprising 47 items used in the questionnaire. The outcomes of Spearman’s correlation analysis revealed three significant factors in building the CCSC model: participation types and processes, as well as roles of citizens.

This paper critically appraises citizens' participation in the smart city. Reacting to critiques that the smart city is overly technocratic and instrumental, companies and cities have reframed their initiatives as 'citizen-centric'. However, what 'citizen-centric' means in practice is rarely articulated. We draw on and extend Sherry Arnstein's seminal work on participation in planning and renewal programmes to create the 'Scaffold of Smart Citizen Participation' – a conceptual tool to unpack the diverse ways in which the smart city frames citizens. We then use this scaffold to measure smart citizen inclusion, participation, and empowerment in smart city initiatives in Dublin, Ireland. Our analysis illustrates how most 'citizen-centric' smart city initiatives are rooted in stewardship, civic paternalism, and a neoliberal conception of citizenship that prioritizes consumption choice and individual autonomy within a framework of state and corporate defined constraints that prioritize market-led solutions to urban issues, rather than being grounded in civil, social and political rights and the common good. We conclude that significant normative work is required to rethink 'smart citizens' and 'smart citizenship' and to remake smart cities if they are to truly become 'citizen-centric'.

Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series

The progressing urbanisation process and its visible effects are prompting local authorities to seek new solutions to contemporary development challenges, especially those identified in post-socialist cities, including in Poland. Nowadays, the smart city concept is becoming widely popular. This idea is grounded in the principles of sustainable development in all spheres of socio-economic life. However, in a comprehensive approach, it moves away from its strictly technological definition towards the social context and local conditions. Nowadays, there are more and more instruments supporting social and civic activity of the inhabitants of Polish cities. One extremely popular mechanism is the participatory budget. In order to trace its importance in the implementation of the smart city concept, an empirical analysis was undertaken in Bydgoszcz (a medium-sized city in Poland). According to the research, the participatory budget is asymmetrical, with infrastructure investments dominatin...

International Journal of Information Management, 2019

Nowadays, modern cities face numerous challenges related to mobility, waste management, access to resources, etc. Smart Cities integrate information and communication technologies (ICT) to develop innovative solutions that can solve such challenges and create a higher quality of life for their citizens. However, two elements need to be considered for smart cities to be successful. First, citizens must participate in the design of the smart city to take advantage of their ideas so that the smart city answers their real needs. Second, each city has its specificities that need to be taken into account to design a citizen participation strategy truly tailored and adapted to their respective context. In line with these two considerations, the goal of this paper is to identify the context factors that impact citizen participation strategies in smart cities. In order to reach that goal, we performed a qualitative case study of two cities that strive to be smart: Namur (Belgium) and Linköping (Sweden). This analysis allows us to understand how participation is implemented in two different cases and to infer the context factors that impact the respective strategies. Five context-factors have been identified in this study: the smart city consideration, the drivers for participation, the degree of centralization, the legal requirements, and the citizens' characteristics. Thanks to the identification of these factors, we are able to derive context-dependent recommendations about citizen participation for smart cities. These recommendations are then applied to the case of Brussels (Belgium).

Proceedings of the First Multidiscipline International Conference, 2021

Community participation is essential in development. This article aims to build an integrative, intelligent city concept in public services based on community participation. The method used in writing this paper is a qualitative method with a systematic literature review approach. The theoretical basis used in this study is the theory of smart cities, e-government, community participation as factors that make the innovative city concept based on the involvement of intelligent people. This research concludes that the contribution of thoughtful community participation will encourage the development of smart cities closer to the community's wishes so that the services provided by the government can be easily implemented.

International Journal of Public Administration in the Digital Age, 2020

While the role of citizens in smart cities is hotly debated, there is a dearth of empirical research on the subject. This in-depth study of a European city, selected for its typical smart city ambitions, explores the roles that citizens actually play in smart city projects. The study examines twelve initiatives in the City of Utrecht (NL) using a framework that differentiates between types of citizen participation. The findings show that technology-enabled citizen participation in Utrecht is highly diverse and embraces all types of participation rather than simply taking the form of either “citizen empowerment” (as the advocates argue) or “citizen subjugation' (as the critics stress). The diversity found in the study highlights the need to conceptualize the role of the smart citizen at the micro (project) level rather than at the level of the city as a whole. The study shows that citizen participation in the smart city should not be understood as a technological utopia or dystop...

The " smart city " is an umbrella for cities that use information technology to improve services and provide better quality of life for its citizens. Citizen participation is often highlighted as an important part of the smart city concept. Participation can be political – influencing political decision making, but also non-political where citizens participate to help the city solve its problems. Most current literature focus on political participation, and the non-political participation is often neglected. This paper makes the argument that both kinds of participation is important.

IGI Global, 2021

Citizen participation and sustainability are two main concepts used in the definitions in the smart city literature. Citizen participation is often used within the context of improving good governance in smart cities. Its relationship with sustainability is seldomly discussed. This study analyses the relationship between the concepts of smart city, smart sustainable city, and citizen participation, and discusses how citizen participation is shaped in smart sustainable cities. In light of this analysis, seven types of citizen participation mechanisms are studied. The findings of the study reveal that sustainability in smart cities is only considered within the framework of environmental matters, while citizen participation is only considered as a mechanism aimed at supporting good governance. The study recommends using these participation mechanisms to highlight other aspects of sustainability such as securing comprehensive-ness, alleviating poverty, promoting gender equality and to focus on other aspects of citizen participation such as real participation and democratic effectiveness.