Rethinking public participation in the smart city

In efforts to become “smart cities,” local governments are adopting various technologies that promise opportunities for increasing participation by expanding access to public comment and deliberation. Scholars and practitioners encounter the problem, however, of defining publics—demarcating who might participate through technology-enhanced public engagement. We explore two case studies in the city of Calgary that employ technologies to enhance public engagement. We analyzed the cases considering both the definition of publics and the level of citizen participation in areas of participatory budgeting and secondary suites. Our findings suggest that engaging the public is not a straightforward process, and that technology-enhanced public engagement can often reduce participation towards tokenism. City councillors and planners need to critically confront claims that smart cities necessarily enhance participation. Moving beyond tokenism requires understanding “public” as a plural category. Municipal governments should seek to proactively engage citizens and communities utilizing helpful resources including, but not limited to, digital tools and smart technologies. This would allow planners to keep a “finger on the pulse” of publics' concerns, better identifying and addressing issues of equity and social justice. It is also important to consider how marginalized publics can best be recognized in order to bring their concerns to the fore in decision-making processes.     

European plans for the smart city: from theories and rules to logistics test case

City evolution is connected to social, economic and technological evolutions. New technologies induce further changes, which are highly innovative, which again affect the urban and territorial systems. The city once again adjusts to new opportunities in relation to information and communications technologies, energy and mobility. In this paper, smart city, configured as a set of interacting systems with people, is focused as a possible model to follow for pursuing sustainability in real cities of the twenty-first century. Three processes are recalled: city development, city planning theories and city rules. Smart city seems to be the convergent point for all processes evolving in European urban areas. Theoretical definitions of smart city are recalled. At the same time, the European Commission is promoting smart city rules for implementation. Moreover, in the last years some local decision-makers implemented specific measures that today can be considered in the class of smart city measures. The objective of the paper is to analyse the European perspectives for smart city, trying to separate the three processes that are strongly integrated, but without formal links. To verify the European smart city approach, a study case concerning city logistics is considered.     

The anti-politics of smart energy regimes

In this paper, we explicate how smart energy infrastructures embed and enact politics. By advancing the framework of technopolitics, and building on two in-depth case studies of the US and Australia, this paper analyzes the emergence and effects of the smart energy sector. With the aim of economizing electricity, the “modernization” of the energy sector has followed from historical dynamics of deregulation and marketization. Based on interviews and document analysis, we argue that a specific logic, which we call anti-politics, is now being enacted through the creation of policies and technologies that aim to reduce and remove human agency from energy systems. Analyses based on post-politics do not fully capture the extent to which politics—the continual process of disagreement and deliberation—has been purged from the ideologies and institutions that govern energy and society. In addition to the technocratic evolution beyond politics, we are witnessing the neoliberal elimination of politics.     

Canadian smart cities: Are we wiring new citizen-local government interactions?

Governments around the world are developing smart city projects, with the aim to realize diverse goals of increased efficiency, sustainability, citizen engagement, and improved delivery of services. The processes through which these projects are conceptualized vary dramatically, with potential implications for how citizens are involved or engaged. This research examines the 20 finalists in the Canadian Smart Cities Challenge, a Canadian federal government contest held from 2017 to 2019 to disburse funding in support of smart city projects. We analyzed each of the finalist proposals, coding all instances of citizen engagement used to develop the proposal. A significant majority of the proposals used traditional types of citizen engagement, notably citizen meetings, round tables, and workshops, to develop their smart city plans. We also noted the use of transactional forms of citizen engagement, such as apps, and the use of social media. Despite the general rhetoric of innovation in the development of smart cities, this research finds that citizens are most commonly engaged in traditional ways. This research provides cues for governments that are developing smart city projects, placing an emphasis on the importance of the process of smart city development, and not simply the product.     

A theatre of machines: Automata circuses and digital bread in the smart city of Toronto

In this paper, the policies, projects, and promises of “smart” initiatives at the City of Toronto are evaluated, as they manifest through a technological convergence between local government services and an increased focus on citizen services through data-driven mediums. Through direct participant observation and formal interviews, a robust understanding of the internal institutional dynamics, the perspectives citizens in the “smart city,” and the operational disconnects in governance, policy, and practice has been gained. Our case study on the City of Toronto provides an account of how and from where these smart motivations for increasing a data-driven engagement with the public have arisen over the past several years. In doing so, we identify key characteristics that both enable and hinder the existing smart city in the forms of access to open data, the use of increased computational methods, and the engagement of public services through digital space as requirements for the future of participatory governance. We argue that instituting appropriate policies and engaging citizens to co-design and participate in the planning processes are essential to ensuring an inclusive, modern, and open smart city.     

Big data analytics for mitigating carbon emissions in smart cities: opportunities and challenges

The paper addresses the growing scepticism around big data use in the context of smart cities. Big data is said to transform city governments into being more efficient, effective and evidence-based. However, critics point towards the limited capacity of government to overcome the siloed structure of data storage and manage the diverse stakeholders involved in setting up a data ecosystem. On the basis of this, the paper investigates the challenges city governments face when dealing with big data in the context of carbon emission reduction. Through the lens of the evidence-based policy and policy capacity literature, the cities of Copenhagen (Denmark), London (UK), Malmö (Sweden), Oxford (UK) and Vienna (Austria) are analysed. The cases reveal that the institutional complexity underlying big data integration limits local government capacity to set up data management structures that would allow further utilization of big data and that current solutions focus on local pilot sites and outsourcing of data analytics.     

Eye to eye with the innovation paradox: why smart specialization is no simple solution to policy design

This paper revisits common, yet often untested assumptions on factors hampering the implementation – or even clear articulation – of regional innovation strategies. Based on a dedicated framework drawing on political science literature, it reflects on whether there are merit and promise in future higher-level attempts to promote a more strategic take on regional innovation policy. It investigates which relevant factors in local politics, policy and administrative facilitate or prevent the definition of clear priorities for action. Drawing on a Europe wide survey of stakeholders managing strategic processes, it finds that while a number of obstacles need to be overcome, these are regionally specific rather than attributable to restrictive national cultures. Furthermore, it demonstrates how stakeholder involvement bears different challenges at different levels.     

Public engagement in smart city development: Lessons from communities in Canada's Smart City Challenge

Quality of life is often touted as the main benefit of building smart cities. This, however, raises questions about the extent to which the public is engaged as part of the “smart” development process, particularly given the significant financial investments often required to meaningfully design smart city projects. To better understand approaches to public engagement in the context of smart city development, we draw upon three selected finalists of Infrastructure Canada's Smart City Challenge, which invited municipalities, regional governments, and Indigenous communities to enter a competition where the winning proposals would be awarded federal financial grants to complete their projects. Prizes of $5 million, $10 million, and $50 million were awarded. Specifically, we compare the public engagement experiences of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (Quebec), the City of Guelph, and the Region of Waterloo. We carried out semi-structured interviews and reviewed documents in each community to better understand how finalists in each category engaged residents in proposal development. The paper addresses how communities are approaching public engagement in smart city development and the implications of these approaches. We conclude that, despite earnest attempts to publicly engage and become citizen-centric, municipal governments continue to see civic participation as a top-down tool.     

From smart growth to European spatial planning: a new paradigm for EU cohesion policy post-2020

Formally initiated in 1989, European Union (EU) cohesion policy (ECP) has since passed through a series of metamorphoses, along its five programming periods, while becoming the most financed EU policy. As its name indicates, its initial goals were earmarked for promoting economic and social cohesion, following the intentions expressed in the Single European Act. Since then, from a policy strategy intervention point of view, ECP has shifted into a financial tool to promote investment for growth and jobs. In the meantime, European spatial planning (ESP), which had its debating pinnacle with the release of the European Spatial Development Perspective, by 1999, has declined in interest and narrowed into a novel notion of Territorial Cohesion. In this challenging context, this article analyses the implementation and main impacts of ECP and proposes a new strategic paradigm, built around a novel ‘ESP’ vision, backed by the main pillars and dimensions of territorial development and cohesion. More particularly, we suggest that the current rationale for a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth could instead fuel an alternative strategic design based on a cohesive and sustainable development vision: green economy, balanced territory, good governance and social cohesion.     

A connectivity model as a potential tool for smart specialization strategies

The article contributes to the smart specialization literature by presenting a new approach, connectivity analysis, where Triple Helix (TH) relations (involving universities, companies and government) are at the centre of the entrepreneurial discovery process. Relations between helices may be seen, from the point of departure of proximity, as preconditions of connectivity, or interaction, measured through expectations and experiences. This offers potential solution to two limitations of proximity approach: its static nature and narrow focus on dyadic relationships. The connectivity analysis reveals the extent of mutual expectations, as well as tensions, or gaps. Based on this analysis, the article presents a policy model that is used to map structures of networks and gaps between TH actors. It may also identify strengths, weaknesses and problems. This analysis is used as input to structured dialogues between actors in leading positions in the TH and in smart specialization policy-making and implementation. This approach may lead to policy interventions supporting entrepreneurial discoveries. The model has been developed in partnership with researchers and the Regional Council of Ostrobothnia. The article also presents this case study and demonstrates the use of the connectivity model in practice.     

Design thinking for city dashboard development: Recommendations from a study of smart asset management in Sydney,Australia

The city dashboard has become an integral component of smart city asset management systems. It leverages data collected from multiple sources to monitor performance and enable evidence-based decision making. This article investigates the use of a design thinking framework to develop a functional and easy to understand city dashboard. The Smart Social Spaces project is used as a case study to illustrate how design thinking can be employed to develop an asset management dashboard, enabling efficient management of public space and infrastructure. The article profiles the unique collaboration between a local government, a multi-disciplinary team of university academics, and a street furniture designer and manufacturer, all located in Sydney, Australia. We unpack some of the design practice nuances that led this project to receive national awards and international recognition, and most importantly, created a user-friendly system to track and maintain public micro assets. We conclude with lessons learnt and recommendations for dashboard development through a design thinking process.     

Across the Threshold:

The long reign of Tupou IV of Tonga ended in 2006 at a time when pressure for political change, building during the previous 25 years, was beginning to turn towards direct action. Tentative reform efforts by the king's children were insufficient to satisfy the growing demands, and were partially vitiated by controversy over royal business interests and privileges. During the king's last year, protest broadened from governance issues to economic, social and policy issues in which diverse interest groups were drawn together, having little in common other than opposition to one thing or another. Within two months of the king's death, his successor had instigated or approved some significant steps forward, but reformists declared themselves unsatisfied. A resulting riot in which large areas of the capital were destroyed, has been variously represented as an attempted coup, as a spontaneous outburst of righteous exasperation and as an attempt at political intimidation. Reform continues to be the object of government, but long-term reformists have damaged their reputations and the growing public esteem for democracy. The quest for a new national consensus has become more difficult.     

勇敢者的游戏 罗依莫拉河漂流记

<正>在俄国和芬兰边境,距离北极圈不远的地方,有一条原生态河流——罗依莫拉河。去年6月,我应俄国朋友之邀,与他们一起在那里进行了一次难忘的漂流。我们的漂流队由8个人组成,共3支小艇,装备相当专业。我们在白夜(高纬度地区出现的黄昏还没有过去就呈现黎明的现象)期间的那个傍晚到达了出发地,从一座桥边下水,进入了漂流的河道。头顶是蓝天白云,下面是光滑如镜的幽深河水。岸上是葱茏叠翠的白桦和杉木杂生林——桦木的树干是白色的,树冠     

丝绸中国的骄傲--兼评《浙江省丝绸志》

20年来的修志热潮,不要说通志,包括省(区)、市(地区)、县(市)志和乡、镇、村志,确实五彩缤纷,令人眼花缭乱;即从专志而言,不仅是传统的专志,如江河、水利、名山、寺院等志,各地纷纷推出,远胜古人;而方志史上绝未闻见、方志目录中从无著录的专志,也一时登场,使人如入山阴道上,应接不暇.以浙江省为例,诸如测绘志、电影志、外事志、围垦志、烟草志等等,不一而足.长江后浪催前浪,真是气象万千.这些年来,每一种前无古人的专志问世,虽然不关我的专业,但内心总感到一番激动,为我国专志修纂推陈出新的形势而无比兴奋.     

勇敢者的游戏 罗依莫拉河漂流记

<正>在俄国和芬兰边境,距离北极圈不远的地方,有一条原生态河流——罗依莫拉河。去年6月,我应俄国朋友之邀,与他们一起在那里进行了一次难忘的漂流。我们的漂流队由8个人组成,共3支小艇,装备相当专业。我们在白夜(高纬度地区出现的黄昏还没有过去就呈现黎明的现象)期间的那个傍晚到达了出发地,从一座桥边下水,进入了漂流的河道。头顶是蓝天白云,下面是光滑如镜的幽深河水。岸上是葱茏叠翠的白桦和杉木杂生林——桦木的树干是白色的,树冠