Clustering Smart City Services: Perceptions, Expectations, Responses

Miltiadis Lytras,Akila Sarirete,Anna Visvizi

doi:10.3390/su11061669

Miltiadis Lytras, Akila Sarirete + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11061669

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Mar 19, 2019
Citations: 78	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: American College of Greece, Effat University

Abstract

Smart cities research evolved into one of the most vibrant fields of research and policy-making with sustainability and well-being becoming the bons mots of the debate. The business sector, i.e., the developers and the vendors, form an equally important group of stakeholders in this context. The question is to what extent that debate yields the kind of output that the end-users would expect and would consider useful and usable. A plethora of smart city services exists. Literature suggests that a myriad of new ICT-enhanced tools could find application in urban space. Methodologically speaking, the question is how to link these two meaningfully. The objective of this paper is to address this issue. To this end, smart city services are mapped and clusters of services are identified; end users’ perceptions and expectations are identified and observations are drawn. The value added of this paper is threefold: (i) at the conceptual level, it adds new insights in the ‘normative bias of smart cities research’ thesis, (ii) at the empirical level, it typifies smart city services and clusters them, and (iii) it introduces a practical toolkit that policymakers, regulators, and the business sector might employ to query end-users’ perceptions and expectations to effectively respond to citizens’ needs.

Highlights

Several dimensions of—what has been termed elsewhere—as ‘the normative bias’ of smart cities research thesis exist, including conceptual and empirical dimensions [1,2]
In the long-run, this approach can defend itself, in the short-run it is necessary that valid functional connections between research on smart cities and the challenges faced by our society are identified, conceptualized, and exploited on an empirical ground
This requires that all stakeholders, their needs, perceptions, expectations, and capacities are factored in the discussion on ICT-enhanced services and their availability in cities and urban space and in rural areas, including smart villages

Summary

Introduction

Several dimensions of—what has been termed elsewhere—as ‘the normative bias’ of smart cities research thesis exist, including conceptual and empirical dimensions [1,2]. In the long-run, this approach can defend itself, in the short-run it is necessary that valid functional connections between research on smart cities and the challenges faced by our society are identified, conceptualized, and exploited on an empirical ground This requires that the great variety of stakeholders involved in the making of smart cities, including their needs, perceptions, expectations, and capacities, are factored into the smart cities debate equation. Whereas in the long-run, this approach can defend itself, in short-run, it is necessary that valid functional connections between research on smart cities and the challenges society faces are exploited This requires that all stakeholders, their needs, perceptions, expectations, and capacities are factored in the discussion on ICT-enhanced services and their availability in cities and urban space and in rural areas, including smart villages. In the concluding part, the key findings and a few recommendations are outlined

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Conclusion