Abstract
The wisdom of ‘smart’ development increasingly shapes urban sustainability in Europe and beyond. Yet, the ‘smart city’ paradigm has been critiqued for favouring technological solutions and business interests over social inclusion and urban innovation. Despite the rhetoric of ‘citizen-centred approaches’ and ‘user-generated data’, the level of stakeholder engagement and public empowerment is still in question. It is unclear how smart city initiatives are developing common visions according to the principles of sustainable urban development. This paper examines how data governance in particular is framed in the new smart city agenda that is focused on sustainability. The challenges and opportunities of data governance in sustainability-driven smart city initiatives are articulated within a conceptual Framework on Sustainable Smart City Data Governance. Drawing on three cases from European countries and a stakeholder survey, the paper shows how governance of data can underpin urban smart and sustainable development solutions. The paper presents insights and lessons from this multi-case study, and discusses risks, challenges, and future research.
Highlights
Smart solutions have a key role to play in making cities sustainable and resilient (e.g., [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]).A ‘smart city’, cannot only provide innovative solutions for urban infrastructure, better public services for the citizens and better use of urban resources but must guide how people govern and make decisions so sustainable urban development can be ensured [8]
Transitions [7]; in the study we provide a connection between smart city data governance and sustainable urban development (e.g., [13,14])
As we focus on existing examples of smart city initiatives, the findings of the study can appeal to both scholars and practitioners
Summary
A ‘smart city’, cannot only provide innovative solutions for urban infrastructure, better public services for the citizens and better use of urban resources but must guide how people govern and make decisions so sustainable urban development can be ensured [8]. The changes in urban governance triggered by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) pose new questions about the role and importance of data governance for achieving the goals of sustainable development. Demonstrating smart sustainability through the data that cities generate and use raises many governance questions ([6,7,10,11,12]): For example, ‘How does the relationship between government and civil society change
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