Abstract
A significant cultural shift occurred over recent decades, with the majority of the world’s population now living in cities and contributing over two thirds of global carbon emissions. If countries around the world are to meet challenging global carbon reduction targets, then how our cities are governed and managed to maximize energy efficiency is of vital importance. Faith is increasingly being placed in what are commonly referred to as ‘smart cities.’ Smart cities seemingly offer a utopian vision of urban integration, efficiency and [subsequent] carbon reductions, yet urbanisation presents real challenges, as noted by Sustainable Development Goal 11: “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. Cities are made up of people and increasingly both policymakers and practitioners are starting to see citizens as an essential stakeholder, even if there is a blurring over the boundaries between citizens and consumers. It is unclear what these people actually refer to when they talk about citizen engagement. Adopting key theoretical underpinning of ladder of participation (Arnstein), this research will present findings from case studies of novel citizen engagement from around the world, notably Nottingham (UK), Espoo (Finland) and Portland (USA). Utilising semi-structured interview material findings are analysed through critical framework of citizen engagement to see whether they fulfil the notion of smart cities and communities. Specifically, new forms of engagement that do not fit previously held assumptions around participation need to be considered. Recommendations are provided for increasing new forms of citizen engagement in smart city strategies in order to ensure they are fully adopted and embedded.
Highlights
A profound socio-cultural shift has occurred with the majority of the world’s population living in cities and contributing over two thirds of global carbon emissions [1]
If countries around the world are to meet challenging global carbon reduction targets, how our cities are governed and managed to maximize energy efficiency is of vital importance
Smart cities seemingly offer a utopian vision of urban integration, efficiency and [subsequent] carbon reductions, yet urbanisation presents real challenges, as noted by Sustainable Development Goal 11: “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”
Summary
A profound socio-cultural shift has occurred with the majority of the world’s population living in cities and contributing over two thirds of global carbon emissions [1]. Faith is increasingly being placed in smart cities to meet these targets Most visions of these smart cities though revolve around increased urban integration, efficiency and [subsequent] carbon reductions through digital technologies and feature as a Sustainable Development Goal. Webler applied these principles of communication to the formulation of a set of criteria and rules that would transform democratic ideals of deliberative democracy into practice These typologies and heuristics for engagement are important to frame the debate for citizen engagement in smart cities. Our final author is based in Finland and is an active practitioner and researcher in the field of smart cities, technology and the built environment This allowed us to have excellent access to these cities from the UK, Finland and North America and reflect on their approaches to citizen engagement. Primary data was supported with the integration of secondary data which included project documentation/ deliverables around citizen engagement and publicly available policy and strategy documents of cities
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