From urban vitality to urban vitalisation: Trust, distrust, and citizenship regimes in a Smart City initiative

Abstract

This paper presents a shift in attention from urban vitality to urban vitalisation as a process that reflects ongoing interactions between residents, communities, and urban government agencies. To explore urban vitalisation, we offer a conceptual framework connecting two theoretical terms, trust/distrust and citizenship regimes, and we ask in what ways relations between trust/distrust (of residents in their municipality) and citizenship regimes explain residents' engagement in smart urban vitalisation. To answer this question, we present a case study of a group of Haifa residents who used a digital platform to push for improvement in the ways the local government accommodated their needs. Based on our analysis, we make two arguments of potential interest to scholars and stakeholders involved in smart city initiatives. First, both trust and distrust can motivate residents' involvement in smart city initiatives. Second, examining trust and distrust in light of the relevant citizenship regime (individual-liberal and civic-republican) sheds light on relational and dynamic configurations of residents' involvement in the process of smart urban vitalisation.