Smart City and its Prototypes: social perceptions (outcomes of social analysis)

Abstract

The term Smart City (digital city, cybercity, city of knowledge, eco-city) is being increasingly used in the social space and media since the beginning of the twenty-first century. The term implies the comprehensive activities of international organizations (UN, EU, UAE, etc.) and cities to transform the social environment of megacities. In the presence of a significant number of publications related to IT technologies, clarification of the meaning and content of the social characteristics of the new phenomenon requires further research. The pilot-study of the social perceptions of the term Smart City was implemented by means of a content analysis of scientific literature, direct and remote polling of citizens using a random sample method (459 respondents). The respondents on the basis of the semantic differential method (M. Rokeach) have assessed the image of a Smart City, as well as a number of other images associated with its understanding on 16 and 28 scale-scripts, specially developed questionnaires containing also C. Alderfer’s and M. L scher’s tests. The received answers were subjected to the procedure of factorial and correlation analysis separately in each group of respondents. When processing the research results, the SPSS program was used.