«Smart City» in Socio-Political Projection (The Case of Barcelona)

Abstract

This article reveals the process of becoming a “smart city” based on the materials of Barcelona. The socio-political aspects of the use of “smart city” technologies in the information and communication era are revealed.The authors use of the system method made it possible to study the technologies of the “smart city” in aggregate, and the use of the comparative method made it possible to establish the specifics of the development of Barcelona during the tenure of Mayor Xavier Trias and Ada Colau. The authors draw attention to the reasons for the recognition of the capital of Catalonia as the most high-tech city in the world in 2015. It is emphasized that Barcelona has made a rapid breakthrough in a relatively short period of time, turning into a post-industrial city. It is noted that the driver of Barcelona’s transformation was the holding of the XXV Summer Olympic Games in 1992, which essentially changed the appearance of the city.The authors point to the additional opportunities in city management that the information and communication revolution led to and the speed of the Internet penetration rate. It is emphasized that information and communication technologies led to the transformation of a rigidly vertical bureaucratic system of exercising power and set the vector of its transition to a horizontal (network model) based on the effects of high technologies.It is noted that the modern model of exercising power in Barcelona presupposes the active involvement of citizens in the processes of city management, based on the use of technological platforms that simplify coworking processes.As a result of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that the contemporary paradigm of the “smart city” involves the involvement of citizens as active participants in decisionmaking and planning. Attention is focused on the formation of two models of urban governance in Barcelona, differing in the dynamics of the exercise of power and the prevalence of tendencies from “top to bottom” (mayors of the city of K. Trias) and from “bottom to top” (mayor of the city A. Colau). The authors emphasize that modern Barcelona is not only a flagship of technological development, but also a city with democratic traditions and a high level of humancentered orientation.