Sustainability Means Inclusivity: Engaging Citizens in Early-Stage Smart City Development

Abstract

The challenge of how cities can be designed and developed in an inclusive and sustainable direction is monumental. Smart city technologies currently offer the most promising solution for long-term sustainability, but the impact of such solutions will be significantly reduced without long-term, widespread adoption by citizens. In this article, we present the rationale behind an ongoing interdisciplinary research project titled “Sustainability means inclusivity (SuMIn)” that aims to address exactly this problem by using a par-ticipatory design approach. Focusing on a smart city test site in Sweden where sensors are currently being deployed to collect data on, for example, noise, par-ticles, vehicle numbers, and types, the goal is to bring local residents and government representatives into dialogue with technical developers by adopting a “meet-in-the-middle” approach.