To what extent are Dutch citizens' interests and rights protected by ethical guidelines for smart cities?

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the notion of smart cities has become increasingly popular to solve the complex problems that cities are facing. To deal with the ethical implications of smart cities, the Netherlands face a proliferation of ethical guidelines, principles, and manifests. However: To what extent are Dutch citizens' interests protected by ethical guidelines? This study answers that question using a critical discourse analysis. This exploratory analysis uncovers unnoticed themes in the ethical discourse on smart cities and offers recommendations to strengthen the protection of citizens. Together, the ethical guidelines that are selected represent at least five major cities in the Netherlands. This study finds that the ethical guidelines support the Smart City discourse in which: data is seen as a promise for the future, citizens' interests are not central and public-private governance is pre-supposed in the digital public space. Indeed, the ethical guidelines overlook how Big Data analytics transforms ways of governing, which is described as ‘algorithmic governmentality’. Therefore, if guidelines want to commit to the protection of citizens' interests, this study encourages them to review their guidelines in a Big Data context. However, as ultimately only laws and regulations can ensure the protection of citizens' interests and rights, future research is encouraged to look into the restructuring of the legal system.