This chapter sets out to introduce the purpose of this book, its structure and the research methodology adopted to meet the expected outcome, that is, to demonstrate that the smart city concept has the potential to develop into something meaningful, which cities all over the world can benefit from, rather than get tangled up in the context of utopian urbanism. In order to achieve this aim, evidence shall be provided of the potential that smart cities have to overcome the utopian discourse they are currently embroiled in and develop into innovation systems that set the stage for a technology-enabled approach to urban sustainability. This evidence will be sourced from a review of the expanding literature on smart cities that has been published over the past 30 years, and the deployment of a mixed-method research strategy in which bibliometric techniques and case study research are combined.

This chapter reports on the first two decades of research on smart city development by way of a bibliometric analysis of the literature published between 1992 and 2012. The analysis shows that the research into smart cities produced during the period under investigation is fragmented, lacks cohesion, and promotes two main development paths. The first path introduces a holistic perspective of smart city development, which emerges from the peer-reviewed publications produced by European universities. The second path, in contrast, stands on the grey literature produced by the American corporate sector, which endorses a techno-centric understanding of the smart city subject. Divided along these divergent interpretations, the future of this new and promising field of research appears at risk, because it has proven unable of delivering on the expectations that the public has of smart city development and the ICT-driven approach to urban sustainability that such a development should deliver.

This last chapter concludes the investigation by summing up the key lessons and recommendations that this book can offer to the community of stakeholders involved in smart city research, policy, and practice. The series of complementary analyses that the previous chapters report on demonstrate that, when untangled from the technocentric urban utopia pictured by the corporate sector, smart cities have the potential to develop into innovation systems that set the stage for a technology-enabled approach to urban sustainability. But realizing this opportunity requires to move beyond traditional boundaries, separate the hype from reality, and strengthen the focus on the social shaping of smart cities. The investigation demonstrates that, in order for such a social shaping to develop, the design of smart cities needs to be understood as a collective action in which two complementary forces are combined. On the one hand, the faith in the technological advancement exposed in the utopian thinking. On the other, the knowledge, skills, and interests of a quadruple-helix collaborative environment where the need for technological innovation in response to urban sustainability goals is not shaped by the corporate sector and its technocentric and market-oriented logic, but an open community whose actions serve the public interest and are based on a holistic interpretation of smart city development.

Since the concept of smart city first entered in the urban development discourse about three decades ago, it has received wide-ranging support from academia, industry, government, at both local and national levels, and civil society organizations. A wide consensus has emerged that the deployment of information and communication technologies represents a critical step towards accelerating urban sustainability processes. This chapter demonstrates the validity of this firmly held belief by reporting on a series of smart city projects showcasing how ICT solutions can be instrumental in tackling the global issues affecting the sustainability of urban environments. A detailed overview of the technological trends that have underpinned the development of the smart city concept will be provided, followed by comprehensive accounts of the smart city initiatives that have been selected. For each initiative, attention will be focused on (1) the urban challenges that have been faced by means of a smart city approach to urban sustainability, (2) the ICT solutions that have been deployed, and (3) the benefits that such solutions have brought about. The analysis concludes with a critical reflection upon the current debate on smart city development, which aims to call attention on the research gaps and questions that this book aims to address.

The bibliometric analyses and extensive literature review presented in the previous chapters demonstrate the presence of a deep-rooted division in the research on smart cities, which surfaces as a set of dichotomies questioning whether smart city development should be based on a (1) technology-led or holistic strategy, (2) double- or quadruple-helix model of collaboration, (3) top-down or bottom-up approach, and (4) monodimensional or integrated intervention logic. These dichotomies suggest divergent hypotheses on what principles need to be considered when implementing strategies for enabling smart city development. This generates a critical knowledge gap that this chapter starts filling by reporting on the findings of a multiple case study analysis that is conducted into European best practices. The validity of the hypotheses emerging from each dichotomy is tested by analyzing four European cities considered to be leaders in the field of smart city development. The results of this best practice analysis offer critical insight into what strategic principles drive smart city development in Europe and generate scientific knowledge that helps to start overcoming the dichotomous nature of smart city research.

The previous best practice analysis offers a series of critical insights into the complex architecture of smart cities, revealing their building blocks and the strategic principles driving their assembly. This chapter reports on the results of an investigation demonstrating that the validity of this insight extends beyond Europe and into the development of North American smart cities. The evidence needed to support this broader generalization is drawn from the results of a best practice analysis conducted in New York City and the ICT-driven approach to urban sustainability that this smart city development stands on. The additional evidence that is produced by this investigation further highlights the strong correlation that the previous chapter started to uncover between successful smart city developments and the strategic deployment of a specific program of activities.

This chapter reports on a second bibliometric analysis in which two hybrid techniques are combined, which allow clusters of related documents obtained from a co-citation analysis to be labeled using textual data. The aim of this bibliometric study, which continues the analysis of the first two decades of research on smart city development, is to (1) visualize the network of publications shaping the overall intellectual structure of the smart city research field by considering the period between 1992 and 2012, (2) map the clusters of thematically related publications, and (3) reveal the emerging development paths that each thematic cluster represents and strategic principles they embody. The findings demonstrate that the emerging development paths of smart cities are not only two but five. The development paths that this second analysis uncovers and the strategic principles each of them stands on are then compared by reviewing the most recent literature on smart city development. Overall, this chapter offers a systematic review of the smart city research produced between 1992 and 2018, and it serves to further expose the division within its intellectual structure. A division which is caused by the dichotomous nature of the development paths of smart cities that each thematic cluster relates to.