Sustainable Smart City Transitions

Theoretical Foundations, Sociotechnical Assemblage and Governance Mechanisms

Luca Mora, Mark Deakin, Xiaoling Zhang, Michael Batty, Martin de Jong, Paolo Santi, Francesco Paolo Appio, Luca Mora, Mark Deakin, Xiaoling Zhang, Michael Batty, Martin de Jong, Paolo Santi, Francesco Paolo Appio

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000540789
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

This book enhances the reader's understanding of the theoretical foundations, sociotechnical assemblage, and governance mechanisms of sustainable smart city transitions.

Drawing on empirical evidence stemming from existing smart city research, the book begins by advancing a theory of sustainable smart city transitions, which forms bridges between smart city development studies and some of the key assumptions underpinning transition management and system innovation research, human geography, spatial planning, and critical urban scholarship. This interdisciplinary theoretical formulation details how smart city transitions unfold and how they should be conceptualized and enacted in order to be assembled as sustainable developments. The proposed theory of sustainable smart city transitions is then enriched by the findings of investigations into the planning and implementation of smart city transition strategies and projects.

Focusing on different empirical settings, change dimensions, and analytical elements, the attention moves from the sociotechnical requirements of citywide transition pathways to the development of sector-specific smart city projects and technological innovations, in particular in the fields of urban mobility and urban governance.

This book represents a relevant reference work for academic and practitioner audiences, policy makers, and representative of smart city industries.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Urban Technology.

Mapping the Knowledge Domain of Smart City Development to Urban Sustainability: A Scientometric Study

Zezhou Wu, Mingyang Jiang, Heng Li

, and Xiaoling Zhang

ABSTRACT

Smart city development plays an important role in achieving urban sustainability. This paper uses mapping of knowledge domain (MKD) analysis to review 965 studies concerning smart city development and urban sustainability (SCDUS). The most influential journals, scholars, articles, keywords, and regions in the SCDUS research field are identified. Research findings also reveal four prevailing topic clusters in the current SCDUS field, namely information technology, energy and environment, urban transportation and mobility, and urban policy and development planning. Potential research frontiers are further proposed. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the development of current SCDUS research.

Introduction

According to the latest world urbanization prospects report published by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 55 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas in 2018, a figure that is expected to rise to 68 percent by 2050 (UNDESA, 2018). This will accelerate the urbanization process and create a series of social, economic, and environmental problems (Liu et al., 2018; Wu et al., 2019c; Zhang et al., 2018). Making cities smart and sustainable is becoming a strategy to alleviate the problems emerging from urban development (Wang et al., 2019; Schipper and Silvius, 2018).

The “smart city” concept was first proposed in 1992, but little related research was subsequently carried out for a long time, with the number of publications and scientific works not increasing substantially until 2010 (Jucevičius et al., 2014). Nowadays, although the concept is widely used, there is still no clear and consistent understanding of its meaning, which integrates numerous features, components, and dimensions (Dameri and Cocchia, 2013). However, there is a basic consensus over the technological innovation involved: this is that the new generation of information and communication technology (ICT), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and artificial intelligence provide important support for the construction of smart cities (Luo et al., 2019; Zeng et al., 2017). In addition to new technologies, another important characteristic is the role of human capital in developing smart cities with improved economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Caragliu et al. (2011: 70), for example, provided a comprehensive definition of a smart city based on various factors and goals in stating that

We believe a city to be smart when investments in human and social capital and traditional (transport) and modern (ICT) communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic growth and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources, through participatory governance.

A considerable number of existing smart city definitions have included sustainable development goals (Kramers et al., 2014). Recent research has begun to focus on a more systematic exploration of the relationship between smart cities and sustainable cities, incorporating sustainability into the smart city concept and approach (Ahvenniemi et al., 2017). Marsal-Llacuna et al. (2015) claimed that smart cities should be evaluated from three aspects: information and communication technology, sustainable development, and quality of life. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and International Telecommunication Union also defined the concept of smart city sustainable development (Huovila et al., 2019). This makes the environmental dimension an integral part of smart city development, which is viewed as a new way to enhance sustainability.

Hosseini et al. (2018) pointed out that literature reviews provide a stopgap for gaining a deeper understanding of a specific research area. Several excellent reviews have been conducted in the smart city field. For example, Mora et al. (2017) employed the Fruchterman-Reingold layout algorithm to visualize the overall intellectual structure of the first 20 years (1992–2012) of smart city studies. Komninos and Mora (2018) conducted a bibliometric analysis to identify three structural axes that traverse the smart city literature. Furtherm...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction – Assembling Sustainable Smart City Transitions: An Interdisciplinary Theoretical Perspective
• 1 Mapping the Knowledge Domain of Smart City Development to Urban Sustainability: A Scientometric Study
• 2 From “Smart in the Box” to “Smart in the City”: Rethinking the Socially Sustainable Smart City in Context
• 3 Input-Output Modeling for Smart City Development
• 4 Digital Transformation of City Ecosystems: Platforms Shaping Engagement and Externalities across Vertical Markets
• 5 Strategic Planning for Smart City Development: Assessing Spatial Inequalities in the Basic Service Provision of Metropolitan Cities
• 6 How Are Smart City Concepts and Technologies Perceived and Utilized? A Systematic Geo-Twitter Analysis of Smart Cities in Australia
• 7 Exploring Smart City Project Implementation Risks in the Cities of Kakinada and Kanpur
• 8 Balancing Exploration and Exploitation in Sustainable Urban Innovation: An Ambidexterity Perspective toward Smart Cities
• 9 Quantifying the Spatio-Temporal Potential of Drive-by Sensing in Smart Cities
• 10 Understanding Ridesourcing Mobility and the Future of Electrification: A Comparative Study in Beijing
• 11 The Price of Privacy Control in Mobility Sharing
• 12 Building City Dashboards for Different Types of Users
• 13 Going Beyond the Smart City? Implementing Technopolitical Platforms for Urban Democracy in Madrid and Barcelona
• Index