The Inclusion of Citizens in Smart Cities Policymaking: The Potential Role of Development Studies’ Participatory Methodologies

• Published in: Distributed, Ambient and Pervasive Interactions Vol. 12782; pp. 29 - 40
• Main Authors: Correia, Diogo, Feio, José, Teixeira, Leonor, Lourenço Marques, João
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2021; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Citizen; Development studies; Inclusion and Co-creation; Participation; Smart cities
• ISBN: 3030770141; 9783030770143
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-77015-0_3

Smart Cities emerged in the 90s. Since then the concept has passed from several phases from a purely techno-centric vision to see technology as a means and not an end in itself. Alongside this evolution, the role of citizens has been changing. Nowadays, citizens are seen as taking part in the co-design and co-creation of Smart Cities. However, standard participatory development methodologies are still lacking to guide policymakers. This paper will critically evaluate the role of citizens in smart cities’ governance. Smart City governance can be seen as a specific type of policymaking. Accordingly, knowledge from other disciplines that explore policymaking can be useful in highlighting flaws and future opportunities for smart cities governance. The present work explores this when it comes to the role of citizens in policymaking. It makes use of the knowledge from development geography, and reviews how citizens participation has been understood in smart cities governance. It does so by combining a review of the literature as well as interviews with Portuguese smart cities policymakers. This paper brings these insights together. The results show that while smart city policymakers recognize the importance of including citizens in policymaking, the practical application of this is still very limited. This can be enhanced by using knowledge from development geographies approach to similar problems as well as via the development of tools and guidelines. Future research should explore both of these aspects.