Governing Smart City

Razaghi and Finger (2018) defined city as a system, which means that a city is composed by interrelated elements that are indivisible elements but a whole. When we see a city as a system, we acknowledge the human agents that are also shaping the behaviour of the urban system as a whole and also how the complex urban system can be massive in terms of components and the geographical coverage. This definition challenges the view of “smart city” that only use technocratic and corporate-led approach. Jiang, H. (2021) suggested the need of incorporating the “urban” into the “smart city” with urban defined as more than just the physical form, but also the social relationship, historical, cultural, political and economics or urban space production. In short, “smart city” should be more context based, sociotechnical way of governing cities. With the balance of the technocratic and social-context-based of governance of the smart city, Meijer and Bolivar (2016) believed that it could contribute to the legitimacy of urban governance because its strengthen the outcome and process as it is more democratic and local-conscious way of governing the city.  

Reference:

Razaghi, M., & Finger, M. (2018). Smart governance for smart cities. Proceedings of the IEEE, 106(4), 680-689.

Meijer, A., & Bolívar, M. P. R. (2016). Governing the smart city: a review of the literature on smart urban governance. international review of administrative sciences, 82(2), 392-408.

Jiang, H. (2021). Smart urban governance in the ‘smart’era: Why is it urgently needed?. Cities, 111, 103004.

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