Citizens’ Participation in the Co-Design of Smart Cities’ Applications, a Scoping Review

Abstract

The scoping review reported by this article aimed to provide a comprehensive view of (i) the state-of-the-art of the citizens’ participation in the co-design of smart cities’ applications, (ii) the use of information technologies to facilitate the participation of the citizens in the development of smart cities’ applications, and (iii) strategies to assure the citizens’ engagement. An electronic search was conducted on (i) Scopus, (ii) Web of Science, and (iii) IEEE Xplore databases, combining relevant keywords. After the studies’ selection, 20 studies were included. The results show a current interest in (i) developing methodological frameworks; (ii) supporting platforms; (iii) supporting tools, as well as (iv) presenting case studies. However, the results also show (i) lack of consolidated evidence about the effectiveness of the methodological frameworks, platforms and supporting tools being reported, (ii) difficulties in using information technologies (e.g., distributed crowdsourcing mechanisms) to optimize the citizens’ participation, and (iii) lack of strategies aiming to guarantee the citizens’ engagement.