Composite Citizens in the Smart City: Rethinking the Roles

Abstract

Theimplementation of smart cities has undergone several main stages of development, gradually moving to the understanding that human-centricity provides estimated outputs from innovations. The analysis of the perception of changes in the role of citizens by representatives of the city authorities reveals the potential for involving citizens in the decision-making system in different but not mutually exclusive roles (data source, city planner and knowledge source). Based on the example of Kazakhstani cities, the adequacy of the proposed assessment methodology for monitoring progress and comparing the dynamics of the level of involvement of citizens in the development of a smart city is demonstrated. The results show the emergence of new characteristics that reflect the mixing of functional and structural roles of a citizen in a smart city. It is demonstrated that smart city citizens are involved in city management despite the unconscious and undocumented perception of the role of citizens by the city authorities. Thus, this work can be used to justify the need to discuss changes in the interaction of participants to expand the understanding of the use of citizens' potential in the city's interests.