Social Network Analysis of Smart Cities Stakeholders' Involvement in Policies Development

Abstract

The introduction of the smart city concept has led to an increased role of the citizen in the planning system, a change in the format of participation and the development of new information links between the city authorities and other participants in developing the city. The paper investigates the parameters of the complication of the role of the citizen by applying SNA methods. The paper demonstrates a system of relationships between stakeholders with an assessment of identified changes in the role of a citizen and the strength of their interaction through documents formalising city policies. Different roles of the citizen are also discussed in terms of network relations. Based on a two-modal matrix of links between official policy papers and participants, the relationships among stakeholders and the strength of their interaction are examined. An increase in centrality or the level of citizen participation in the smart city policies development was discussed in detail.