The complexities of smartification: Exploring horizontal tensions in smart city governance

IF 4.2 1区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Urban Studies Pub Date : 2024-12-13 DOI:10.1177/00420980241298607

Desirée Enlund, Katherine Harrison

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Smart cities build on visions for using technology to optimise various infrastructural functions andãmake city management more efficient, sustainable, and reliable. However, scholarship on smart cities has drawn attention to how data-centric planning simplifies the complexity of the urban environment and how a dichotomous approach to smart cities as either top-down or bottom-up may be overly reductive. This paper attempts to remedy this divide by highlighting the horizontal tensions in smart city planning, where tensions around implementing smart technologies appear as multiple actors and discourses converge in creating complex governance structures. We offer a case study of how scalar, temporal and social tensions around implementing smart city technologies are negotiated, based on interviews with employees in a Swedish municipality and several municipal corporations. We elaborate on three themes around time, the role of the municipality and infrastructure to gain a deeper understanding of the governance of and attitudes towards smartification. The interviewees described the complexities of implementing smart technology in reality, spanning various scales and intermingling public and private interests. These issues matter for how the municipality and the municipal corporations work with implementing smart technologies, making it anything but a straightforward process.

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智慧城市的愿景是利用技术优化各种基础设施功能，使城市管理更加高效、可持续和可靠。然而，有关智慧城市的学术研究提请人们注意，以数据为中心的规划如何简化了城市环境的复杂性，以及将智慧城市划分为自上而下或自下而上的二分法如何可能过于简单。本文试图通过强调智慧城市规划中的横向紧张关系来弥补这一分歧，在这种情况下，随着多方参与者和论述在创建复杂治理结构的过程中交汇，围绕智能技术实施的紧张关系就会显现出来。我们通过对瑞典某市政府和几家市政公司员工的访谈，提供了一个案例研究，说明如何就实施智能城市技术的规模、时间和社会紧张关系进行协商。我们围绕时间、市政当局的作用和基础设施这三个主题展开讨论，以深入了解智能化的管理方式和人们对智能化的态度。受访者描述了在现实中实施智能技术的复杂性，这些复杂性跨越了不同的范围，并将公共利益和私人利益交织在一起。这些问题关系到市政当局和市政公司如何实施智能技术，使其不再是一个简单的过程。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Urban Studies Multiple-

CiteScore

10.50

自引率

8.50%

发文量

150

期刊介绍： Urban Studies was first published in 1964 to provide an international forum of social and economic contributions to the fields of urban and regional planning. Since then, the Journal has expanded to encompass the increasing range of disciplines and approaches that have been brought to bear on urban and regional problems. Contents include original articles, notes and comments, and a comprehensive book review section. Regular contributions are drawn from the fields of economics, planning, political science, statistics, geography, sociology, population studies and public administration.