The Smart City as Policy Concept in the Arab World: A Critical Research into the Strategic Visions of Urban Development in Abu Dhabi

IF 1.1 4区社会学 Q2 AREA STUDIES

Journal of Asian and African Studies Pub Date : 2023-08-13 DOI:10.1177/00219096231192316

O. A. K’Akumu, Abdullah Mazen Alhamoudi

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This article reviews the smart city as a policy concept in Abu Dhabi. It conceptualizes smart city development goals into urban and extra-urban and review smart city development programmes in terms of ex-post and ex-ante. Extra-urban refers to development goals that go beyond the spatial or conceptual boundaries of the city. This will help to demonstrate how the pursuit of extra-urban may compromise the attainment of urban development goals. The paper uses Abu Dhabi as the frontline city in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the race to attain the smart city status, having led consistently in the McKinsey Global Institute poll of 2018 and the global indexing exercises conducted by the International Institute for Management Development and Singapore University of Technology and Design in 2020 and 2021. The study has used qualitative document analysis method to review policy documents regarding the smartification initiatives in Abu Dhabi. The analysis reveals that ex-post programmes are more urban dweller oriented or urban centred with programmes involving the digitization of government services and free Wi-Fi connectivity in public transport, while ex-ante smartification programmes (as seen in the development of Masdar city) tend to be extra-urban, elitist and global in nature but do not take into account social sustainability.

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阿拉伯世界的智能城市政策理念——阿布扎比城市发展战略愿景的批判性研究

本文回顾了阿布扎比作为一个政策概念的智慧城市。它将智慧城市发展目标概念化为城市和城市外，并从事后和事前的角度审查智慧城市发展计划。城市外是指超越城市空间或概念边界的发展目标。这将有助于证明追求城市外可能会影响城市发展目标的实现。该论文将阿布扎比作为中东和北非（MENA）地区争夺智能城市地位的一线城市，在麦肯锡全球研究所2018年的民意调查以及国际管理发展研究所和新加坡科技与设计大学2020年和2021年进行的全球索引工作中一直领先。该研究使用了定性文件分析方法来审查阿布扎比智能化举措的政策文件。分析显示，事后计划更多地以城市居民为导向或以城市为中心，其中包括政府服务数字化和公共交通中的免费Wi-Fi连接，而事前智能化计划（如马斯达尔市的发展所示）往往是超城市的、精英化的和全球性的，但没有考虑到社会可持续性。

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

Journal of Asian and African Studies AREA STUDIES-

CiteScore

2.70

自引率

10.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Asian and African Studies (JAAS) was founded in 1965 to further research and study on Asia and Africa. JAAS is a peer reviewed journal of area studies recognised for consistent scholarly contributions to cutting-edge issues and debates. The journal welcomes articles, research notes, and book reviews that focus on the dynamics of global change and development of Asian and African nations, societies, cultures, and the global community. Published articles cover: -development and change -technology and communication -globalization -public administration -politics -economy -education -health, wealth, and welfare -poverty and growth -humanities -sociology -political science -linguistics -economics JAAS adheres to a double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties. Decisions on manuscripts will be taken as rapidly as possible. However, while it is hoped that a decision can be made in 6-8 weeks, the refereeing process makes it impossible to predict the length of time that will be required to process any given manuscript.