Smart city label: past, present, and future

Abstract

Smart city concept or label has become increasingly popular in scientific literature as well as in contemporary urban policy-making, where it has been popularized for the purpose of solving complex urban problems. This paper focuses on the review of the existing literature on this concept, following mainly manifest content analysis approach. The scrutinisation process reveals that this concept has been indeed popularized recently, overtaking (and substituting) some more older concepts, which could be partly contributed to its terminological neutrality and broader content that it tries to address. However, the main practical impetus for the growth of popularity can be attributed to the technology push. The increase in the volume of research partially also reflects the availability of research funds, thus indicating that smart city investigation is also policy-driven topic. Following a trajectory, a potential for the new city label emergence in the future should not be disregarded.