Public participation in the social sustainability evaluation of smart city infrastructure in the context of big data: a critical review

Purpose The current booming development of smart cities poses new requirements and challenges for their internal infrastructure development. This article aims to explore the questions of: What is the level of social sustainability of smart city infrastructure today? and What are the core contents and paths to improve this level?Design/methodology/approachWith the theme of public participation in the social sustainability evaluation of smart city infrastructure in the context of big data, this study mainly makes a systematic literature review of the Web of Science's Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index databases. After collection and screening, 199 documents were finally obtained.FindingsIt is found that the level of social sustainability of smart city infrastructure is still low, and public participation can provide solutions to the difficulties and challenges involved in its development, while big data technology can broaden the channels for public participation and promote the development of smart city-related components in the process, including smart city infrastructure.Originality/valueThis article summarizes the internal mechanisms of smart cities at the theoretical level and analyzes the social sustainable development of smart city infrastructure. In practice, the shortcomings in this field are identified and suggestions are provided on how to carry out digital public participation, which has practical reference value.