Participatory Democracy and the Governance of Smart Cities

Abstract

Citizens’ participation in urban planning and policy-making develops the traditional top-down governance model via promotion of bottom-up approaches to policy development and decision-making. This evolution drives social innovation in support of planning initiatives and results in more public-oriented policy specification for better governance and a sustainable urban environment. Innovative ICT solutions offer significant opportunities to address the challenges arising from these developments. Smart city initiatives promote the use of ICT for improved governance through better communication and information services, as well as providing policy-makers and urban planners with tools and intelligence to actively manage the urban environment. This paper presents and discusses smart planning and urban governance from a smart city perspective, and includes a case study from the UrbanAPI project, which develops and deploys ICT solutions for public participation in planning initiatives and policy-making at various scales of urban governance.