Neighborhood Disparities in Smart City Service Adoption

TL;DR

This study investigates how neighborhood residency impacts the adoption of smart city services, revealing that local context influences digital proficiency and privacy perceptions, which in turn affect usage.

Contribution

It demonstrates the importance of place effects in understanding digital inequality and smart city service adoption, using empirical data and Structural Equation Modeling.

Findings

Neighborhood residency affects reasons for service adoption

Digital proficiency and privacy perceptions vary by neighborhood

Place effects are crucial in addressing digital inequality

Abstract

While local governments have invested heavily in smart city infrastructure, significant disparities in adopting these services remain in urban areas. The success of many user-facing smart city technologies requires understanding barriers to adoption, including persistent inequalities in urban areas. An analysis of a random sample telephone survey (n=489) in four neighborhoods of Tel Aviv merged with digital municipal services usage data found that neighborhood residency influences the reasons why residents adopt resident-facing smart city services, as well as individual-level factors. Structured Equation Modeling shows that neighborhood residency is related to digital proficiency and privacy perceptions beyond demographic factors and that those influence the adoption of smart-city services. We summarize the paper by discussing why and how place effects must be considered in further research in smart cities and the study and mitigation of digital inequality.