# Smart urban governance: an alternative to technocratic “smartness”

## TL;DR

The paper introduces smart urban governance as a more inclusive alternative to technocratic smart city approaches, emphasizing context and urban challenges.

## Contribution

Proposes a new framework for smart urban governance combining spatial, institutional, and technological components.

## Key findings

- Smart urban governance varies significantly based on local urban issues and contexts.
- Demand-driven governance and context-specific technologies are more effective for solving urban challenges.
- Cultural, political, and economic contexts shape interactions between governance components.

## Abstract

This paper argues for a specific urban planning perspective on smart governance that we call “smart urban governance,” which represents a move away from the technocratic way of governing cities often found in smart cities. A framework on smart urban governance is proposed on the basis of three intertwined key components, namely spatial, institutional, and technological components. To test the applicability of the framework, we conducted an international questionnaire survey on smart city projects. We then identified and discursively analyzed two smart city projects—Smart Nation Singapore and Helsinki Smart City—to illustrate how this framework works in practice. The questionnaire survey revealed that smart urban governance varies remarkably: As urban issues differ in different contexts, the governance modes and relevant ICT functionalities applied also differ considerably. Moreover, the case analysis indicates that a focus on substantive urban challenges helps to define appropriate modes of governance and develop dedicated technologies that can contribute to solving specific smart city challenges. The analyses of both cases highlight the importance of context (cultural, political, economic, etc.) in analyzing interactions between the components. In this, smart urban governance promotes a sociotechnical way of governing cities in the “smart” era by starting with the urban issue at stake, promoting demand-driven governance modes, and shaping technological intelligence more socially, given the specific context.