City-as-a-Platform: The Rise of Participatory Innovation Platforms in Finnish Cities
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School of Management, University of Tampere, Tampere 33014, Finland
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Head of City Competitiveness Development Unit, Helsinki, Finland
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Chief Advisor, Helsinki City Executive Officer, Economic Development, City Competitiveness Unit, Helsinki, Finland
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Project Coordinator, Environment Centre, Helsinki, Finland
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Development Manager, INKA Program, Tampere, Finland
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Tampere, Finland
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Development Manager of Local Democracy, Tampere, Finland
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Project Manager, Open Innovation Platforms (Oma Tesoma Project), Tampere, Finland
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Project Planner, 6Aika Open Participation and Customership, Tampere, Finland
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Development Manager, Tampere Region Economic Development Agency Tredea, Tampere, Finland
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Development Manager, Smart City, Tampere Region Economic Development Agency Tredea, Tampere, Finland
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Project Manager, 6Aika Open Innovation Platforms, BusinessOulu, Oulu, Finland
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Director of OULLabs, Center for Internet Excellence, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
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Chief Audit Executive (former Development Manager), Oulu, Finland
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City Planning Architect, Oulu, Finland
Academic Editor: Nicos Komninos
Sustainability 2016, 8(9), 922; https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090922
Received: 5 July 2016
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Revised: 29 August 2016
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Accepted: 5 September 2016
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Published: 10 September 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Environments and Planning for Urban Renewal)
This article discusses the idea of city as a platform. The analysis focuses on the forms and implications of citizen involvement in publicly-supported participatory innovation platforms that facilitate urban economic development in the welfare society context. The discussion opens with a review of the smart city discourse, which in the context of economic development policy translates into cities’ need to support innovativeness by creating smart environments. Participatory innovation platform is a prime example of such an environment. The empirical section discusses three cases, those of the Finnish cities of Helsinki, Tampere, and Oulu. The analysis shows that platformization in the first half of the 2010s became a strategic focal area supported by national and EU programs. Platforms are used to support both urban revitalization and economic development, of which the former is based on representative and the latter on instrumental modes of participation. Platforms are well integrated with city governments, even though they vary greatly in terms of organizational forms and scopes. Democratic culture, welfarism, and redistributive policy provide contextual support for platformization by strengthening social inclusion, taming the growth machine, and easing the tensions between pro-growth and anti-growth coalitions.
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Keywords:
smart city; urban development; local economic development; city; citizen; participation; innovation; platform; platformization; Finland
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MDPI and ACS Style
Anttiroiko, A.-V. City-as-a-Platform: The Rise of Participatory Innovation Platforms in Finnish Cities. Sustainability 2016, 8, 922. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090922
AMA Style
Anttiroiko A-V. City-as-a-Platform: The Rise of Participatory Innovation Platforms in Finnish Cities. Sustainability. 2016; 8(9):922. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090922
Chicago/Turabian StyleAnttiroiko, Ari-Veikko. 2016. "City-as-a-Platform: The Rise of Participatory Innovation Platforms in Finnish Cities" Sustainability 8, no. 9: 922. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090922
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