Revisiting the Smart City Concept

Dear Colleagues,

Historically, as the concept of Smart Cities unfolded and gained traction globally, ICT corporations pushed for the adoption of off-the-shelf solutions. While this was initially seen as innovative, off-the-shelf solutions are no longer accepted as they often overlook the basic tenets of the Smart Cities concept. In reality, most off-the-shelf solutions fail to acknowledge issues like the decision-making processes of different cities, their regulatory landscapes and the basic problems and challenges that need to be solved across jurisdictions and communities. As a result, ICT corporations are accused of shifting attention from the big and important questions of the Smart Cities concept and its implementation to minute issues with little impact on cities but the ability to increase profit margins.

Today, the disconnect and lack of communication concerning the solutions is apparent in and between cities. This prompts a number of questions as to the effectiveness of these solutions for the larger global goals of the smart city concept. This debate is particularly important at a time when the world is saturated with (new and evolving) technologies that could be exploited to bring about solutions that cross-cut and those with the potential to be customized for different cities. Therefore, going forward, it is paramount that we take a few steps back and think in retrospect about the larger goals of Smart Cities. We must attempt to study conceptual dimensions that can better guide the rush towards specialized solutions. Global challenges like the increasing incidences of climate change and the increasing demands prompted by the rapid rate of urbanization, unprecedented population increases, limited land use, floating cities, and how they affect the global landscape need to be given maximum attention. The retrospection should be guided by the practical social as well as economic implications of implementing this concept, particularly because transition to a digital economy has been observed to be capital intensive, particularly in the global south and in developing economies where unsustainable debt cycles are explored as financing means. Hence, the obtained solutions are often disproportionate to the risks. A critical look at those issues at a conceptual and larger level would, to a great extent, ensure that the rush towards specialized solutions is justified and caters first and foremost to the welfare of the cities and its citizens (and the hidden animal life within).

As such, we welcome submissions that revisit, critique, challenge, and contribute to the Smart Cities concept, with the aim of highlighting new and different viewpoints that re-align efforts by ICT corporations to deliver better and more cohesive and inclusive Smart City solutions.

Dr. Zaheer Allam
Prof. Dr. David S. Jones
Guest Editors

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