Social Sustainability in Smart Cities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Keywords:
Smart city, social sustainability, citizen participation, digital justice, technological innovationAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to explore the dimensions, components, and interdisciplinary perspectives of social sustainability in smart cities, focusing on the interaction between technology, people, and urban governance.
Methods and Materials: This research adopted a qualitative design based on a systematic literature review. Twelve peer-reviewed academic articles were selected from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis through Nvivo version 14 software. The coding process (open, axial, and selective) was conducted until theoretical saturation was achieved, enabling the extraction of core themes and categories.
Findings: The results revealed three main themes: (1) governance and social participation, (2) social capital and quality of urban life, and (3) technological innovation and long-term sustainability. Findings indicated that data transparency, digital justice, and citizen engagement are crucial for building trust and social cohesion. Moreover, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things contribute to social sustainability only when applied within ethical and inclusive policy frameworks.
Conclusion: Social sustainability in smart cities emerges from the balance between technology, humanity, and governance. Urban development can only be sustainable when technological innovation serves social justice, data ethics, and civic participation. The findings provide a conceptual and policy-oriented foundation for developing human-centered and inclusive smart governance systems.
Downloads
References
Albino, V., Berardi, U., & Dangelico, R. M. (2015). Smart cities: Definitions, dimensions, performance, and initiatives. Journal of Urban Technology, 22(1), 3–21.
Angelidou, M. (2017). The role of smart city characteristics in the plans of fifteen cities. Journal of Urban Technology, 24(4), 3–28.
Cardullo, P., & Kitchin, R. (2019). Being a “citizen” in the smart city: Up and down the scaffold of smart citizen participation in Dublin, Ireland. GeoJournal, 84(1), 1–13.
Caragliu, A., Del Bo, C., & Nijkamp, P. (2011). Smart cities in Europe. Journal of Urban Technology, 18(2), 65–82.
Cohen, B. (2015). The 3 generations of smart cities. Fast Company, 11(1), 1–4.
Hashem, I. A. T., Chang, V., Anuar, N. B., Adewole, K., Yaqoob, I., Gani, A., … & Chiroma, H. (2016). The role of big data in smart city. International Journal of Information Management, 36(5), 748–758.
Hollands, R. G. (2015). Critical interventions into the corporate smart city. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 8(1), 61–77.
Janssen, M., Charalabidis, Y., & Zuiderwijk, A. (2017). Benefits, adoption barriers and myths of open data and open government. Information Systems Management, 29(4), 258–268.
Kitchin, R. (2016). The ethics of smart cities and urban science. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 374(2083), 1–15.
Komninos, N. (2020). Smart cities and connected intelligence: Platforms, ecosystems and network effects. Routledge.
Lee, J. H., Hancock, M. G., & Hu, M. C. (2020). Towards an effective framework for building smart cities: Lessons from Seoul and Taipei. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 146, 1–10.
Meijer, A., & Bolívar, M. P. (2016). Governing the smart city: A review of the literature on smart urban governance. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 82(2), 392–408.
Morozov, E., & Bria, F. (2018). Rethinking the smart city: Democratizing urban technology. Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
Nam, T., & Pardo, T. A. (2011). Conceptualizing smart city with dimensions of technology, people, and institutions. Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, 282–291.
Neirotti, P., De Marco, A., Cagliano, A. C., Mangano, G., & Scorrano, F. (2014). Current trends in smart city initiatives: Some stylised facts. Cities, 38, 25–36.
Shen, L., Yang, J., Yang, S., & Han, S. (2018). A big data-based approach to analyze the impact of urban resilience on smart cities. Sustainability, 10(4), 1–16.
Tonkiss, F. (2013). Cities by design: The social life of urban form. Polity Press.
