The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Yuliya Voytenko Palgan

Yuliya Voytenko Palgan

Senior lecturer

Yuliya Voytenko Palgan

Smart and sustainable cities? : pipedreams, practicalities and possibilities

Author

  • James Evans
  • Andrew Karvonen
  • Andres Luque-Ayala
  • Chris Martin
  • Kes Mccormick
  • Rob Raven
  • Yuliya Voytenko Palgan

Summary, in English

Smart cities promise to generate economic, social and environmental value through the seamless connection of urban services and infrastructure by digital technologies (Hollands 2008, Viitanen and Kingston 2014), but there is scant evidence concerning their ability to enhance social well-being, build just and equitable communities, reduce resource consumption and waste generation, improve environmental quality or lower carbon emissions (Cavada et al. 2015). This special issue addresses the gap between the pipedream and the practice of smart cities, focusing on the social and environmental dimensions of real smart city initiatives, and the possibilities that they hold for creating more equitable and progressive cities. We argue that social equity and environmental sustainability are neither a-priori absent nor de-facto present in technological designs of smart city initiatives, but have to be made, nurtured and maintained as they materialise in particular places. This is the ‘possibility’ alluded to in our title, and where the focus of the Special Issue on the gap between the pipedreams and practicalities of smart cities leads. In this introduction we unpack this argument in greater detail and situate our six contributions within it.

Department/s

  • The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics

Publishing year

2019

Language

English

Pages

557-564

Publication/Series

Local Environment

Volume

24

Issue

7

Document type

Journal article (comment)

Publisher

Carfax Publishing

Topic

  • Environmental Sciences
  • Human Geography

Keywords

  • cities
  • smart
  • sustainability
  • urban

Status

Published

Project

  • Advancing Urban Innovation: Living Labs for Sustainable Building and Planning

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1354-9839