Creative citizenship: the new wave for collaborative environments in smart cities

Abstract

Purpose This paper is framed under the relevance of collaborative governance models in smart cities that are members of the EUROCITIES network and are involved in a working group about “creative citizenship” and seeks to analyse the use of new technologies by city governments in smart cities with the aim at improving e-participation of the citizenry in the public arena. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on two data collection methods. First, this paper performs an e-survey sent to leading European smart cities about the relevance of collaborative governance in strategies of cities, about the main pillars and outcomes of smart governance and about the model of participation in developing a smart city. Second, an examination of 47 local governments of smart cities included in the working group of “creative citizenship” in the EUROCITIES network is performed during March 2017 with the specific purpose of collecting data about smart technologies used for e-participation. Findings Sample smart cities believe that collaborative governance is necessary to be implemented in public sector management under the smart environment but less than 50 per cent of them have created citizen participation platforms to promote citizen involvement in public affairs and only a few of them promote online public consultations, discussions and petitions. Also, there are differences in perceptions and in e-participation tools used by sample smart cities in accordance with the administrative culture of the country in which these cities are located. Originality/value This paper contributes to fill the gap in the analysis of the relevance of collaborative governance models in smart cities and the use in these cities of transparency websites, open data projects or e-participation platforms to promote citizen involvement in the public affairs of the city.