A conceptual framework to explore considerations of the social implications in internet of things and smart city governance and policy: The case of Thailand

Abstract

AbstractCities worldwide are increasingly turning to internet of things (IoT) and smart cities (SC) technologies to help address their needs and challenges. While many governments have developed smart city policies and plans, there is often a disproportionate focus on technological, digital, and economic aspects and a neglect for social implications like social justice, social equity, and social inclusion. Research has yet to fully explore how SC governance and policies consider these implications, and this is especially true in the Global South, where urbanization poses great challenges, but where resources are limited. Using Thailand as a case study, we created a conceptual framework to help explore the social implications of the country's IoT and SC governance and policies. Overall this exploration found that efforts to consider values such as social inclusion and social equity are generally missing from the country's national level SC governance and policies, but when looking at the local levels, we uncovered differences when SC efforts are top‐down versus bottom‐up. Our conceptual framework can be useful in other Global South contexts with emerging SC governance structures and policies.