Understanding Smart City Policy: Insights from the Strategy Documents of 52 Local Governments

Abstract

Today, many cities around the globe are interested in developing or adopting smart city policy frameworks; however, the complexity of the smart city concept combined with complicated urban issues makes it a highly challenging task. Moreover, there are limited studies to consolidate our understanding of smart city policymaking. The aim of this study was to bridge this knowledge gap by placing a set of official smart city policy frameworks under the policy analysis microscope. The study approached the analysis by, firstly, internationally collating the smart city policy frameworks of 52 local governments from 17 countries. The methodology then progressed to a deductive content analysis of the identified policies with a thematic data analysis software. The investigation employed the main themes to identify common urban issues in smart city policies—i.e., smart economy, smart environment, smart governance, smart living, smart mobility, and smart people. The results revealed the targeted key planning issues, goals, and priorities, and the ways that smart city policies address these key planning issues, goals, and priorities. The study findings inform policymakers, planners and practitioners on the smart city policy priorities and provide insights for smart city policymaking.