As part of the growing interest in cities to address persistent sustainability issues in society, ‘smart cities’ have increasingly become a ubiquitous phenomenon globally. For multinational enterprises (MNEs), this has provided opportunities to develop and market technological innovations to facilitate …

Illustration by Dr. Sandra Geelhoed. Dr. Sandra Geelhoed is a sociologist, art educator and co-operation partner. Dr Geelhoed is conducting a research project on narrative accountability at the Research Centre for Social Innovation at HU University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht. Since January 2019, she …

Beyond the potential of new layers of urban infrastructure - sensor-laden networks, big data, artificial intelligence - to optimize cities functionally, lay promising opportunities to also use these technologies for new forms of social interactions. In an ongoing smart city development project, we explore …

In the debate about smart cities, an alternative to a dominant top-down, tech-driven solutionist approach has arisen in examples of ‘civic hacking’. Hacking here refers to the playful, exploratory, collaborative and sometimes transgressive modes of operation found in various hacker cultures, this time …

Launching smart city activities and projects requires political support. For sustainable approaches, a concrete strategy, and leadership endorsement from the municipal government is crucial. In accordance with the most prevalent definitions of a smart city, postulating that a city must enhance quality …

This short communication contains a reflection on local entrepreneurial ecosystems and how to boost them, in the context of smart specialisation strategies of cities and regions. It is based on a literature study and inputs from ten member cities of the InFocus project (sponsored by the EU's URBACT programme), …

Urban ageing is an emerging domain that deals with the population of older people living in cities. The ageing of society is a positive yet challenging phenomenon, as population ageing and urbanisation are the culmination of successful human development. One could argue whether the city environment …

Technology in general, and assistive technology in particular, is considered to be a promising opportunity to address the challenges of an aging population. Nevertheless, in health care, technology is not as widely used as could be expected. In this chapter, an overview is given of theories and models …

Deciding what kind of smart cities do we, as a society, want is not only a political question but also a matter of envisioning possible futures. The speculative narratives that designers produce to support their imagination are called "Design Fictions." We share SUBMERGED, a cross-platform project that …

The smart city infrastructure will soon start to include smart agents, i.e., agentic things, which co-exist and co-perform with human citizens. This near-future scenario explores the flexible types of collaborations and relationships between the human and nonhuman citizens. Drawing on current technology …