Scrutinizing the Smart City: Discerning Differences between Academic Critiques and Practitioner Challenges

Scrutinizing the Smart City: Discerning Differences between Academic Critiques and Practitioner Challenges | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Scrutinizing the Smart City: Discerning Differences between Academic Critiques and Practitioner Challenges Austin Zwick, Jeffrey Biggar, Zachary Spicer This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4523633/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Through semi-structured interviews with winners, finalists, and unsuccessful applicants in Infrastructure Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge (SCC), this study aims to, via a post-hoc outcome evaluation, explore the gap between academic criticisms of smart cities versus the challenges that public administrators face. Interviews find that smart city competitions do succeed in fostering strategic planning and public engagement at the municipal government level. However, sustaining these successes without further investment and capacity building is unlikely in today's climate. Against the backdrop of academic criticisms of techno-solutionism, corporate overdependence, and panoptic surveillance, findings paint a different reality, one where public administrators are focused on realizing outcomes for residents, however they struggle to get technology-oriented to the implementation phase. The concerns of academia, to public administrators, seem distant - and manageable given time and resources. This research provides valuable policy lessons for cities worldwide at the intersection of technology and public governance. Social science/Science, technology and society Social science/Politics and international relations smart city urban technology governance planning public policy Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. All participants consented to the research. They were made aware that it was being conducted for academic research purposes, including publication of findings. Research methods included anonymizing their names and the municipalities that they were representing. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4523633","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":311886083,"identity":"0e8d5572-e017-4459-a620-64f8662f5a70","order_by":0,"name":"Austin Zwick","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAvklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACdiBOYEiQg/DYiNHCDNFiTKIWoKbEBqK18DezP5N4UJOWPn9G7gOGD2WHCWuROMyQJpFwLCd3w410A8YZ54jQwnCY4diNxIaK3A0SaQzMvG1EaJE/zNgG0pIuPwOo5S8xWgwOM7MBteQkMNwAamEkRovhYTb2HwnH0gw3nHnGcLDnXDphLXLH2x8b/qhJlpdvT2N88KPMmrAWBBBIYDhAinog4CdVwygYBaNgFIwYAABiUDoGwrgmmwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3727-055X","institution":"Syracuse University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Austin","middleName":"","lastName":"Zwick","suffix":""},{"id":311886084,"identity":"1c4942b6-a872-418e-8a0e-274a385fb59b","order_by":1,"name":"Jeffrey Biggar","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dalhousie University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jeffrey","middleName":"","lastName":"Biggar","suffix":""},{"id":311886085,"identity":"d7be8c2d-fb6a-47f7-92fb-eae3f548a6ed","order_by":2,"name":"Zachary Spicer","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"York University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zachary","middleName":"","lastName":"Spicer","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-06-03 18:35:19","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4523633/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4523633/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":72015699,"identity":"01d2f157-152e-42ce-bdb2-1b7658d01609","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-12-20 15:59:12","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":295898,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SCCAcademicPractictioner.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4523633/v1_covered_2b3c6ad3-1145-4163-b2a3-6d6ab0f76238.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"\u003cp\u003eThere is \u003cstrong\u003eNO\u003c/strong\u003e Competing Interest.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll participants consented to the research. They were made aware that it was being conducted for academic research purposes, including publication of findings. Research methods included anonymizing their names and the municipalities that they were representing.\u003c/p\u003e","formattedTitle":"Scrutinizing the Smart City: Discerning Differences between Academic Critiques and Practitioner Challenges","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"smart city, urban technology, governance, planning, public policy","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4523633/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4523633/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThrough semi-structured interviews with winners, finalists, and unsuccessful applicants in Infrastructure Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge (SCC), this study aims to, via a post-hoc outcome evaluation, explore the gap between academic criticisms of smart cities versus the challenges that public administrators face. Interviews find that smart city competitions do succeed in fostering strategic planning and public engagement at the municipal government level. However, sustaining these successes without further investment and capacity building is unlikely in today's climate. Against the backdrop of academic criticisms of techno-solutionism, corporate overdependence, and panoptic surveillance, findings paint a different reality, one where public administrators are focused on realizing outcomes for residents, however they struggle to get technology-oriented to the implementation phase. The concerns of academia, to public administrators, seem distant - and manageable given time and resources. This research provides valuable policy lessons for cities worldwide at the intersection of technology and public governance.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Scrutinizing the Smart City: Discerning Differences between Academic Critiques and Practitioner Challenges","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-07-15 10:23:38","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4523633/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"a871bf8d-4976-473b-b426-8bef3158b691","owner":[],"postedDate":"July 15th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":32969415,"name":"Social science/Science, technology and society"},{"id":32969416,"name":"Social science/Politics and international relations"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-12-20T15:51:05+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-07-15 10:23:38","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4523633","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4523633","identity":"rs-4523633","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}