Policy making for smart cities: innovation and social inclusive economic growth for sustainability

Abstract

Policy making for smart cities: innovation and social inclusive economic growth for sustainability 1. Introduction This paper aims to query the scientific debate related to a new generation of policy-aware smart cities research geared towards innovation and socially inclusive economic growth for sustainability. It summarizes the rationale behind the relevant JSTPM Special Issue and its overall objective to serve as a reference for policymakers, educators, practitioners, government and think-tank officers interested in the emerging topics in smart cities research. This paper examines the state-of-the-art of smart cities research and provides an overview of papers included in the special issue. The approach is related to meta-desktop research aiming to reveal the key contributions and open research issues related to policymaking for smart cities research. This paper makes a case for opening the smart cities concept to a new generation of sophisticated ICT-enabled solutions. It is argued that more structured and output-oriented dialogue among a variety of stakeholders is needed, and that the debate needs to focus on new sustainable, global and socially aware polices for research on smart cities, smart regions and smart clusters. To this end, greater attention needs to be paid to emerging technologies, such as the internet of things, cognitive computing, advanced analytics and business intelligence, 5G networks, anticipatory and context-aware computing and advanced distributed data warehouse platforms. This editorial introduces the debate that unfolds in the Special Issue. It also highlights how this debate could be enriched by means of international collaboration and scientific dialogue. By highlighting the variety of research related to smart cities' policymaking, this paper offers a typology of the services and applications that target data-driven policymaking at the micro, mezzo and macro levels. This paper argues that sustainability and innovation are two integral aspects of the same social challenge. The integration of sophisticated technological platforms and advanced policies requires a new managerial paradigm at all levels of decision-making across and beyond continents and local boundaries. This Special Issue is one of the first attempts worldwide to discuss the socially aware policy-making process as an inevitable part of smart cities' research.