Smart city strategies: time to involve people. Comparing Amsterdam, Barcelona and Paris

Abstract

A city is not only made of buildings and infrastructures, but is also composed of the people, who live there, their cultures, uses and interactions. How people’s relations to their place have been transformed or not by the configuration of the smart city? This article attempts to provide an answer to this question, by examining the case of Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Paris, three large centuries-old Western Europe cities. It shows that behind the official line promising a more participatory society, the inhabitants are rather turned into users or clients of a city that belongs no more to them. Courses of action are then elaborated to help reurbanize the smart city by fostering co-construction of smart strategies.