Fragmented governance, the urban data ecosystem and smart city-regions: the case of Metropolitan Boston

Abstract

Through an empirical focus on Metropolitan Boston, this paper examines the effects of territorial politics and fragmented metropolitan governance on an urban data ecosystem and endeavours to enact a smart city-region. The fragmented governance of Metro Boston reduces scales of economy and produces interjurisdictional data incompatibilities that limit spatial intelligence, foster back-to-back planning and stifle the benefits of open data. Highlighted is the irony that in order to address fragmented governance, there is a need for greater information-sharing, but that very activity is stymied because of a deeply rooted localist agenda that resists more collaborative, metro-regional governance arrangements.