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Greater Effectiveness in Citizen Participation in Smart Cities

Authors:
José Miguel Martins Lucas

Keywords: Smart cities; Citizen participation

Abstract:
Despite the growing emphasis on citizen participation, we agree with the authors who defend that the current mechanisms still often suffer from (i) low utilisation, (ii) limited adherence, and (iii) participant dissatisfaction, highlighting a gap between normative frameworks and their practical effect. To address these challenges, this work combines a targeted literature review with an argumentative legal analysis to propose a specific approach to citizen participation in smart cities, aligning public law with good governance and sustainability and envisioning efficient and equitable decision-making. More precisely, this work proposes a legal-technical framework to enhance citizen participation in municipal decision-making, drawing inspiration from Klinke and Renn’s risk governance framework. Still, unlike the authors’ risk-centric policy definition, the current study focuses on municipal decisions (excluding contracts, regulations, and administrative acts such as licensing), addressing some of their challenges, including complexity (multi-factor issues), uncertainty (data gaps), and ambiguity (value conflicts). The proposed solution is based on (i) adapted/tailored participation procedures and (ii) targeted engagement of participants, including underrepresented groups (to ensure inclusivity), all driven by (iii) impact criteria (e.g., economic value, the population affected, social significance) to categorise decisions and guide participation, supported by (iv) smart city technologies, like artificial intelligence-driven platforms (e.g., with semantic analysis), to streamline bureaucracy and enable scalable, inclusive, and transparent participation.

Pages: 76 to 82

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2025

Publication date: July 6, 2025

Published in: conference

ISBN: 978-1-68558-285-2

Location: Venice, Italy

Dates: from July 6, 2025 to July 10, 2025