Governing Smart Cities as Knowledge Commons - Introduction, Chapter 1 & Conclusion

Smart city technology has its value and its place; it isn’t automatically or universally harmful. Urban challenges and opportunities addressed via smart technology demand systematic study, examining general patterns and local variations as smart city practices unfold around the world. Smart cities are complex blends of community governance institutions, social dilemmas that cities face, and dynamic relationships among information and data, technology, and human lives. Some of those blends are more typical and common. Some are more nuanced in specific contexts. This volume uses the Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC) framework to sort out relevant and important distinctions. The framework grounds a series of case studies examining smart technology deployment and use in different cities. In this excerpt, the Introduction provides an overview of the book’s aims, structure, and contributions of individual chapters. Chapter 1 briefly explains what the GKC framework is, why and how it is a critical and useful tool for studying smart city practices, and what the key elements of the framework are. The Conclusion discusses the key themes that appear across chapters in this volume and explored lessons learned and implications for future research