Cities are facing many challenges; challenges linked to world-wide trends like urbanisation, climate changes and globalisation. In parallel to these trends, we have seen a rapid digitalisation in and of different parts of society. Cities and local governments have been appointed an important role in overcoming these world-wide challenges, and subsequently, in policy practices digitalisation is perceived as an important dimension in delivering better and sustainable services to its citizens. As a result, the smart city has emerged as a concept and approach to contemporary urban planning and development. There is still no common understanding of the concept and what components and dimensions it covers. However, in all definitions digitalisation constitutes one dimension, but the role and function of it is still not clear.In this study I have examined how different stakeholders talk about digitalisation in policy and planning practices of urban development. The aim has been to identify and analyse different repertoires of discourses on digitalisation to advance our knowledge on how goals related to the smart city and digitalisation are put into practice. The results are based on a qualitative and interpretative case study with a social constructionist approach. An analytical framework based on discourse analysis, stakeholder theory and (new) institutional theory has been constructed to analyse the case.Main results show that repertoires on digitalisation are limited in both policy and planning of urban development. In these practices, digitalisation is primarily seen as a means or as a communication infrastructure in relation to two city services/functions; i.e. services related to governance and to environment. Results also show that practices of urban planning and development are institutionalised, where different stakeholders' salience and stakes in urban development and in digitalisation differ, but it is clear that digitalisation is a secondary issue. Implications of these results are that the taken-forgranted discourses in policy and planning practices of urban development limit both practice and research when developing a smart city. FOREWORDInformation Systems Development (ISD) is a research discipline within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Linköping University (LiU), Linköping Sweden. ISD is a discipline studying human work with developing and changing different kinds of IT systems in organisational and societal settings. The research discipline includes theories, strategies and policies, models, methods, co-working principles and artefacts related to information systems development. Different development/change situations can be studied as planning, analysis, specification, design, implementation, deployment, evaluation, maintenance and redesign of information systems and its interplay with other forms of business development, processes of digitalization and innovation. The discipline also includes the study of prerequisites for and results from information systems development, as e.g. studies...
Abstract. This paper explores how policy documents carry and institutionalize smart city ideas from high policy level to concrete policy level in an urban development context. We analyze the national urban development vision for Sweden and documents in a local urban development project in a Swedish city, in order to explore what kind of roles and expectations ICT is given in these documents. We contrast this with views of how social and environmental aspects are discussed in the studied documents. In order to understand and analyze the result we apply the concept of institutional carriers from institutional theory to our findings. Our analysis shows that as carriers of how ICT can contribute to increased sustainability in urban development, the policy documents do not function very well. ICT aspects are not put forth by any policy-making actor, neither on national nor on local level. The notion of institutional carriers helped us understand that without a responsible actor focusing on ICT's role in smart cities, it is easy to forget or lose sight of technology.
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore if and how a professional identity can be formed in the wake of the foundation of a new public service. In the article, the authors focus on how different forces, regulative and emergent, interact and contribute to a development of a coherent understanding of a professional identity in a decentralised service. The case of local authority energy and climate consultancy is an illustrative example of a nascent service occupation in Sweden where the individuals holding the job title are geographically dispersed. Design/methodology/approach -This paper has a qualitative approach and relies on three different data sources: participatory observations, written documents, and in-depth interviews with energy and climate advisers working in a particular region in Sweden. The study covers the years 2005 to 2010. Findings -The findings suggest that identity formation among geographically dispersed individuals in a nascent service occupation is possible. The development of collective understanding of the professional identity is influenced both by regulative and emergent forces, which interact. Research limitations/implications -This paper is limited to one particular service occupation in Sweden, from which generalisations are limited. Practical implications -The findings may serve as useful input for management in order to understand facilitation of identity building among professionals in decentralised functions. Originality/value -The value of this study lies in the comprehensive approach to how different pertinent forces interact with each other in order for a cohesive understanding of a work-related identity to develop in newly-established service occupations.
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