In the last decade, the world has witnessed increasing investments in smart city initiatives, which frequently employ data and emerging technologies to tackle complex urban challenges. Although existing literature has acknowledged the potential benefits of smart cities, such as increasing economic development and improving urban operations, their sustainability, understood as the enduring or long-term impact of specific outcomes, has been under-researched. Furthermore, the few studies touching on sustainability have focused on environmental or economic sustainability, mostly ignoring social sustainability. Therefore, this paper aims to review and synthesize the state-of-the-art research on social sustainability in smart cities. Our research questions are: (1) what are the main topics in the literature related to social sustainability in smart cities? and (2) what are the gaps that require further investigation? Our review shows that inclusion and equity are crucial components that must be considered. More specifically, civic engagement is an effective method for smart cities to better understand and respond to all residents’ social, economic, and environmental demands, enabling a more inclusive and equitable smart community.

The notion of sustainability has gained increasing popularity in smart city research. While numerous studies have focused on how smart city initiatives either undermine or contribute to sustainability, a few essential questions remain unanswered. First, a vast body of knowledge has been accumulated on the results of smart cities, particularly their short-term outputs. However, it is not clear how those results can be sustained over time. Second, most of the existing literature touches on environmental and economic sustainability, whereas other perspectives, such as social and cultural sustainability, are still underexplored. Given these gaps, this study seeks to contribute to the sustainability and smart city literature by answering the following research questions: (1) To what extent have the results of smart city initiatives been addressed in previous studies? and (2) To what extent have smart city scholars addressed the different dimensions of sustainability? A narrative literature review was conducted. Our findings indicate that the sustainability of smart cities can be understood in two ways—the duration of results and the multi-dimensional long-term sustainability goals. Based on the findings, this study proposes a few intersections of the two concepts and an agenda to guide future research on sustainability in smart cities.

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