Replicating Smart Cities: The City-to-City Learning Programme in the Replicate EC-H2020-SCC Project

Abstract

This article addresses the problem of replication among smart cities in the European Commission’s Horizon 2020: Smart Cities and Communities (EC-H2020-SCC) framework programme. This article initially sets the general policy context by conducting a benchmarking about the explicit replication strategies followed by each of the 17 ongoing EC-H2020-SCC lighthouse projects. This article aims to shed light on the following research question: Why might replication not be happening among smart cities as a unidirectional, hierarchical, mechanistic, solutionist, and technocratic process? Particularly, in asking so, it focuses on the EC-H2020-SCC Replicate project by examining in depth the fieldwork action research process implemented during 2019 through a knowledge exchange webinar series with participant stakeholders from six European cities—three lighthouse cities (St. Sebastian, Florence, and Bristol) and three follower-fellow cities (Essen, Lausanne, and Nilüfer). This process resulted in a City-to-City Learning Programme that reformulated the issue of replication by experimenting an alternative and an enhanced policy approach. Thus, stemming from the evidence-based policy outcomes of the City-to-City Learning Programme, this article reveals that a replication policy approach from the social innovation lenses might be enabled as a multidirectional, radial, dynamic, iterative, and democratic learning process, overcoming the given unidirectional, hierarchical, mechanistic, solutionist, and technocratic approach.

Democratising Smart Cities? Penta-Helix Multistakeholder Social Innovation Framework

“…In the prospects of future research addressing democratic legitimacy-related questions smart cities face, this article shed light on a further nuanced empirical demonstration regarding the penta-helix framework playing a role in creating less technocratic smart cities. The penta-helix thus represents in itself a methodological innovation with social added value by acknowledging that each city or region may present a different democratic context in which stakeholders operate and interact in relatively unique terms [1,54,110]. Apart from addressing the research questions, this article encourages scholars to follow the methodological rationale that was suggested by taking up comparative case study research that highlights novel analytical practices carried out in the broad SCC H2020 European framework bringing together no less than 93 European smart cities, which, in itself, is an opportunity to further explore the research questions elucidated.…”

“…The research revealed key qualitative observations and mapped out evidence-based empirical results on the five strategic dimensions studied in each follower city: (i) the composition of stakeholders per helix; (ii) the most influential stakeholder-helix; (iii) the most proactive stakeholder-helix; (iv) knowledge on the PPP; and ultimately, (v) the most suitable business/social model (per smart city sector too) in each follower city. The results were obtained in each city comparatively for the three Replicate follower cities (www.replicate-project.eu/city2citylearning) based on in-depth interviews with a selected group of 25 strategic stakeholders representing the penta-helix framework through in-depth interviews and later validated later through a workshop (Table A1 in the Appendix A section) [54]. The five strategic dimensions inferred from the literature review and the results of the empirical research were used to build the comparative methodology of the three cases, which addresses the research questions of this article, presented in the Introduction section.…”

“…The article, in doing so, aims to unfold the unique multistakeholder composition through five strategic dimensions, by comparing three follower cities of the Replicate H2020-SCC project-Essen (Germany), Lausanne (Switzerland), and Nilüfer (Turkey)-based on the results gathered through intensive action research fieldwork undertaken from February 2017 to December 2018. The three follower cities aimed to look into replicating interventions in their cities [54]. The methodology ensured (i) the inclusion of the widest diversity of potential strategic stakeholders in each city that regularly, actively, and democratically engaged in the formulations of smart city priorities and, consequently, (ii) the mapping out of the multistakeholder policy framework using the penta-helix.…”

“…Replicate EU-H2020-SCC project cities: Lighthouses (San Sebastian, Bristol, and Florence) and Followers (Essen, Lausanne, and Nilüfer). Source: https://replicate-project.eu/city2citylearning/[54].…”

Platform and Data Co-Operatives amidst European Pandemic Citizenship

“…This policy framework enables the creation of open data and personal data stores for mutual benefit, possibly slowing the unbridled extraction of personal data by big tech private "data-opolies". City-regional authorities could establish data co-operatives to empower citizens to gain more control over their data, and allow them more of a say in the services built on and informed by these data [110,111]. Such practices may help to rebalance the relationship between those who create data (citizens) and those who seek to exploit those data, while creating an environment for fair and democratic exchange [112].…”