The Evolution of City-as-a-Platform: Smart Urban Development Governance with Collective Knowledge-Based Platform Urbanism

Abstract

Since the advent of the second digital revolution, the exponential advancement of technology is shaping a world with new social, economic, political, technological, and legal circumstances. The consequential disruptions force governments and societies to seek ways for their cities to become more humane, ethical, inclusive, intelligent, and sustainable. In recent years, the concept of City-as-a-Platform was coined with the hope of providing an innovative approach for addressing the aforementioned disruptions. Today, this concept is rapidly gaining popularity, as more and more platform thinking applications become available to the city context—so-called platform urbanism. These platforms used for identifying and addressing various urbanization problems with the assistance of open data, participatory innovation opportunity, and collective knowledge. With these developments in mind, this study aims to tackle the question of “How can platform urbanism support local governance efforts in the development of smarter cities?” Through an integrative review of journal articles published during the last decade, the evolution of City-as-a-Platform was analyzed. The findings revealed the prospects and constraints for the realization of transformative and disruptive impacts on the government and society through the platform urbanism, along with disclosing the opportunities and challenges for smarter urban development governance with collective knowledge through platform urbanism.

Responsible Urban Innovation with Local Government Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda

“…The upcoming digital urban infrastructure that will be supporting future societies will intrinsically be based on AI [118]. This is evident from the work on the sixth-generation (6G) networks with extreme-scale ubiquitous AI services through the next-generation softwarization, platformization, heterogeneity and configurability of networks [119][120][121]. Such infrastructure will provide unimaginable opportunities for urban innovation.…”

An Efficient Management Platform for Developing Smart Cities: Solution for Real-Time and Future Crowd Detection

“…Cities are constantly evolving, and regardless of their size, they are seeking solutions to improve the quality of life of their citizens, to be more efficient, and to optimise their resources. Information and communication technology (ICT) is a basic element in the development of intelligent cities and numerous projects have been launched to create information management systems, especially adapted to the needs of cities [7].…”

“…Making data open and mobilising collective knowledge is increasingly important to enable the creation of sustainable solutions for cities. It is in this context that the concept of city-as-a-platform emerges, which is associated with the movement for open government and the application of digital technologies to expand the possibilities for the co-production of public services [7]. The city-as-a-platform is the technological and governmental infrastructure that enables the society to play a direct and broader role in the life of cities.…”

Digital Technologies for Urban Metabolism Efficiency: Lessons from Urban Agenda Partnership on Circular Economy

“…For example, in many cities around the world, the urban metabolism decision-making process still takes place in silos, where the policies of agriculture, water, waste, mobility, energy, health, telecommunications, education, etc., are considered separately by agencies, departments, divisions, cabinets, interdepartmental committees, municipal, regional, and state-owned utilities, and so on, neglecting a multidimensional and holistic perspective [194]. The balance of data and information governance between stakeholders operating within urban circularity, such as municipalities, research centers, universities, companies, citizens, nonprofit organizations, utilities, etc., represents a challenge for policymakers, urban planners, and managers [195]. In this regard, the literature on circular cities emphasizes participatory and fluid urban governance models capable of proactively involving stakeholders in the planning, monitoring, and evaluation circularity performance through continuous suggestions, feedback, proposals, ideas, and recommendations.…”