In his article, Rob Kitchin characterizes the epistemology behind the concept of smart cities as being “reductionist, mechanistic, atomizing, essentialist, and deterministic in how it produces knowledge about cities.” and argues that this approach “decontextualizes a city and its systems from history, its poiitics and political economy, its culture and communities, the wider set of social, economic and environmental relations that frame its development, and it wider interconnections and interdependencies that stretches out over space and time”. In this sense, how could we incorporate other epistemological models to the development of the city, or at least subsume the present one to another set of values, in a way that lets creating a model of the smart city that takes into account all this issues?
In terms of governance, Kitchin critices the current model of the smart city, and describes it as “top-down, centraly controlled and managerial in orientation, often introduced by bureaucrats rather than elected officials.” In this sense, he points out the need that solutions in the smart city “be introduced and implemented through processes co-creation and co-production between city administrators, companies and citizens; be open and transparent in their formulation and operation, including using open platforms and standards where possible; and be used in conjunction with a suite of aligned interventions, policies and investments that seek to tackle issues in complementary ways, blending technical, social, political and policy response”. In this context, how could such open structures of co-creations be implemented, and which would be the role and degree of participation of the citizens in such processes and platforms?
In their article, Lange and the Waal define ownership of the city as “the degree to which city dwellers feel a sense of responsability for shared issues and are taking action on these matters”. In this sense, how can technologies be used to foster such ownership, but not only as a feeling, but in a way that articulates action and participation to engage with the co-design of the city?