Small and Smart: Why and How Smart City Solutions Can and Should be Adapted to the Unique Needs of Smaller Cities
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Debra Lam
and
John Wagner Givens
Abstract
Research and development on smart cities has been growing rapidly. Smart cities promise a new era of living efficiently, sustainably, and safely. The tools and technologies deployed aim to drive better public decision-making on everything from where we live to how we work. While the world is rapidly urbanizing, a substantial percentage of the population still lives in smaller and rural communities. Smart city solutions as they are defined here are process driven and not constrained by population or geographic metrics; they are the application of technology and data to improve the quality of life. Smaller communities can also be smart, and excluding or ignoring them widens inequality, limits use cases, and restrains innovation. Using South Bend, Indiana as an example, the authors examine the power and potential of smaller smart cities. They then transfer this thinking to Georgia and Georgia Tech’s initiative working with local governments across the state on smart community development. This article is one of the first of its kinds in examining smaller smart communities as models for smart living.
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Introduction
- Anti-gentrification Campaigns and the Fight for Local Control in California Cities
- Small and Smart: Why and How Smart City Solutions Can and Should be Adapted to the Unique Needs of Smaller Cities
- Global Questions About Rent and the Longue Durée of Urban Power, 1848 to the Present
- The De-globalized City
- Global Cities and the Ends of Globalism
- Religious Diversity, Social Cohesion, and the Role of Interfaith Cooperation in Resilient Global Cities
- Review Essays
- New York at its Core: A Review of an Exhibition at the City Museum of New York
- Owen Hatherley: Landscapes of Communism, Yuri Slezkine: The House of Government and John Davies, Alexander J. Kent: The Red Atlas
- Book Reviews
- Andrew Brooks: The End of Development. A Global History of Poverty and Prosperity
- Tim Dunne and Christian Reus-Smit: The Globalization of International Society
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Introduction
- Anti-gentrification Campaigns and the Fight for Local Control in California Cities
- Small and Smart: Why and How Smart City Solutions Can and Should be Adapted to the Unique Needs of Smaller Cities
- Global Questions About Rent and the Longue Durée of Urban Power, 1848 to the Present
- The De-globalized City
- Global Cities and the Ends of Globalism
- Religious Diversity, Social Cohesion, and the Role of Interfaith Cooperation in Resilient Global Cities
- Review Essays
- New York at its Core: A Review of an Exhibition at the City Museum of New York
- Owen Hatherley: Landscapes of Communism, Yuri Slezkine: The House of Government and John Davies, Alexander J. Kent: The Red Atlas
- Book Reviews
- Andrew Brooks: The End of Development. A Global History of Poverty and Prosperity
- Tim Dunne and Christian Reus-Smit: The Globalization of International Society
