14. Citizen Participation, Good Governance, and ICT Nexus for the Sustainability of Smart Cities

Smart cities use information and information technology to optimize the decision-making process for the enhancement of life quality. In the concept of smart cities, the sustainability approach for the sake of better citizen participation and effective governance has been incorporated. The contextualized framework is a synthesis of the debate, which relies on the integrated data exchange of the interplay between the following relationships: Smart cities need good governance to be sustainable, good governance needs citizen engagement to be effective, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is the main mediator of this nexus. Based on the systematic literature review, the main solution to the debate has been placed the digital citizen participation. Based on this, the focus of this work is to see how government uses its mechanisms to create value for citizens taking into consideration the fact that nowadays technological advancement is being a priority. To elaborate this, it raises questions like what kind of relationship fosters the sustainability of smart cities and how can technology contribute to that; how government deploys ICT to create and/or constrain opportunities for citizens in the decision-making processes; what are the similarities and/or difference in participation between urban and rural areas; and finally, what is the difference in the planning and implementation process. The main result of the research is that the sustainability of smart cities requires accountability measures by the governance and not necessarily to become active themselves. It is derived from the special importance of the clear participatory frame for the citizen, and the main recommendation derived is the special consideration to the context-dependent factors in the smart city.