Smart Urban Governance & Good Governance Principles

Abstract

This thesis aims to evaluate aspects of smart urban governance in terms of good governance principles. The principles of liability (accountability and transparency), Inclusiveness (participation and consensus orientation), fairness and justice (equity and rule of law), efficiency and effectiveness and sustainable human development were used to shed light on smart urban governance on a meso-level by using a case study of a smart city project. It is argued that smart city projects show technocratic forms of governance with a strong focus on efficiency and have underlying neoliberal political motivations. As a consequence, smart city projects tend to offer technical solutions which favour data-driven, algorithmic and automated forms of decision-making. This may threaten good governance principles in many ways since it shifts the focus away from the citizen and its needs as the main motivation to create cities.