Government accounting literacy as an attribute of smart citizenship

IMPACT

Smart cities’ technological orientation makes citizens mere observers of the ‘smart’ choices made, with little room for participation. Citizen engagement is a social innovation process targeting the co-production of public value. Receiving sufficient ‘smart’ education in public sector accounting could be useful to citizens and the city alike. Cultivating citizens’ ability to understand, evaluate and monitor their city’s condition and performance could inspire citizens to actively engage: the ultimate goal being to facilitate the generation of public value through co-design. This education should target a continuous lifelong learning process, taking advantage of the significant role of citizens, education and technology within smart cities.

ABSTRACT

This article explores whether citizens’ government accounting literacy could enhance smart citizenship. The infusion of smart city’s citizen-centricity with citizens who are government accounting literate could effectively ignite willingness to participate and inspire co-design initiatives—the ultimate goal being to facilitate public value generation with active citizen engagement. The article discusses the potential outcome of such focused education in citizens’ position in three smart city visions, as well as various implications related to smart education and technology. The article also addresses the criticism that public sector accounting has become increasingly complicated for the average citizen.

KEYWORDS:

• Government accounting literacy
• public sector accounting education
• smart citizens
• smart city
• smart education

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Sandra Cohen, Jens Heiling, Bram Faber and the participants of the Virtual EGPA Public Financial Management Workshop for their insightful comments on an earlier draft of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).