Creating More Intelligent Cities: The Role of ICT in Promoting Territorial Governance

Abstract

Since the 1990s, there have been many discussions in both academic and policy communities about the role ICT play in social, economic, and spatial development patterns. During the process, the concept of intelligent cities has emerged and in most cases that concept comes with a sheen of technological determinism. In broad terms, this concept articulates the relationships within and between the city and its surroundings, emphasizing the importance of organizational capacity, institutional leadership, creativity, and technology as drivers for change in a globalized and knowledge-driven economy. Bearing in mind that the changing role of government in service provision and the need for a collaborative-based approach are extensively gaining increasing recognition, on the one hand, and using the Portuguese case as an example of policy approaches in this domain, on the other hand, the article seeks both to bring critical commentary to this arena and to issue a challenge to policy makers to engage in a more appropriate set of discussions about this subject.

Acknowledgments

This article is partly based on a recent project conducted by the University of Aveiro for the Ministry for Environment, Spatial Planning and Regional Development and the Portuguese Directorate-General for Spatial Planning and Urban Development, in which the authors were involved. We would like to express our gratitude to all the colleagues who played a role in this project and to the actors interviewed for the selected case studies. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the other project partners. The authors would also like to thank two anonymous referees for their useful comments and suggestions.

Notes

For instance, Raco (2007) and Brownill and Carpenter (2009) analyses of sustainable communities in the United Kingdom reveals the tensions and contradictions arising from the real implementation of these places which combine economic growth and environmentally and socially sustainable development, favored by a neo-liberalism ideology. Similarly, Chatterton (2000) and Peck (2005) critique the assumptions and rhetoric behind the idea of the creative city, stressing that the geographic reach and policy salience of this so-called new urban imperative can be explained not in terms of their intrinsic merits (…) but as a function of the profoundly neoliberalized urban landscapes across which they have been travelling. Likewise, Hollands (2008) provides a thorough analysis of how the term smart city is being used in different ways and diverse contexts and explores its pro-business and neoliberal bias.

While in literature the concepts of smart and intelligent tend to overlap (see, for instance, (Caragliu, Del Bo, and Nijkamp, 2009; Hollands, 2008), for our purposes this is a good reason to discern one from another.

It is important to stress that the Portuguese political system is organized in two administrative layers: the central government and the municipalities. Apart from Madeira and Azores archipelagos, where regional administrations are elected, there is no formal regional government in Portugal. Still, the design and implementation of regional development policies are carried out by decentralized units of central government, namely the CCDRs – Comissões de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional (Coordination Commissions for Regional Development), each acting in a NUTS II region.

http://www.evoradistritodigital.pt/pt

http://www.gaiurb.pt/home.htm

http://www.cm-agueda.pt/