Resource Overview
The edited volume The Right to the Smart City is published by Emerald, a leading academic publisher in the fields of business, management, and technology. The book is coordinated by three prominent scholars: Paolo Cardullo, Rob Kitchin, and Cesare Di Feliciantonio, all recognized for their contributions to urban studies, geography, and digital governance. It offers a critical framework for understanding citizen participation in smart‑city initiatives, emphasizing democratic and inclusive approaches to urban technology.
Core Argument
The editors contend that mainstream smart‑city narratives are dominated by technology vendors, consultancies, and growth‑oriented urban agendas that prioritize efficiency and economic returns. In this paradigm, citizens are often portrayed as passive consumers, data generators, or beta testers rather than active decision‑makers. The book argues for a reorientation that places citizens at the centre of smart‑city design and governance, promoting a more democratic and socially just urban future.
Participation Scaffold
A central contribution is a detailed scaffold of citizen participation levels, extending Arnstein’s classic ladder:
- Non‑participation: No citizen role; decisions made without public input.
- Consumerism: Citizens interact as customers with pre‑defined services.
- Tokenistic participation: Limited consultation through surveys or meetings, with little impact.
- Meaningful engagement: Co‑design, priority setting, and outcome evaluation involve citizens.
- Genuine citizen power: Full decision‑making authority, including the right to reject or modify initiatives. The authors illustrate that most current projects operate at the lower tiers, with genuine citizen power being rare.
Relevance to Sustainable Housing
For a pan‑European audience focused on sustainable housing, the book’s insights highlight how smart‑city technologies can support or hinder environmental goals. The scaffold helps assess whether housing projects incorporate resident input on energy efficiency, retrofitting, and shared resources, or merely impose top‑down solutions. By emphasizing citizen‑centred design, the volume encourages housing policies that align technological innovation with community needs and sustainability targets.
Citizenship, Commons, and Data
Chapters explore the impact of smart‑city tech on civic rights and the urban commons. They question whether digital infrastructure serves public interests or primarily benefits private capital. The authors propose models for public digital commons that could underpin shared housing platforms, cooperative energy grids, and open data initiatives, fostering equitable access to resources across European cities.
Ethics and Surveillance
The book addresses ethical concerns linked to pervasive urban sensing, data collection, algorithmic bias, and privacy erosion. It provides frameworks for governing smart‑city technologies, which are crucial for sustainable housing projects that rely on sensor data for energy monitoring, occupancy patterns, and predictive maintenance while protecting residents’ privacy.
Justice and Inequality in Housing
The authors examine how smart‑city deployments can reinforce existing inequalities, such as selective implementation in affluent districts, digital exclusion of marginalized groups, and displacement driven by technology‑focused gentrification. These analyses are directly applicable to European housing policies aiming to reduce social disparities and ensure inclusive access to smart‑enabled sustainable homes.
Alternative Models
The final section showcases grassroots digital initiatives, cooperative platforms, and community‑led technology projects that offer alternatives to corporate‑driven smart‑city models. Examples include citizen‑owned sensor networks for building performance, cooperative energy sharing schemes, and open‑source platforms for managing shared housing resources, demonstrating viable pathways for sustainable, participatory urban development.
Impact and Influence
Since its publication, The Right to the Smart City has become a seminal reference in critical smart‑city scholarship, widely cited in academic research, policy debates, and university curricula. Its participation scaffold is particularly influential, serving as a practical tool for evaluating the democratic quality of smart‑city initiatives, including those related to sustainable housing across Europe.