| Title | The 'Smart City' between urban narrative and empty signifier: Hong Kong in focus |
|---|---|
| ID_Doc | 36025 |
| Authors | Cole, A; Stivas, D; Tran, E; Lai, CL |
| Title | The 'Smart City' between urban narrative and empty signifier: Hong Kong in focus |
| Year | 2023 |
| Published | Cogent Social Sciences, 9, 1 |
| Abstract | The article consists in an in-depth interpretative study of Smart City in the case of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, China. It proposes a framework of analysis as a heuristic tool to interpret narratives in general and those of Smart City Hong Kong in particular. The capacity of a narrative to confer meaning draws upon three criteria: its originality (degree of endogeneity); its sincerity (internal validity and trustworthiness), and its extension (its ability to provide a convincing account to the outside world for social phenomena). They are also affected by the form of diffusion and communication. Four types of account emerged from our empirical investigation: survey responses; written responses from official agencies; face to face interviews; and collective interviews in focus groups. By reconstituting chains of meaning in relation to the Smart City, the article interrogates the utility of technology, sustainability and e-governance narratives for public administration. Taken as a whole, Smart City appears as a rather hollow narrative, an empty signifier, a general term lacking clear meaning. |
| https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23311886.2023.2231624?needAccess=true&role=button |
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