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Scientific Article details

Title Selective inclusion: Civil society involvement in the smart city ecology of Amsterdam
ID_Doc 45340
Authors Rose, FM; Thiel, J; Grabher, G
Title Selective inclusion: Civil society involvement in the smart city ecology of Amsterdam
Year 2022
Published European Urban And Regional Studies, 29, 3
DOI 10.1177/09697764221092587
Abstract Although research on smart cities increasingly acknowledges the involvement of civil society actors, most studies fall short when it comes to clarifying the specific modalities of civil society involvement. By probing into the smart city ecology that has developed around the Amsterdam Smart City-Foundation, we explore not only the extent to which the civil society is part of a smart city ecology but also what role civil society actors hold within this ecology. This article draws on data gathered and analyzed through quantitative and qualitative methods. The qualitative analysis focuses on analyzing the institutional dynamics that shape civil society involvement in Amsterdam's smart city ecology. The quantitative data are used to unravel the relational dynamics by quantifying collaborative patterns between different types of organizations in Amsterdam's smart city ecology. Our findings reveal that powerful institutional dynamics, manifested through normative pressures, favor the involvement of socially oriented civil society actors. At the same time, however, relational dynamics that shape the collaborative patterns in the projects of the ecology rather exclude the socially oriented civil society at the benefit of an economically oriented civil society. In other words, while the entire ecology rhetorically adheres to an ethos of pervasive civil society involvement, politically, socially, and civically oriented civil society actors lack inter-organizational collaboration-even in the supposedly inclusive context of Amsterdam.
Author Keywords Civil society involvement; collaboration networks; economic civil society; smart city ecology; smart city governance; social civil society
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
EID WOS:000799778500001
WoS Category Environmental Studies; Regional & Urban Planning; Urban Studies
Research Area Environmental Sciences & Ecology; Public Administration; Urban Studies
PDF https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/09697764221092587
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