This paper discusses the issue of citizens’ participation and rights in the smart city. It does so by drawing on and extending Sherry Arnstein’s seminal work (1969) conceptualising participation in planning and renewal programmes. We argue that citizenship in the smart city is rooted in a pragmatic and paternalistic discourse and practice, rather than in theories around rights and citizenship. Promoters of smart cities, including those advocating a citizen-centric version, tend to conflate limited forms of engagement as a user or consumer of services with citizenship and rights. We develop a modified version of Arnstein’s ladder ― the ‘Scaffold of Smart Citizen Participation’ ― as a conceptual tool to unpack the diverse ways in which the smart city frames citizens and measure smart citizen inclusion, participation, and empowerment in Dublin, Ireland.

1. Being a ‘citizen’ in the smart city:
Up and down the scaffold of smart citizen
participation
Paulo Cardullo & Rob Kitchin
National University of Ireland Maynooth
@kiddingthecity @robkitchin
Presented at Association of American Geographers conference, Boston, April 7th 2017

2. The Smart City
• Generally encompass three dynamics:
• Instrumentation and regulation
• Economic policy and development
• Social innovation, civic engagement and hactivism
• Many cities have smart city offices and programmes (e.g.,
Smart Dublin)
• Well organised epistemic community and advocacy coalition
operating across scales
• Strong policy mobility between cities
• Utilises a set of interrelated digital technologies

3. Smart City technologies
Domain Example technologies
Government
E-government systems; online transactions; city
operating systems; performance management systems;
urban dashboards
Security and emergency
services
Centralised control rooms; digital surveillance;
predictive policing; coordinated emergency response
Transport
Intelligent transport systems; integrated ticketing; smart
travel cards; bikeshare; real-time passenger
information; smart parking; logistics management;
transport apps
Energy Smart grids; smart meters; energy usage apps; smart
lighting
Waste Compactor bins and dynamic routing/collection
Environment Sensor networks (e.g., pollution, noise, weather; land
movement; flood management)
Buildings Building management systems; sensor networks
Homes Smart meters; app controlled smart appliances
Civic Various apps; open data; volunteered data/hacks

4. Citizens?
• But how are citizens framed within and treated by smart
city programmes and technologies?
• Initial critique of smart cities was that their framing and
operation was top-down, technocratic, instrumental
• Aimed at controlling and disciplining citizens, as well as
producing and reinforcing neoliberal logics of urban
management
• That is, the smart city serves the interests of states and
corporations more than it does citizens
• The response was to reframe smart cities as ‘citizen-
centric’ or ‘citizen-focused’
• But what does that mean in practice?

5. Citizens?
• In this paper we deploy
a modified version of
Sherry Arnstein’s ladder
of citizen participation
(1969) to consider the
extent to which smart
cities are ‘citizen-
centric’
• We then deploy our
conceptual schema to
evaluate smart city
initiatives in Dublin and
whether they produce
‘smart citizens’
Form and Level of Participation
Citizen Power Citizen Control
Delegated Power
Partnership
Tokenism Placation
Consultation
Informing
Non-participation Therapy
Manipulation

6. Critique of Arnstein’s ladder
• ‘Simplification’ which reduces the diversity of participatory
situations to eight rungs
• Forms of participation ordered in a way that demarcates
relative value and utility
• Foregrounds power and control, rather than other factors such
as outcomes (e.g., improving quality of life) or nature/quality
of citizen experience
• Just because citizen’s have control of a service does not mean
that it will be any more inclusive
• Higher rungs are time-consuming and more likely to ‘fail’
• Role of ‘the expert’ and domain-level expertise in delivery
city services
• While we appreciate these concerns, we believe a modified
version of the ladder still provides a useful heuristic

7. Form and Level of
Participation
Role
Citizen
Involvement
Ideology/
Politics
Modality Examples
Citizen Power
Citizen
Control
Leader/
Member
Ideas, Vision,
Leadership
Rights,
Citizenship,
Deliberative
Democracy,
Commons
Inclusive,
Bottom-up,
Collective,
Autonomy,
Empowering,
Experimental
OSM, Code for
Ireland
Delegated
Power
Decision-
maker
Civic Hacking,
SBIR/Pre-
commercial
procurementPartnership Co-creator
Suggest,
Negotiate
Participation,
Co-creation
Tokenism
Placation Proposer
Top-down,
Civic
Paternalism,
Stewardship,
Empty
Rhetoric,
Bound-to-
succeed
Challenge
workshops
Consultation Participant Feedback
Civic
Engagement
CIVIQ
Information Recipient
Browse,
Consume
Dublinked,
Dublin
Dashboard
Neoliberal
Freedom
Choice
Resident
Capitalism,
Market
Smart District
Consumer
Smart
meters/apps
Non-
Participation
Therapy Learner
Patient
User
Education,
Steered,
Nudged,
Controlled
Stewardship,
Technocracy,
Paternalism
Smart Dublin
Manipulation Traffic control

8. Conclusions
• Our aim in this paper has been to systematically unpack
conceptually the diverse ways citizen participation is being
conceived and enacted in the smart city
• Smart city initiatives largely position citizens as users, recipients
or consumers, rather than as participants, co-creators, decision-
makers, or as owners
• Programmes and technologies are largely underpinned by an
ethos of stewardship (for citizens) and civic paternalism
(deciding what is best for citizens) rather than by rights,
citizenship, and deliberative democracy
• The question posed by Arnstein in 1969 remains relevant – how
should citizens participate in smart cities?
• Indeed, there remains a number of pressing normative questions
concerning the configuration, purpose, governance, and politics
of smart cities and how they propose to produce ‘smart citizens’
• Need to re-imagine & re-make smart cities/citizenship

9. Background
http://progcity.maynoothuniversity.ie
@progcity
Rob.Kitchin@nuim.ie
@robkitchin
https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/rob-kitchin