Whose smart city? : A framework and discussion guide for planning open and inclusive urban digital experiments

‘Smart cities’ represent the integration of ‘big data’ collected via networked cameras, sensors, and meters into the urban fabric with the overarching goal of making infrastructure more efficient and improving citizens’ lives. While data has been used to support planning efforts for decades, this new paradigm of ‘urban informatics’ means that planning will increasingly be driven by data. However, the planning profession is still grappling with how existing practices might need to adapt to tackle the challenges of planning in the smart city. Accordingly, there is a gap in terms of educational resources on smart cities aimed at planning professionals. Through an action research approach involving a review of recent academic and popular literature on smart cities, this project synthesizes a set of ‘best practices’ and proposes a discussion guide for planning professionals to learn about the implications for their practice in a world where big data shapes our cities. Keywords: smart cities, urban informatics, planning ethics, Big Data, citizen participation