1. Smart Governance and the Co-production of Public Policy and Services
William Webster and Charles Leleux
University of Stirling
‘Being digital: Digital technologies and citizen-centred approaches to participation, surveillance and privacy’ Workshop
University of Stirling, 24 February 2017

2. SmartGov: Smart Governance of Sustainable Cities
ESRC-funded collaborative research project ( )
Citizen engagement in co-production of service delivery and decision-making in sustainable cities, using ICTs.
Fundação Getulio Vargas, Sao Paolo, Brazil (Curitiba)
Utrecht University, Netherlands (Utrecht)
University of Stirling, Scotland (Glasgow)

3. The Changing Role of the Citizen
The Smart cities agenda dominated by discourse about the use of new digital technologies to improve service delivery
The digital era also offers new opportunities for citizens to engage and co-produce services and policy
Reflects transformational changes in citizens’ lives
The ubiquity of social media and ICTs

4. Does Smart City Governance Represent a New Era of Engagement?
Recognition that previous forms of engagement had failed leading to disengaged communities
Redistribution of power and equality of participation
New opportunities for building mutual trust
Shared understanding of urban problems
Co-production successes builds confidence
Citizen-centric focus to policy-making

5. Co-Production of Policy and Services
Co-production refers to practices in the delivery of public services in which citizens are involved in the creation of public policies and services.
Citizens are not only consulted, but are part of the conception, design, steering, and management of services (to different degrees…)
In a Smart City environment this is partly realised through new digital technologies
Can include direct digital engagement and also through the use of data created via the consumption of services

6. Types of Co-production in the Smart City
Can be orientated to shaping policy and/or services
Can be deliberative, consultative or productive
Hackathons Fablabs and Maker spaces
Living-labs Smart urban labs
Citizens’ dashboard Gamification concepts
Open datasets’ Crowdsourcing
Opinion mining Service use data

7. Policy Implications: Initial Observations
Disconnect between smart tech & participative democracy
Democratic citizen engagement vs Smart Cities tendency to use administrative solutions
New technologies can exaggerate the power and influence of both the individual and the collective
Smart Cities at nexus of urban data flows
Use of ‘big data’ in policy-making and service delivery
New opportunities for citizen engagement in service re- design and co-production

8. Further Information http://smartgov-project.com/
@CrispSurv