Governing Smart Cities: Why Do Academics Need to Study Trendy Concepts?

摘要

In this issue of Information Polity we are delighted to present a set of thought-provoking papers on governing smart cities. These papers present a range of theoretical and empirical analyses of new emerging relations between new digital technologies and urban governance. A critical observer might question the choice of subject matter - why is it of interest to read a set of papers focused on a trendy concept like smart cities? Why don't we focus on meaningful theoretical concepts such as socio-technological dynamics, informatization, the information polity or information intermediaries? Why don't we just stick to strong theoretical narratives from disciplines such as political science, information science or organizational science?