Austin Zwick, assistant teaching professor and program director of the B.P.S. in Policy Studies program at the College of Professional Studies at Syracuse University, co-authored the paper “Levelling Up Innovation in Local Government: An Evaluation of International Smart City Competitions” with Zachary Spicer, an associate professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at York University, and Aaron Eben, an undergraduate student in the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Syracuse University. The article was published by the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance.
Abstract:
With rapid advancements in technology around the globe, all orders of governments are trying to spur modernization, digitalization, and innovation in local governance structures and service delivery. This process is known widely as “smart city” design. To encourage municipal governments to implement these new tools, some national governments hold incentive-based competitions.
In a new paper for the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, Austin Zwick, Zachary Spicer, and Aaron Eben ask whether the smart cities competition model is a good way to further the adoption of technology in cities. Using case studies from the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union, and Canada, they find that these competitions helped generate new ways of thinking about technological solutions and supported the building of new relationships to address urban challenges for winners and non-winners alike. However, in terms of institutional and system change outcomes, the results of these competitions were more limited. The authors conclude by making policy recommendations on how to improve the future implementation of smart city competitions.