Community Engagement in Smart City Development

Hollie Russon Gilman sat down with Harvard's Data-Smart City Solutions to discuss her work on smart cities and civic engagement.

What makes smart cities topics more challenging to discuss with community members than many other local government issues? It’s not just the complexity of the topics at hand, but also the fear that many communities hold in regards to new technology and data collection. Addressing these information deficits and concerns will take thoughtful engagement and creative strategizing, plus transparent conversations about new public technology.

Despite these challenges, community engagement on this one topic is one of the most important aspects of government today. In an interview with Hollie Russon Gilman, political scientist and author of the book “Civic Power”, she explained that “engaging residents on what we’re doing with smart technology is not just about a one-off security grid or chatbot that helps you with services; it’s about an integrated approach of what it means to be a resident in the 21st century and about how we want to deal with our government on all topics.” Learning how to engage communities on smart city topics empowers them to shape their lives in the modernizing public sphere and participate in decisions that impact them personally.