Global Insights into Smart City Governance: Current Landscape and Future Prospects

Smart city projects hold the potential to revolutionise urban environments, yet their success hinges on overcoming significant governance inefficiencies. Recent studies have exposed a global crisis in smart city governance, an issue that remains largely underexplored in academic discourses. While digital technologies show urban innovation potential, the governance approaches employed by local governments worldwide often fall short in effectively coordinating citywide smart city efforts. This inadequacy exposes local communities to potentially harmful technological implementations and enduring inefficiencies.

This seminar will provide participants with an in-depth understanding of the global status of smart city governance, exploring its complexities and challenges. Moreover, viable strategies for enhancing decision-making processes will be presented. The discussion will be informed by the latest academic research and the data collected during the implementation of three global-scale research projects on smart city governance commissioned by the United Nations. Participants will leave with actionable insights into improving local smart city governance frameworks to ensure that urban digital transformations can truly fulfil their potential for increased sustainable development.

Speaker

Luca Mora, Professor of Urban Innovation, Edinburgh Napier University and Tallinn University of Technology

Luca Mora is a Professor of Urban Innovation at Edinburgh Napier University and Tallinn University of Technology. With 15 years of experience in conducting multidisciplinary research that bridges urban studies, computer science, and innovation management, He has become an internationally renowned expert in the field of smart city development. His scholarly work has been widely published in prestigious academic journals, and he has been serving as an academic consultant for several intergovernmental organizations such as the European Commission, the United Nations, and the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean. In this capacity, he authored three major United Nations reports on digital transformation governance in urban areas. His efforts have contributed to generating over €40 million through research and consultancy projects. He also serves as Executive Editor for the journal Technological Forecasting and Social Change, and has been a guest editor for seven Special Issues on smart city development in notable academic journals.

Moderator

Jason Grant Allen, Associate Professor of Law, Singapore Management University

Jason Grant Allen is an Associate Professor of Law at the Yong Pung How School of Law, Director of the Centre for AI & Data Governance and Urban Fellow (Urban Infrastructure) of the Urban Institute. He studied law in Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom. His research career has spanned public law (constitutional theory and administrative law) and private law (with a focus on monetary law and financial regulation) and he has focused almost exclusively on the legal implications of emerging technologies for the past decade. He has been a working member on international legal harmonisation projects and provided expert reports for inter-governmental organisations including the European Parliament. His work on various subjects has been published by the leading university presses.