The development of cities supported by communication and information technologies/El desarrollo de las ciudades apoyado en las Tecnolog
| Autor | Machado, Celso, Jr. |
| Cargo | Research article |
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Introduction
The question of how social arrangements contribute to the performance of cities has attracted the attention of many researchers interested in understanding the factors involved in the best performance of cities and the indicators used to measure this performance (Amankwaa & Blay's, 2018). With the establishment of standards of municipal management as benchmarking, city managers can identify strategic plans and activities that generate social and economic development for citizens. The positioning of cities as centers of development, through superior performance indicators (with emphasis on science) makes them attractive to companies and individuals (Giffinger & Gudrun, 2010), and helps retain economic and social actors who are already in the locality.
Cities should not be analyzed only in terms of the problems they present, but also in terms of the social development potential of the people who compose them. For Prado-Lorenzo, García-Sánchez, and Cuadrado-Ballesteros (2012) the analysis of cities is not limited to negative factors such as pollution, crime, congestion, among others; for them, the understanding of cities must establish an approach that incorporates the sources of development and innovation, which amalgamate the poles of economic, social, environmental, and cultural incentives, beneficial to society.
The behavior of cities is analyzed under different conceptual approaches, which are still in the consolidation phase. As indicated by Tanguay, Rajaonson, Lefebvre and Lanoie (2010) and Ahvenniemi, Huovila, Pinto-Seppä and Airaksinen (2017) despite the existence of common elements, in the conceptual propositions of the cities, there is a distinction in the approaches of the economic, social, environmental, and technological variables presented in the conceptual consolidation. The study by Fu and Zhang (2017) orders a thematic evolution of research on cities. In the study, the authors identified that over time there has been an alternation of concepts used in city studies, with emphasis on the terms eco-city, green city, sustainable city, habitable city, city of knowledge, ubiquitous city, low carbon city, information city, and smart city - more recently added to these concepts - that of sanctuary city proposed by Ridgley (2011) and resilient city analyzed by Ribeiro and Gonçalves (2019).
A recent study by Machado Jr., Ribeiro, Pereira and Bazanini (2018) found that municipal managers in Brazil develop monitoring and action plans supported by Communication and Information Technologies (ICT) and socioeconomic indicators, characterizing management in perspective of the smart city concept. It is worth mentioning that recent studies address the association of the concept of smart cities with that of sustainable city, proposing the concept of smart and sustainable cities (Duvier, Anand & Oltean-Dumbrava, 2018; Bibri, 2018a; Bibri, 2018b; Ibrahim, El-Zaart & Adams, 2018; Yadav, Mangla, Luthra & Rai, 2019; Martin, Evans, Karvonen, Paskaleva, Yang & Linjordet, 2019). Although the subject of smart city is still under construction, Kummitha and Crutzen (2017) consider it an approach that can bring about positive social changes through the adoption of ICTs. The establishment of smart cities involves the provision of better services and digital access through the adoption of digital and technological resources to improve the economic conditions of the city; thus, the relevance of digital access matters to knowledge in cities is positioned as an element of interest to society. In this context, the objective of the present study is to analyze the relationship between economic, social, and digital performance in cities of different sizes in Brazil.
This introduction aims to present the research topic and justify the adequacy of the proposed research. In the sequence, the other sections present the theoretical framework that supports the research and the methodology adopted for the collection of data, the presentation and analysis of the results obtained - which in the sequence are discussed together with the elaborated theory - and finally, the conclusions of the research are presented.
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Theoretical framework
In the early 1960s, Webber (1964) proposed the concept of city as the center of citizen relations to be replaced by a new configuration dominated by social networks and supported by relationships with virtual connections. From Webber's point of view, ICTs have a greater influence on the establishment of social networks than the geographic space in which these networks are located; thus, cities would have little influence on the ordering of social arrangements, which would be established through the influence of common interests and shared virtually. ICTs incorporate communication systems, information processing approaches, and data collection automation to systematize and automate planning and management (Faheem, Shah, Butt, Raza, Anwar, Ashraf, Ngade, & Gungor, 2018). The internet of Things (IoT), Big data, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are some of the resources that make up ICTs.
Although the concepts proposed for smart cities are not yet consolidated, two perspectives stand out. The first deals with the relevance of ICTs for the provision of adequate infrastructure (Hollands, 2008), and the second deals with the importance of social development to offer the best possible quality of life (Bakici, Almirall & Wareham, 2013; Heaton, & Parlikad, 2019). These approaches are not mutually exclusive, but synergistic.
Adopting the approach presented by Webber (1964) and contextualizing the current advances in ICTs and society, it becomes possible to identify in the studies by Amankwaa and Blay's (2018), Di Dio et al. (2018), Zong and Zhang (2019) and Clarry, Imani and Miller (2019) the influence of smartphones in the establishment of new spatial and social contexts in cities. The simplicity of using smartphones, thanks to their portability and connectivity, allows virtual access with instant and unlimited effect. According to the authors, the benefits of using smartphones are closely related to the concept of smart cities in the organization of smart urban planning. City managers must provide creative and inclusive urban spaces, in which the services provided are of high quality and supported by ICT systems. In this sense, Amankwaa and Blay's (2018) observe that the city of London builds a behavior of individuality on the part of its inhabitants associated with the trends observed to establish virtual social arrangements.
The ICT systems, in which smartphones are incorporated, have established a new paradigm for public managers. This paradigm is in line with the approach of smart cities under construction, and supported by intricate social changes to ICTs, as proposed by Kummitha and Crutzen (2017). Thus, the focus of the municipal manager is on expanding the city's competitiveness and attractiveness, expressed in terms of the provision of socioeconomic and environmental improvements supported by an adequate logistical structure (Graham & Marvin, 2001). The management of a city allows to improve the standard of living of its inhabitants using ICTs. Neirotti et al. (2014) present a perspective in which the qualification of human capital of a municipality enhances access to a smart city, thus, the combination of intensive ICT employment with people's social advancement contributes to its establishment (Kummitha & Crutzen, 2017).
Initiatives by municipal managers who seek to position their locations as smart cities can be seen in various regions of the world. These initiatives are usually proposed by municipal managers and supported by innovative technological solutions, which address current and potential problems, large or small (Bibri, 2018a; Malik, Sam, Hussain & Abuarqoub, 2018; Bouzguenda, Alalouch & Fava, 2019). Efforts to identify and publicize the actions developed by municipal managers can be seen at events such as the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge, which aims to analyze and disseminate innovative solutions supported by ICTs. Wiig (2016) developed an analysis within the Smarter Cities Challenge to identify cities that made significant urban changes guided by a logical and targeted treatment of the available data, thus positioning themselves within the smart cities approach. However, the author criticizes cities that offer digital changes, which do little to mitigate existing social inequalities and, instead, aim to present a contemporary self-image and to engage in the global economy. This approach by Wiig (2016) is still controversial, since the study by Weiss, Bernardes, and Consoni (2015) concluded that public services are more efficient in cities that have implemented services incorporating innovations supported by ICTs.
It is worth mentioning, that the Internet of Things (IoT) is positioned as an important factor in the process of improving people's quality of life through the integration of technologies and infrastructure in the consolidation of the concept of smart cities (Khan, Babar, Ahmed, Shah & Han, 2017; Bibri, 2018a; Silva, Khan & Han, 2018; Malik, Sam, Hussain & Abuarqoub, 2018; Rathore, Paul, Hong, Seo, Awan & Saeed, 2018).
Based on the discussion of the benefits of using ICTs to establish the concept of smart cities, Mora, Bolici and Deakin (2017) point out in their literature review, that studies carried out in the context of smart cities are more focused on technological aspects, thus requiring greater attention to factors such as social intelligence, cultural artifacts, and environmental attributes. In this perspective, ICTs are considered relevant, but they must be analyzed in the social, cultural, and environmental context of the community. Thus, ICTs have the potential to help municipal managers to develop innovative solutions for the most diverse social problems, as proposed by Gil-Garcia, Pardo, and Nam (2015). It is wor th mentioning, that...
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