Smart City Expo World Congress 2017: towards active citizen participation
From November 14 to 16 it’s again all smart cities in Barcelona at the occasion of the 2017 edition of Smart City Expo World Congress where people empowerment, active citizen participation and even participative democracy are omnipresent.
The theme of Smart City Expo World Congress 2016 already went in that direction with ‘Cities for Citizens, Citizens Changing Cities’. It was partially about citizen-centricity and the key role of citizen participation and empowerment too whereby the smart cities narrative went beyond technologies such as IoT and big data and even beyond smart city applications, from the role in the city of smart buildings to smart transport systems and smart ways to address issues from housing and mobility to ecological issues.
The director of the event makes crystal clear what the role of the citizen should be in the smart city of the future in the event’s press release: “We believe that the role that citizens will play in the near futures will be crucial. Top-down governance approaches are gone for good and we need to shift the relation between city governments and residents taking it one step further. Never before in history has there been so much talent and creativity concentrated in so little space.”
If that citizen-focused approach is what fits with your smart city views do keep an eye on what is going on in beautiful smart city Barcelona the next few years, beyond Smart City Expo World Congress 2017.
Smart cities need informed, aware and empowered citizens with active citizen participation
Smart cities and the end of top-down governance
Smart city Barcelona: the role and state of the economy
Revisiting smart cities: Barcelona’s path to a participative democracy
Thumbnail credit www.i-scoop.eu
