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The Role of Smart City Concept in

Sustainable Urban Planning from Policy


Perspective
Case Study of Malmö

Maryam Alavibelmana
Robert Fazekas

Main field of study – Leadership and Organisation


Degree of Master of Arts (60 credits) with a Major in Leadership and Organisation
Master Thesis with a focus on Leadership and Organisation for Sustainability (OL646E), 15 credits
Summer 2018
Supervisor: Jonas Lundsten
Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our families, who have been always supportive.
Also, we would like to thank our supervisor Jonas Lundsten, who has supported
our research with great knowledge, support and encouragement.
And, finally, we thank all our interviewees, whose input and expertise was
invaluable to conducting this research, and appreciative the time and knowledge
they have decided to share with us.

Maryam Alavibelmana and Robert Fazekas


Copenhagen, August 2018
Abstract

Smart city as a concept or term is the contemporary buzzword which is referred as a means to deliver
urban sustainability. In recent years, different smart city initiatives have emerged worldwide, which are
advocated increasingly by the private and public sectors. However, there has been a considerable amount
of critiques by social and urban scholars who question the current understanding and practice of the
smart city, raising doubt if the current smart city is sustainable. The most frequently mentioned critiques
indicate that the current smart city which does not have a common definition and theoretical foundation
is intensively dominated by technical perspective and the role of private sector. This thesis aims to find
out how this current understanding and application of smart city concept affect the urban planning
practices and urban policy-making. By taking Malmö as a case study and conducting policy analyses,
the research shows that this trend leads to the project-based practices which in the absence of strategic
and holistic vision toward the smart city as a concept might not fulfil sustainability criteria, cannot be a
beneficiary means for sustainable urban planning, and is a poor concept for social sustainability. It
shows that although private sector is an integral part of smart city practices, public sector -municipality
-needs to take leadership position in defining smart city based on the real city’s demand and integrate it
into the urban planning strategies.

Keywords: Smart city concept, Social sustainability in urban planning, Malmö, Policy analysis, Urban
visionary and conception, Integrated urban development, Sustainable urban development
Table of Contents

1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1. Need for sustainable cities ............................................................................................................ 1
1.2. Emerge of Sustainability .............................................................................................................. 3
1.3. Different concepts for sustainable cities ....................................................................................... 4
1.3. Literature Review ......................................................................................................................... 7
1.3.1. Challenges and critiques in Smart City concept and projects................................................ 7
1.3.2. Sustainable development in smart city discourse and the main disciplines......................... 10
1.4. Context information and challenges ........................................................................................... 12
2. Problem Formulation ...................................................................................................................... 14
3. Objective and Research Questions ................................................................................................. 15
4. Research Design ............................................................................................................................... 16
4.1. Method........................................................................................................................................ 16
4.2. Case study selection ................................................................................................................... 21
4.3. Ethic Consideration .................................................................................................................... 21
5. Analytical framework ..................................................................................................................... 22
5.1. Social sustainability in urban planning....................................................................................... 22
5.1.1 The planners’ triangle ........................................................................................................... 25
5.1.2. Planning actors: Stakeholder engagement in planning ........................................................ 28
5.2. Urban utopia, conception, and visionary .................................................................................... 29
5.3. Smart city definition and dimensions ......................................................................................... 31
6. Analysis............................................................................................................................................. 36
6.1. Smart city concept and strategies ............................................................................................... 36
6.1.1. Semantically use of sustainable city and smart city ............................................................ 36
6.1.2. Lack of definition, the clear strategic approach, and framework ........................................ 36
6.1.3. Thematic integrated strategies ............................................................................................. 40
6.2. Smart city projects in Malmö ..................................................................................................... 44
6.3. Actors and partnership ................................................................................................................ 50
7. Discussion and Recommendation ................................................................................................... 54
7.1. The needs for strategic vision and planning, fitting to the city scale.......................................... 54
7.2. The tension between stakeholders’ interest ................................................................................ 57
7.2.1. Public interest vs. private interest ........................................................................................ 57
7.2.2. Demand sector vs. Supply sector ......................................................................................... 59
7.2.3. National scale vs. City scale ................................................................................................ 59
7.3. Potential of smart city concept in Malmö ................................................................................... 61
8. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 63
9. Recommendations for further study .............................................................................................. 64
10. References ...................................................................................................................................... 65
Appendix .............................................................................................................................................. 74
Appendix 1: Literature review table .............................................................................................. 74
Appendix 2: Interview Guides ....................................................................................................... 75
Appendix 3: Extracted quotes from documents............................................................................. 76
Appendix 4: The brief Description of projects .............................................................................. 77
Appendix 5: Climate Smart Hyllie ................................................................................................ 79

List of Figures
Figure 1: The majority of publications on Smart City based on subject area. ....................................................... 10
Figure 2: The main disciplines among which social debates within the smart city have been taken place. .......... 11
Figure 3: Influential factors of socially sustainable projects ................................................................................ 24
Figure 4: Planners’ triangle ................................................................................................................................... 26
Figure 5: Lash’s model ........................................................................................................................................ 29
Figure 6: Smart city dimensions ........................................................................................................................... 34
Figure 7: Smart city concept and projects relations where projects are defined based on the smart city concept . 34
Figure 8: Sustainability dimensions in Comprehensive plan of Malmö ................................................................ 41
Figure 9: Prioritised standpoints in Skåne strategy ............................................................................................... 41
Figure 10: Mans steps for creating attractive city. ................................................................................................. 43
Figure 11: Prioritised development areas ............................................................................................................. 47

List of Table
Table 1: The list of documents .............................................................................................................................. 18
Table 2: The List of representatives of interviews ................................................................................................. 20
Table 3: The social dimensions of sustainable development: urban social sustainability...................................... 23
Table 4: Key definitions of social sustainability .................................................................................................... 25
Table 5: Different definitions of the smart city with main focuses ........................................................................ 32
Table 6: Smart city project actions ........................................................................................................................ 35
Table 7: List of Smart City projects in Malmö ...................................................................................................... 44
Table 8: Themes from literate review and their disciplines ................................................................................... 74
Table 9: The main goals and actions in smart Hyllie ............................................................................................. 81

Abbreviations:
SSC – Sustainable Smart City
SC- Smart City
PPP- Public-Private Partnership
EU- European Union
UN- United Nations
ICT- Information and Communications Technology
1. Introduction
There have been different paradigms and concepts to deal with urban issues and complexity, which were
dominated in different eras as the leading ones. The contemporary approach, which is getting more and
more popular, is Smart City, the concept which is practised and defined in the neoliberal context and
presented in many cases as a utopia (Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017) and sustainable development. This
concept is being used widely with this promises that it will solve the complexity of urban setting and
challenges, promote quality of life, and create sustainable cities (Monfaredzadeh & Berardi, 2015).
However, there is no specific definition and framework for this popular concept to define in which areas
it should be deployed especially in theoretical discourse within urban planning and social science while
several billion Euros have been allocated to that (Vanolo, 2016).
On the other hand, the recent literature started to criticise this concept for different reasons and many of
them raising doubt if the current smart city approach is sustainable and also some claimed that is not
sustainable (Yigitcanlar & Teriman, 2014; Haarstad, 2016; Vanolo, 2016; Beretta, 2018; Cugurullo,
2018; Martin et al., 2018). One of the frequently mentioned challenges are domination of private sector
and technical perspective in current smart city which not only neglect other dimensions of sustainability
especially social aspects, but deploying this concept as a means of marketing and branding so that the
current practices of smart city are not applied for addressing sustainability or challenges but for branding
and business competitiveness even with controversial results.
This research mainly aims to show how this lack of definition along with the domination of techno-
private practices could create misunderstanding between the smart city and the sustainable city and
affect sustainable urban development. To discover this, city of Malmö is taken as the case study and the
way smart city as concept and initiatives play role in the city development and sustainability objectives
is analysed.
The following sections provide a background as an introduction. At first, the historical background is
introduced about different main approaches and paradigms which influenced urban development
worldwide. It shows how various urban concepts which emerged based on urban challenges could
affected the municipal and urban development practices, and how sustainability emerged based on those
practices. This provides an introduction why Smart City concept as the contemporary buzzword is
relevant to be addressed. Then in continues, Smart City relating to sustainability are reviewed among
literature, followed by reviewing the context of case study context.

1.1. Need for sustainable cities

Cities have become the primary living space for humans, and since 2007 more than half of the World
population lives in urban areas, and studies estimate that this number will increase to 70% by 2050
(World Bank, 2018). This trend projects that people’s lifestyle is facing to transition in relation to
economic activities, social structures and their relation to nature due to the fact that primarily people
lived and worked in rural areas. Cities are continually facing new challenges in both developed and
developing countries. These challenges are complex, therefore a single solution cannot be sufficient to
solve these socio-economic and environmental issues. Industrialisation and capitalism stimulated social
and economic processes globally which generated inequality in the distribution of wealth. This
inequality created different urban areas where residents do not have the same level of accessibility to
resources and services (Lipietz, 1995). The increase of the population in cities also causes environmental
degradation through the intense usage of individual transportation and land use. This fact turned
academia, decision and policy-makers to the need for more sustainable cities, thus various concepts were

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developed such as the zero-waste city, compact city, eco-city, just city and among these the concept of
smart city became one of the responses to these complex urban challenges (Fainstein, 2000; Chourabi
et al., 2012; Albino et al., 2015).
Many current urban challenges originated in the industrial city which started to evolve in the middle of
the 19th century when mass production led the way to more organised capitalism and later transformed
into Fordism (Pacione, 2009). Historically, there has been a general trend of population movement from
rural to urban areas with an increasing number of people living in cities and towns which is often driven
by the search of work. The priority in the industrial city was accessibility, and as a result, factories
concentrated near gateways and consumers (Pacione, 2009). These factories also demanded a large
number of workforce thus more, and more labours moved to urbanised areas from the rural parts of the
country. The urban structure of the industrial city was primarily characterised by two things: first of all,
factories dominated the urban view, while social segregation influenced a division of neighbourhoods
(Pacione, 2009). The mass number of labours were mainly lived close to their workplace in crowded
and unhealthy districts without basic infrastructure. These living areas were often organised by
capitalists and factory owners, therefore the local governments did not have the power or interest to
regulate these areas, however this changed when different labour movements widespread and started to
protest for labour rights and better living conditions at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (Mommaas,
2004). Later, expanded voting rights and citizens’ representatives started to improve labour’s
neighbourhoods by developing housing and hard infrastructure (e.g., sewage system, concrete road,
public lighting and electricity in houses, etc.) in many industrialised countries (Mommaas, 2004;
Pacione, 2009). However, the city was highly polluted due to the heating and electricity of residential
and non-residential buildings and factories which were based on coal or other polluting resources. This
form of the economy created most of today's cities’ urban structures, and these cities were highly
unsustainable socially, economically and environmentally, and did not change fundamentally until the
Second World War.
States and local governments stimulated and encouraged the economic boom after the Second World
War which generated an enormous improvement in the infrastructure especially in urban areas, and the
new road systems prioritised individual transportation. Thus, people who lived in the crowded and
polluted cities were enabled to move in proximity to the city, in the agglomeration due to the widespread
of cars. The urban sprawl caused environmental degradation by involving more lands for the built
environment at the expense of the natural environment (Nefs, 2006). In order to have a better
understanding of this post-war period and the general mindset, we have to see that the general thinking
of people was that social and economic processes and the environment were entirely controllable by
human action (Lane, 2005). Therefore, this mentality strongly influenced rapid urbanisation and urban
restructuring which generated profound problems in society and nature.
This era was followed by Post-Fordism which was characterised by specialisation, the flexibility of work
and based on the development of communication, mobility and mass market. The ‘old economy’ shifted
from industrial production to a service and knowledge-based economy. The process of
deindustrialisation affected the industrial areas and harbours of large cities from where most of the
productions were outsourced to other countries due to economic reasons (Jessop, 2005). The high
number of low skilled labours lost their jobs, so the unemployment rate rapidly increased in urban areas,
while the rural areas’ economy was unable to provide jobs due to automation (Jessop, 2005).
The oil crisis in 1973 caused an economic recession and accelerated the transformation process. The
neoliberal ideology was the response and became dominant in many segments of the economy and urban
planning as well from the 1980s. Thus the promotion of market mechanisms and managementalism in
the city governments appeared as a solution for urban problems (Harvey, 2005). The so-called neoliberal
state became sort of an agent of the market rather than a regulator, and for instance started to privatise
public owned properties and to implement neoliberal urban policies, therefore the private sector turned

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into the dominant driving force, and private investors started to shape cities (Elwood, 2002; Smith,
2002). Since the state needed additional income due to the recession and did not have the financial
resource to maintain and renovate publicly owned properties, these properties were purchased by private
investors. The value of certain districts close to the inner-city was increased, where often residents lived
from the working-class or various disadvantaged social groups (e.g., unemployed, ethnic minorities
etc.), thus these districts were the targets of rehabilitation programmes and attracting investors. This
phenomenon is called gentrification that may induce displacement due to higher housing prices which
can push out the low-paid or unpaid residents and local businesses over time. The consequence of this
phenomena was a transformational process from low-class to middle-class neighbourhood (Atkinson,
2000).
Furthermore, liveability became a vital factor in making cities attractive by providing various
opportunities to their residents and communities (Florida, 2002). As a consequence, cities have been
competing each other nationally and globally for skilled people and investors, therefore competitiveness
plays a key role among cities such as among businesses (Florida, 2002). In addition to that from a neo-
liberal perspective, the value of competitiveness and the measurement of performance as a managerial
tool became more widespread and frequently used to compare cities and in the creation of various city
rankings. There have been multiple city rankings with a focus on liveability, business attractiveness,
innovation or smartness, etc. The normalising power of neoliberalism generates competition among
cities through transforming their differences from the norm they assumed in the chosen criteria to be the
best practice. This approach, for instance, can influence the allocation of financial resources to improve
the city’s position on different rankings, thus city decision-makers can extract resources from more
relevant areas and choosing solutions what do not solve the city’s problems (Kornberger & Carter,
2010).

1.2. Emerge of Sustainability

The socio-economic imbalance in cities is the result of social and economic change brought by
globalisation and the shift from industrial development to information development (Egger, 2006).
Therefore, a strong need emerged for sustainable cities. The well-known Brundtland Report sparked a
debate in thinking around its core themes on the environment, development, and governance. The report
has led to an academic response since its release in 1987 from examinations of the word ‘sustainability’
to economic and equity issues and institutions, environment and included urban issues as well. The call
for sustainable development was a pragmatic response to the challenges of the period while the goals of
the report were widely embraced (Sneddon et al., 2002). Thus, the concept of sustainability has been an
integral part of development work since the late 1980s.
The concept of sustainable cities and its links with sustainable development have been discussed since
the early 1990s, although the call for sustainable urban development appeared in the 1976 UN-Habitat
(Habitat, 1976). A clear definition was formulated for sustainable cities which should be a foundation
for all cities: “sustainable cities should meet their inhabitants’ development needs without imposing
unsustainable demands on local or global natural resources and systems (UN, 2013 from Satterthwaite,
1992, p. 3).” This definition shows that both developing and developed countries should take
responsibility and contribute in order to achieve this goal.
Since 2015, United Nations has 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are interrelated,
although every one of them has their own targets to achieve. One of the goals is Sustainable Cities and
Communities sets targets by 2030, and mainly focus on affordable housing, access to sustainable
transportation systems, increase the degree of participation and inclusion among residents towards
sustainable city planning. Moreover, it highlights the protection of poor and vulnerable residents from

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different diseases (e.g., poor water quality) and providing inclusive and quality green public space for
people. However, according to the UN report (2013, p. 54) these targets “require functioning city
governments able both to ensure that such benefits are realised, and to adopt a sustainable framework
that encourages the city’s growth within ecological limits.”
In developing countries access to basic public services (e.g., water, sanitation, electricity and health
care) remains inadequate. Due to overpopulation and intense migration from rural areas to large cities,
challenge the institutional capacities for improving accessibility to infrastructure and public services.
Although, upper middle and high-income countries with urban centres that already have access to basic
public services face the challenge of increasing efficiency in energy and water usage, reducing the
generation of waste and improving their recycling systems. Large and wealthier cities, in particular, may
have well-managed resource systems, however they also have larger ecological footprints (UN, 2013).
Furthermore, effective urban management is a condition for sustainable cities which requires multilevel
cooperation among local, national and global communities and establishing partnerships to mobilise
public and private resources.
Creating policy framework for the sustainable development of urban areas is one of the cornerstones as
well as democratic legitimacy, and stakeholder consultation is vital since policies are the set of ideas or
plans that are used as a foundation for decision-making in fields such as politics, planning, business. In
the administrative system, the policies’ role is control of change and show a direction or approach for
decision-makers (Solesbury, 2013).
European Union (EU) studies (Eurostat, 2016; 2017) and UN reports (2013) indicate the phenomenon
of urban paradox by underlining that urbanisation provides new jobs and opportunities for millions of
people in both developed and developing countries and has contributed to poverty eradication efforts
worldwide. At the same time, rapid urbanisation adds pressure to the resource base and increases the
demand for various services and resources (UN, 2013). Although cities are often the places of jobs and
opportunity with access to quality education, healthcare, a wide range of services and also innovation is
concentrating there, many cities are characterised by high poverty, segregation, high crime rate and high
air and noise pollution. By comparing urban areas to the rural, the labour market is more dynamic by
providing flexibility which makes cities more attractive to businesses and people.

1.3. Different concepts for sustainable cities

Several concepts were developed from architects, planners, environmentalists in order to create
sustainable cities, improve the current urban structure and tackle socio-economic challenges. In the
1960s, Jane Jacobs an American-Canadian journalist was one of the first activists who drew attention
with her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities on the negative effects of urban renewal
policies that destroy urban communities and create isolated urban spaces. Her book influenced both
planning professionals and the general public by focusing on the needs of residents and the social aspects
of urban planning (New York Times, 2006; Gehl, 2007; 2013).
Jacobs’ book and fresh approach created a solid foundation for new urbanism movements such as “just
city,” walkable and carless cities which attempt was to design cities for people. The concept of “just
city” by Susan Fainstein (2000) argues that urban planners need a normative theory of justice because
their motivation to tackle inequality did not produce workable alternatives under pro-growth regimes.
Inequality remained in cities mainly due to the imperfection of planning procedures, thus she emphasises
the need for involving marginalised social groups by creating democracy, diversity and social justice
(Fainstein, 2000; Healey, 2003). Furthermore, Fainstein (2000) highlights the importance that public
investments and regulations should support and produce equitable outcomes rather than make the
wealthy wealthier.

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These new urbanism movements also strived to improve quality of urban life by re-orienting and re-
think urban design towards pedestrians and cyclists which ideas were the most popular in European
cities, especially in Scandinavian cities such as Copenhagen, and later from the 2000s in New York and
some Australian and New-Zealander cities. For instance, by implementing sustainable concepts in urban
planning, Copenhagen transformed from a car-dominated city into a pedestrian- and cyclist-oriented city
in less than 30 years (Gehl, 2007; 2013).
Furthermore, various concepts were inspired by biological systems and using biologist and
environmentalist terms to understand urban structures as ecosystems. For instance, the urban
metabolism concept represented a holistic approach to urban planning by modelling complex urban
systems’ flows such as water, energy, waste and people etc. (Rotmans et al., 2000).
During the last decade, European cities have implemented “compact city” strategies in their urban
development. These strategies focused on effective urban development policies in relation to renewal
within the existing urban fabric. These were various densification policies, intensive land use, including
the redevelopment of brownfields and other types of underused lands (Van der Waals, 2000; Nefs,
2006). Professionals argue that with densification and intensive land use cities can slow down and
control urban spawn, thus cities do not have to occupy more lands for the built environment from the
natural environment. Although densification can slow urban sprawl down, research shows that this type
of concentration of people and buildings generate more air and noise pollution (Nefs, 2006). Also,
building high rise buildings are consequences of densification which often causes alienation and a weak
sense of community among residents, therefore it has a negative social and environmental impact
(Gospodini, 2002; Nefs, 2006).
The rapid development of technology, particularly information and communications technology (ICT)
in the 1990s created a solid foundation for involving new digital solutions and increasing efficiency in
tackling urban complexity. Thus monitoring, analysing and optimising complex urban systems and
interacting directly with communities and citizens became more accessible than ever before. The
concept of “smart city” and other similar terminologies such as digital city, intelligent city, information
city and knowledge-based city emerged and started to appear in urban developments and strategies. The
concept of the smart city was introduced already in 1994, and after the appearance of smart city projects
which were supported by the European Union, the number of publications regarding the topic has
considerably increased since 2010 (Dameri & Cocchia, 2013). By nowadays, “smart city” became a
buzzword and a part of a new trend of sustainable urban development, while this concept is widely used
today, there is still not a clear and consistent understanding of its meaning (Caragliu et al., 2011;
Chourabi et al., 2012). Researchers, national planning agencies, municipalities and even private
companies often use their own fabricated definitions (Dameri & Cocchia, 2013).
According to Cohen (2015), three generations of smart cities are identified. The first generation is driven
by large multinational technology companies to adopt their technologies in order to increase efficiency
and innovation in cities, therefore it potentially generates economic growth and attracts Richard
Florida’s creative class to the city. In this case the public sector does not have sufficient knowledge of
the implementable technology, thus basically they implementing the companies’ plans and solutions
without questioning them (Cohen, 2015).
The second generation is led by forward-thinking mayors and city officials to use smart city solutions
as tools to improve quality of life. Several leading cities have recognised the opportunity for
implementing technology to increase the quality of public services for their residents and visitors as
well. These cities often use the latest technologies in their smart city projects and supporting the growth
of smart city industries by facilitating network and hold specific smart city expos in their cities (Cohen,
2015).

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And the third generation started to appear in recent years with a strong focus on collaborative planning
and co-creation in smart city initiatives. In this type citizens are important partners in developing projects
and active public participation plays a key role by encouraging a bottom-up planning process (Cohen,
2015).
Several European cities such as Amsterdam, Vienna, Barcelona, Stockholm, Copenhagen and
Manchester are considered as leaders and role models for implementing the concept of smart city in
their cities. Although the majority of smart city initiatives are implemented and get attention in highly
developed countries and regions (e.g. EU, USA, South Korea, Japan etc.), large and developing
economies such as China, India, Brazil with rapid urbanisation are also focusing on integrating the
concept of smart city in their urban strategies and policies, therefore they have started to become an
attractive market for investors (Cohen, 2015). The implemented smart city initiatives have various
characteristics by each city or country. Several cities implement smart city projects in one specific
district and concentrating on smart city solutions by creating high-quality housing, these are for instance
in Hafencity (Hamburg), Nordhavn (Copenhagen), Hackbridge (London), Hammerby Sjöstad
(Stockholm), Oulu Arctic City (Oulu, Finland) and also Hyllie in Malmö while the others are promoting
e-governance which is the application of ICT for delivering public services and exchange of information
between the public sector and citizens. The City of Amsterdam created, for instance, an online platform
for public participation and co-creation in order to develop a better city for their residents (Cohen, 2015;
Trivellato, 2016). The City of Barcelona established a wide collaboration with private sector and
research institutes within the scope of Barcelona’s smart city strategy. Thus, the strength of Barcelona’s
smart city strategy relied on its comprehensive approach which based on a clear governance model to
support the smart city strategy which also resulted in better and more efficient coordination of the
different internal and external stakeholders (Ferrer, 2018).
Knowledge-sharing and cooperation are fundamental in smart city projects due to its complexity,
therefore the distribution of tasks between different actors and stakeholders is essential. Neither local
authorities, urban planners nor private companies able to run smart city projects on their own, so they
have to bring new ways of partnership to get complex and multidisciplinary smart city projects workable.
Public-private partnership (PPP) is often the framework between them which is, in general, a long-term
cooperative arrangement between one or more public and private actors (Klijn & Teisman, 2002).
Although public authorities and municipalities have the policy-making powers and access to wide range
of data, they do not have the financial resources and knowledge to execute a smart city project, especially
when the latest technologies are implemented there, thus experienced private companies with the know-
how are involved (Klijn & Teisman, 2002; Anthopoulos et al., 2016). However, this process can question
the credibility and independence of the public decision- and policy-makers in general due to the large
transnational companies’ financial and influential power (Buck & While, 2017). In addition to this,
national and local governments often lack sufficient expertise to bid effectively, let and negotiate
contracts, and the legal instruments to enforce the contracts of those projects (Buck & While, 2017).
Since the newer technologies for implementing digital solutions in cities are getting more affordable and
available, the need for integrating the concept of the smart city in urban strategies and policies became
relevant and urgent (Trivellato, 2016). In fact, numerous cities are struggling with the interrelated
phenomenon, and urban planners are responsible for dealing with and tackling them. This indicates the
key role of urban planning in relation to the smart city concept, especially by considering the recent
critiques against the smart city concept that challenge the sustainability of the smart city concept. The
representatives of the smart city concept often claim that it is a solution to manage complex
environmental and socio-economic challenges, however, many critiques have emerged in need of re-
defining smart city model and initiatives as it might neglect the complexity of a city, especially the social
aspects.

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Many of the concepts mentioned above have become integrated parts of urban policies and sustainable
urban strategies. The concept of the smart city, such as other concepts, was created recently as a solution
to solve urban complexity and improve the quality of urban life, and assisting sustainable urban
development. However, the current application and understanding of smart city concept have faced
intense criticism from different perspectives, raising this question if this concept is as beneficial as it is
advocated by developers or not. These critiques are covered in the literature review section.

1.3. Literature Review

This section aims to give an overview of the recent literature on smart city concept and projects. The
literature on the smart city is very fragmented addressing different issues from technical to ethical ones.
The main perspective to sample the literature has been generally in line with the context of the thesis
which aims to look at the smart city from social and urban science perspective in relation to
sustainability.
Based on the review of the literature, the section is divided into two main parts. The first part covers the
critical perspective which has massively emerged among literature especially from the social and urban
point of view, and the second one addresses the main approaches among those literatures that tried to
look at the smart city from specifically sustainability point of view.

1.3.1. Challenges and critiques in Smart City concept and projects

There has been a growing body of literature which criticising the smart cities in recent years, especially
from urban scholars, suggesting in general that there is taken insufficient account of social and political
consideration in envisioning smart cities (Cowley et al., 2018). In fact, although the smart city is
expected to lead society towards sustainability and is meant to improve quality of life (Sujata et al.,
2016), there are some controversies over its contribution toward sustainable development, communities,
and people. The main concerns relate to its possible destructiveness end to the societal aspect which
might be overlooked by the current interest of leading cities to implement some certain smart policies
and projects.
Four main schools of thought among literature in relation to smart cities are recognised by Kummithaa
and Crutzen (2017), namely restrictive, reflective rationalistic, or pragmatic, and Critical school of
thought. Through this categories, they aimed to show that the critical debates within the literature have
attracted attention dramatically since 2014, however, the first type of critiques had started among the
second school of thought.
At the beginning, the debates were some reflections on smart cities, taken a positive stance and claimed
that these technologies would enhance the humane capacities, economic prosperity, and ecological
integrity, though they expressed concern about the dominant role of private markets or some speculative
“risky and arcane” conditions under which municipalities have to invest massively in private-oriented
smart products as infrastructure (Kummithaa & Crutzen, 2017).
This is because most of smart cities activities are associated with large private companies like IBM,
Cisco, and Siemens, etc. as the main promoters (Vanolo, 2016; Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017; Martin et al.,
2018) while city is a complex socio-economic phenomenon so there is a concern about overlooking this
complexity and taking the city as an implicit phenomenon by private corporates (Greenfield, 2013),
especially regarding social challenges. The sensitivity of this issue becomes more considerable if we
remember that many urban and social policies developed by planners and public sectors have failed to

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solve or anticipate the interrelated problems in some cases, if we, for example, observe the process of
gentrification and segregation in urban planning (Batty, 2014).
In this sense, there is a concern about taking control by the private sector which seeks mainly profit and
competitiveness, not the public concerns in the condition that studies claim the competitiveness and
social cohesion cannot be convergent (Monfaredzadeh & Berardi, 2015; Trivellato, 2016).
The dichotomy between sustainability and competitiveness or entrepreneurialism has been a highly-
mentioned concept in smart city debates in order to show that the former has been sacrificed for the
latter. This debate tries to remark that these two dichotomies might not have much in common
(Monfaredzadeh & Berardi, 2015; Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017) or elaborating that technocratic and
entrepreneurial approach to urban development not rooted in the substantial requirements for urban
transformation (Haarstad, 2016). Experiences in many cities have shown this scarification. For example,
City of Austin has attempted to merge the entrepreneurial agenda with the sustainability agenda, but in
practice, it used the latter just as a selling point to facilitate the former (Mihailova, 2017).
Since the contribution of literature, which was dominantly technology-oriented, could not justify the
benefits of the smart city over its possible negative implication, the discursive tried emphasising on
prioritising people over the technology such as engaging people and other stakeholders in planning or
focusing on innovation. By doing so, they drew attention to humanistic elements over technology (Eger,
2003 and argued that smart cities would need to focus on people and their capabilities more than just
concentrating around ICTs or technology (Kummithaa & Crutzen, 2017).
The final and the recent school of thought, by Kummithaa and Crutzen (2017), which was recognised
as the Critical school of thought aims to “encapsulates the growing dissatisfaction around the very
concept of the smart city and its practice.
The critiques go even further to tackle the softer social issues which is difficult to measure such as
happiness: if people in this very smart city have necessarily happy life, good relationship, and sense of
community? Do they really enjoy and perceive their life as good standard (Hollands, 2015)? In some
projects, smart initiatives could positively contribute to improving healthcare service like smart housing
for elderly or patients. Yet, even in those projects, the challenges remain such as potential over-reliance
on automation, the “medicalization” of the home environment, privacy and security, informed consent,
plugging issues, and psychological aspect (Demiris & Hensel, 2009).
In these debates, the central concern are toward citizens and their communities who might be the final
loser of this game due to the threat of losing social inclusion, their right to the city, and being burdened
more with the economic and social implications which will happen by privatisation of urban space
(Beretta, 2018). In fact, although the smart city concept and those who advocate it are claiming ‘smart
city is for people,’ critics argue that it is not much clear that what exactly people means, to what extent,
and in which ways it can help them (Haarstad, 2016). Cowley et al., (2018) by looking at public
perception towards smart projects aimed to show that the magnitude of current dystopian speculative to
smart city in the literature is not near to reality, but finally they could not deny that there is a dominance
of ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘service user’ modes of smart city than the real social perspective towards
citizens.
Vanolo (2016) who analysed the role and place of citizens in envisioning the smart city concludes that
“all imaginaries in smart city concept speak about the citizens of the smart city and speak in the name
of them, but very little is known about citizen’s real desires and aspiration (Vanolo, 2016, P.36).” He
mentions that the citizens’ voice is absent in many envisioning smart city and where they are considered
as an active citizen they are discounted as an urban sensor. So, he raises concern about the future of
citizens, as political subjective with the right to speech or privacy being with responsibilities, in the
smart city in which they might be subjected by technologies that will hamper their freedom.

8
All the given challenges implying the threat for social justice in general (Mihailova, 2017; Beretta, 2018)
because the studies showed and argued that for example, digital innovations have potential to
disempower and marginalize citizen and the benefits of these innovations will not be distributed evenly
(Martin et al., 2018). Generally, critics are calling that there is a need for re-thinking about our life in a
“very technologically driven, corporately controlled, heavily marketed, even environmentally sound
smart (Hollands, 2015, P.73)”, and ask the smart city about its contribution toward social and political
aspect of development (Kummithaa & Crutzen, 2017; Han &Hawken, 2018).
The technical perspective in the smart city is also seen in tension with the real demands of society
(Angelidou, 2015). The domination of technology in practicing current smart city is mentioned as a
force in smart city concept.
Smartness is right now identified with innovation hinged on the technology, precisely those technologies
that the economic actors involved in the process of providing public goods are able to provide (Grossi
& Pianezzi, 2017). It is projected that the annual spending on the smart city projects will be $16 billion
by 2020 (Angelidou, 2015) or by another estimation, the global smart city technology market will worth
more than $27.5 billion by 2023 (Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017). And, with the help of the technology
advancement, an increasing number of technology vendors and consultancies are looking for a niche in
smart city product market (Angelidou, 2015) and the benefit that they can obtain out of that, based on
the given figures, is huge (Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017).
This technology push, which implies continual releasing new products into the market due to the rapid
advancement of technology, is based on supply without considering the expressed need of society.
Therefore, it is seen in tension with the demand pull, referring to the solutions and products which is
developed and commercialised based on the scientific research in response to the demand on the side of
society (Angelidou, 2015; Buck & While, 2017). In studies, it is mentioned that there are asymmetries
in the supply-and-demand side of the smart city so that the current smart city projects are more supply-
driven (Angelidou, 2015; Buck & While, 2017)
All these increasing critiques can be related to the insufficient consideration of social dimension which
is overlooked on the expense of understanding more technical aspects of smart cities to the benefit of
environmental practices (Monfaredzadeh & Krueger, 2015). However, many critics argued that primary
objectives of the smart city like economic growth or energy efficiency, which are still defined in a
consumerist culture, not only could not promote social equity, also cannot protect the environment alone
(Martin et al., 2018).
So, among all, one of the most recognisable critiques is about the unsustainability of the smart city.
Many scholars are questioning if smart city is sustainable or recall it as unsustainable (Yigitcanlar &
Teriman, 2014; Haarstad, 2016; Beretta, 2018; Cugurullo, 2018; Yigitcanlar & Kamruzzaman, 2018)
not because of possible breakage of three main pillars of sustainability and lack of social consideration,
but even based on sustainability criteria even in environmental goals which is the dominant aspect of
current smart city (Yigitcanlar & Teriman, 2014; Cugurullo, 2018). Colding et al., (2018) by an
extensive review of Smart City discourses concluded that there is a lack of clear sustainability
contribution within the smart city concept. Moreover, some scholars by conducting empirical study
proved this claim, showing this is not only based on the theoretical and political analyses e.g. economic
growth and neoliberal ideology (Buck, 2017; Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017; Martin et al., 2018), citizen right
(Vanolo, 2016), urban future (Angelidou, 2015), entrepreneurial competitive urbanism (Buck, 2017),
etc.
For instance, Yigitcanlar and Teriman, (2014) showed that smart project could not necessarily succeed
in CO2 emission, adding that smart city lack sustainability contribution. Cugurullo (2016, 2018) also
showed the same shortcoming in eco-city which was disconnected from the natural environment and
insensitive to the rest of the built environment in one case (2018) or just was a means of preserving some

9
specific economic and political targets -seeking economic growth to preserve political institution ruling
classes (2016).
So, several scholars are recommending further investigation and research on sustainability in smart city
or even re-defining the smart city concept and model (Haarstad, 2016; Ahvenniemi et al., 2017; Bibri &
Krogstie, 2017; Colding & Barthel, 2017; Ibrahim et al., 2017; Trindade et al., 2017; Macke et al., 2018;
Yigitcanlar & Kamruzzaman 2018).
It should be mentioned that this critiques towards sustainability of smart city are in the condition that
smart city concept and projects are branded as a sustainable city or utopia by its main advocates (Grossi
& Pianezzi, 2017), became a buzzword even, in some cases, as a replacement for ‘sustainable.’

1.3.2. Sustainable development in smart city discourse and the main disciplines

Our literature review showed that as much as the call for re-thinking about the smart city is emerging,
there is still no specific and holistic framework and common definition which based on that contribution
of the smart city in social sustainability can be mapped. Almost all articles mention to this fact that the
smart city does not have a common and agreed definition (Hara et al., 2016; Vanolo, 2016; Grossi &
Pianezzi, 2017) as well as a strategic vision to design long-term strategies (Hara et al., 2016).
In this sense, one point which can unlock why many critics target technical-oriented perspective of the
smart city is looking at the ways and fields of theoretical discourse within which smart city is discussed
(Mora et al.; 2017). The domain of discourse on the smart city has taken place in other subject areas,
mainly computer science, more than social science. Figure 1 by Colding and Barthel (2017) shows how
and from which perspectives smart city has been defined and discussed so far.

Figure 1: The majority of publications on Smart City based on subject area (Colding & Barthel, 2017, p.97).

They indicate that the third largest publication falls in the socially based subject. However, our review
which was among this social discourse on the smart city revealed that even these socially-based debates
had been more developed in engineering and business disciplines than social discipline (Appendix 1,

10
Figure 2). This showed us still the technical and business disciplines have more interest in smart city
literature even they try to address the social aspects.

14

19

social science engeneering business and managemen

Figure 2: The main disciplines among which social debates within the smart city have been taken place.

Based on our literature review three main approaches can be seen in the literature (Appendix 1, Table
8):

 First, the articles that challenge or criticise the smart city from the social point of view. This
group has a general critical perspective or analytical arguments based on one social issue such
as privacy, equity, neoliberal policies, etc., ending in some recommendations.
 Second, the group that evaluated or analysed cases or one smart city project, to explore smart
city’s relation to the sustainable development or assess its performance in relation to one
criterion of sustainability.
 And, the third group, which were quite few, tried to develop a model based on challenges in the
smart city that all were a technical solution from engineering disciplines. They tried to develop
a model placed with a single aspect like co-design in smart city projects (Mayangsari & Novani,
2015).
It is found that if there is a discourse on the contribution of the smart city to social aspects, they are
mainly critiques which result in some general recommendation. For example, Monfaredzadeh and
Krueger (2015) had a debate with the aim of investigating social factors in the smart city, but still, they
limited their contribution to some arguments and critiques.
Also, Trivellato (2016) tried to assess Milan smart city’s initiatives based on social sustainability.
However, he used and modified a framework from Colantonio and Dixon (2009) that is based on the
criteria for measuring urban regeneration in Europe. This study is an assessment based on a theory
outside the smart city framework and also based on quantitative criteria which were used for a qualitative
assessment.
Ahvenniemi et al. (2017) express that “there is a much stronger focus on modern technologies and
“smartness” in the smart city frameworks compared to urban sustainability frameworks.” Moreover, it
is argued that the smart city is dominated by politics of data-driven, innovation, technology, and

11
economic entrepreneurial urbanism, rather than the complex socio-cultural and environmental context
of urban setting (Haarstad, 2016; Macke et al., 2018)
Explanation of Valono (2016) might shed light on this dominant trend by the private sector or technical
perspective which mentioned among critiques. He elaborates that the smart city concept did not have a
theoretical foundation and defined mainly by companies like IBM and Cisco. He explains that the (valid)
process for conceptualising smart city cannot track back as a theoretical concept.
In another study by Mora et al. (2017) it is indicated that “the knowledge necessary to understand the
process of building the effective smart city in the real world has not yet been produced nor have the
tools for supporting the actors involved in this activity (Mora et al., 2017, P.20).” He concludes that
there is a lack of intellectual exchange among those conducting research and isolation from each other,
the disconnection which can also be seen between communities lives and the knowledge of the smart
city. This point is mentioned in another way by Pierce et al. (2017) who believes the smart city is
pluralistic and incoherent social organism with blurred boundaries and conflicting logic and extremely
complex challenges. In this sense, Mora et al. (2017) believe that this trend can put future development
of this new but divided area of research at risk.

1.4. Context information and challenges

Malmö as the third largest city of Sweden has been undergoing a transformation from an industrial city
into an eco-city, and consequently, Malmö’s strategy has strived to market Malmö as an environmentally
sustainable, entrepreneurial, and knowledge-based city in order to attract businesses, creative class and
people to invest and live there (Mihailova, 2017). Referring Malmö to the knowledge or entrepreneurial
city implies that Malmö is a city where its economy is based on attracting talented people and
organisations (Mihailova, 2017). In the same regard, Malmö has been mentioned as one of the innovative
cities and one of eight emerging tech hubs in the world (Business Sweden, 2015).
As a city where undergone post-industrial urban regeneration, city policy-makers have focused on
environmental sustainability sometimes at the expense of equity in the city. For instance, in urban
regeneration, there has been a focus on housing developments with advanced environmental solutions
(Holgersen & Baeten, 2017; Mihailova, 2017).
Some projects like Bo01 and Augustenborg Eco-city, succeeded to brand Malmö as a sustainable city
in environmental solutions in urban planning, although scholars mention to a socio-economic
polarisation and segregation which has remained and in some cases reproduced because of those policies
and plans (Baeten et al., 2017; Holgersen & Baeten, 2017). Due to this focus, it seems not only policies
might neglect other dimensions of sustainability such as the social dimension, but also they resulted in
even environmental gentrification (Sandberg, 2014; Mihailova, 2017).
However, Comprehensive plan for Malmö (2014) regarding its transformation believes that “The City
of Malmö has experienced a successful transformation from an industrial city in crisis to a modern,
environmentally aware and forward-looking city. This new comprehensive plan is a strategy for a new
era, looking towards Malmö in the 2030s” (Comprehensive plan for Malmö, 2014, p. 2). However, it
could not decline that "Malmö is partly characterised by segregation and social disparity where
differences in living standard and public health between different city districts are large (Comprehensive
plan for Malmö, 2014, p. 4).
Most studies endorse the Malmö’s succussed in heavily investing on green and environmental urban
development but lags behind the social aspect of that (Anderson, 2014; Nordic City Network, 2014;
Sandberg, 2014; Mihailova, 2017). This issue is interesting to notice when we look at the previous

12
studies which had recommended that ‘knowledge city’ is no longer the objective that Malmö primarily
needs to strive towards. Today there is a great need for the city to be more equal, connected and
networked (Nordic City Network, 2014) while, still, some recent studies mention to Malmö’s problem
of physical segregation and attribute it to those green type of development (Mihailova, 2017). Our early
investigation, also, shows that the largest investment in the smart city as part of those green development
(e.g., Hyllie) went mainly for environmental and economic purposes.
In this regard, there has been trying to start changing this direction toward more social sustainability in
recent years. For example, the Malmö city set up a commission to produce a document and plan for
social sustainability in which, though, the social challenges of the city are introduced and analysed base
on the health issue and perspective (Commission for a Socially Sustainable Malmö, 2013; Malmö Stad,
2017). Moreover, the Municipality in partnership with Malmö University created a research lab to bring
social innovation in order to tackle social challenges in the city (Malmö University, 2015).
Another issue as contextual information which is related to shaping policy in urban development and
the smart project in Malmö is housing policy and trend as the main investment of smart projects went
for housing.
The recent trends in housing policy, which has been affected by the changing political atmosphere,
resulted in a shift from social housing to the neo-liberal and market-driven system (Andersson & Turner,
2014). These changes in policies paved the road for further deregulations and in favour market-based
cooperative housing (Andersson & Turner, 2014).
One of the examples shows the effect of this trend on the urban practice is Hammarby Sjöstad, a so-
called Eco-district from Stockholm which is a good example as a result of neo-liberal housing policy,
and it is introduce as a reference for future sustainable urban development in Swedish cities, where the
smart solutions were used (Khakee, 2007). The development in Hammerby Sjöstad was the first large-
scale urban renewal project in Sweden which strongly implemented the neo-liberal planning elements
by favouring private developers and setting high quality of housing in order to attract high income
residents (Khakee, 2007; Andersson & Turner, 2014). The project became internationally recognised,
and it has been taken as a positive case and role model for sustainable urban development (Khakee,
2007). However, the new district suffers from negative social effects such as lack of social cohesion,
social mix, affordable rental apartments and the area is identified with low cultural diversity and
segregated with high-income residents (Ignatieva & Berg, 2014; Cele, 2015).
Similarly, several studies show (Taşan-Kok, T., & Baeten, 2011; Baeten, 2012; Sandberg, 2014) that
the urban planning in Malmö has shifted to a rather neoliberal planning approach in order to assist in
the transformation process and to attract high-income and highly skilled residents to the city. Moreover,
the same approach and same language in introducing the smart city projects in Malmö such as Hyllie
and Western Harbour are see which raise the question about the role of smart city projects in sustainable
urban planning in this city.
These political changes are considered dramatic since public housing was one of the cornerstones of the
Swedish welfare-state. Therefore, this housing trend questions that if public housing companies can
continue working as an important actor for social sustainability in these times when they have to adopt
to market conditions.

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2. Problem Formulation
Taking the previous debate and challenges of the current smart city into consideration, we define the
problem based on the current dominant practice of smart city mainly focused on the two main issues.
First is related to unsustainable understanding and defining the smart city by the domination of technical
perspective and practices (Mora et al., 2017) and lack of integrated discursive (Bibri, 2017) which
resulted in the lack of social consideration in the smart city and domination of environmental practices.
The second point is related to the branding and marketing practices and the domination of private sector
in defining and developing the concept and projects (Angelidou, 2017) which resulted in applying this
concept in some developed countries as a means of competitiveness rather than sustainable urban
development. These two points which can be seen related are elaborated more in the following
paragraphs:
The current smart city concept, which is embedded in neoliberal, techno-centric vision advanced in
industry-policy discourses especially in Europe and North America, is primarily technical and digital
(Vanolo, 2016; Mora et al., 2017; Martin et al., 2018). In this sense, there is also an increasing concern
regarding the role of the private corporation in defining and envisioning smart city so that many label
the smart city as ‘private city,’ ‘entrepreneurial city’, or ‘corporate smart city’ (Vanolo, 2016; Grossi &
Pianezzi, 2017). On the other hand, in parallel with this fact that Smart City has become a global
phenomenon, it has become a fashionable term, being used for branding or marketing purposes with a
lack of integrated approach covering sustainability concerns. Thus “the fashionable term ‘smart’ has
started to replace ‘sustainable’ in the brand of many projects, for example, China’s Tianjin Eco-City is
now also branded as Tianjin Smart City.” (Yigitcanlar & Kamruzzaman, 2018, p.57)
As it mentioned, these two identified points can be considered interrelated. Due to the lack of holistic
and integrated view and definition on the concept of the smart city, and also the absence of social
dimension in theoretical debates, this trend continues the current technical practices with all its
shortcomings and cannot shed light on the missing actions for actors (Bibri, 2017). So, in this absence,
the current private-sector-domination, and serving smart city as branding can continually create a
misunderstanding between sustainable urban development and this current smart city for policymakers
and planners, shifting the implementation of smart city in planning from a sustainable to one-
dimensional approach in urban development (Parks, 2018) which can benefit mainly private sector rather
than the city and citizens. Policy makers and practitioners increasingly look at researchers for answers
to complexity and challenges which raise serious dilemmas, and at times, overwhelmingly perplexing
questions (Tonts & Thompson, 2008). Since urban concepts and paradigms affect the municipal plans
and practices and also can shape cities, therefore, it is vital to shed light on this phenomenon which
received many criticisms.
This trend becomes more crucial for cities such as Malmö which is in transition and suffering mainly
from social problems on the one hand, and is massively trying to apply smart-environmental urban
projects on the other hand (e.g., Smart Hyllie where are presenting as a model for the future urban
development of Malmö). This focus and investment on climate and environmental approaches are in the
condition that the main critiques and challenges about Malmö’s policies in urban development is related
to social exclusion, segregation, polarization (Holgersen & Baeten, 2017) and gentrification in urban
setting (Beretta, 2018) the same issues that critics relate them to smart city (Anderson, 2014; Sandberg,
2014; Mihailova, 2017).
Also, one point is considered to be highlighted: ‘Entrepreneurial and branding’ which is a key
characteristic of current Smart City in general (Angelidou, 2017), and, also, has been Malmö’s strategy
in specific (Mihailova, 2017). The literature, especially about cities such as Malmö which undergone
the post-industrial transition to a knowledge-based approach, showed that being sustainable or precisely
socially sustainable and entrepreneurialism has been blurring (Mihailova, 2017).

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3. Objective and Research Questions
Based on the problem formulation, the objective of this thesis to see how the current smart city which
is techno-private-oriented in definition and practice, without social consideration in theory and practice,
affect a city and sustainable urban development, or municipal practices as organization monopolise the
city planning. In fact, it is aimed to explore how a concept with the given characteristics and without a
common definition can be translated into the strategic plan for city development.
Urban planning affects the future of a community with their abilities to understand the history of the
community, to respond to the forces for growth, and to anticipate the future of the social, economic,
environmental and cultural status of a community. It is not possible to develop a plan for an area before
understanding it (Wang & Hofe, 2007). Therefore, without looking at a real case to find out the trends
and implications of policies and projects, there is impossible to address gaps within a specific discourse.
For this, we take Malmö as a case to address the research question and aims. So, analytical research
through which it is possible to understand the past and the present, in order to make recommendations
regarding how to predict the future, shapes strategies to direct future is aimed (Wang & Hofe, 2007).
Therefore, the research questions are formulated as the following:
How current understanding of the smart city concept affect the strategies and practices in sustainable
urban planning? And, what is the understanding of the smart city concept lying behind the formulations
in policy making?
To answer these questions as it mentioned before a case is taken to explore how the concept of the smart
city is considered and applied in urban policy-making and strategy plans, and how the policymakers and
planners are dealing with that: for managing the complexity and as an approach to develop sustainable
city or to deploy it based on techno-environmental perspective which is dominated in private sector
practice and values. In fact, it tries to find out what are the assumptions and values of the policy-makers
and planners in relation to smart city concept and what is its relation to (socially) sustainable urban
development.

15
4. Research Design
4.1. Method

A qualitative methodology for data collection and analysis is applied to this thesis since this is preferred
when the phenomenon is new (Yin, 2014). The internal realism is taken as an ontological perspective
which leads to objective epistemology (Perri & Bellamy, 2012). This is due to our objective and the
position of researchers against the data. For this, researchers are independent of data and mainly rely on
the existing ones since it tries to find out the reality of what has happened according to policies and
projects. Therefore, the epistemology of research is realism, and the investigator is capable of studying
a phenomenon without influencing it or being influenced by it (Sale et al., 2002). Therefore, the main
method is ‘Document Analysis.’ “Document analysis is a systematic procedure for reviewing or
evaluating documents—both printed and electronic material. Like other analytical methods in
qualitative research, document analysis requires that data be examined and interpreted in order to elicit
meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical knowledge (Bowen, 2009, P. 27).”
Documents of all types can help the researcher uncover meaning, develop understanding, and discover
insights relevant to the research problem (Merriam, 1988). It can be used both as a complement to other
research methods and also as a stand-alone method (Bowen, 2009). Atkinson and Coffey (1997) refer
to documents as ‘social facts’ which are produced, shared, and used in socially organised ways (cited in
Bowen, 2009, p. 47)
Documents contain text (words) and images that have been recorded without a researcher’s intervention
and vary in terms of forms, including summaries, organisational or institutional reports, agendas, books
and brochures, advertisements, background papers; diaries, journals; event programs, maps and charts,
newspapers press releases, program proposals, survey data, various public records, etc. Among them,
Non-technical literature, such as reports and internal correspondence, is a potential source of empirical
data for case studies in document analysis (Bowen, 2009).
In this research, our main documents encompass strategy and political documents of Malmö
Municipality about the smart city, urban development, and social sustainability. These documents as
main plans and policies describe the main objectives and strategies, prioritising where development will
occur when development is expected to occur, and who will be part of or be affected by the future
development (Wang & Hofe, 2007). They are in the form of strategy documents and summaries of plans,
agendas, brochures reports, and presentation of policies or projects.
Our sampling for selecting document is mainly based on ‘where’ and by ‘whom.’ So, the resource to
retrieve documents is from Municipality of Malmö and the manager of the relevant department, and also
from companies as Municipality of Malmö’s partner and co-planner, e.g., E.on.
The time of releasing and publishing of document could not be an issue in sampling as the policy and
plan documents in urban development covers a time span as they define the road maps of development
for the future. In fact, this criterion becomes effective when the document’s timescale has been finished,
being replaced by the new one. However, those previous documents are vital resources to track the
history of planning. In fact, the target of documents and the point that they are considered as the current
political reference for decision-making are important. This thesis relies on the last version of documents
for planning which are mainly plans for 2030 and produced since 2016, 2014 and 2009.
Most main strategy and political documents have the English and Swedish versions. In this thesis the
English version of documents are the basis at first place, since regarding one of our problem which is
the usage of Smart City for branding and marketing, we aim to see also the possible international
perspective of the policies and plan. However, the Swedish version of them are considered, and also if

16
for an important document, the English version has not been provided, the translation of the document
is used.
Like other methods, document analysis has advantages and limitations. The advantages of this method
(Bowen, 2009) for this thesis’s aim are explained in the following paragraphs.
One of the important advantages of this research is “Lack of obtrusiveness and reactivity: Documents
are ‘unobtrusive’ and ‘non-reactive’ that is, they are unaffected by the research process. Therefore,
document analysis counters the concerns related to reflexivity inherent in other qualitative research
methods like interviews (Bowen, 2009, p.31)”. This point is very important since we intend to see what
is happening in reality so in this way we avoid any possible impressions which policymakers possibly
try to make, regarding their contribution, decisions, and plans or try to blur the problems. Also, this
point should be mentioned that policy documents are the final instruction which defines frameworks for
the future plans and strategies for all segments, actors, and developer and also the public in the long and
short term. They are presenting the understanding, aims, and decisions of policy-makers, planners and
politicians and are needed without any possible personal control and influence.
Availability: availability of a decision and policy would be important not because of the convenience of
collecting data, but since we aim to see what is presented in reality and more important from an
international perspective to the public and companies. So, how the smart city concept is introduced and
framed in political agendas and how the discourse is framing should be taken into account based on
those documents which can be seen by others as well.
Exactness: the inclusion of exact statements and references makes documents advantageous in the
research process (Yin, 1994) which is important for this thesis aims to look for the reality of planning.
Bowen (2009) also mentions some limitations for document analysis, namely insufficient details, low
retrievability, and biased selectivity. We should consider and analysis them relating to this thesis.
In case of retrievability, the pint is that sometimes access to the document is blocked deliberately
(Yin,1994) which is not applicable for this thesis since the policy document, including in urban planning,
are the public documents.
An incomplete collection of documents suggests ‘biased selectivity.’ “In an organisational context, the
available documents are likely to be aligned with corporate policies and procedures and with the agenda
of the organisation’s principles” (Bowen, 2009, p.32).
In this regard, every main relevant data was published publicly by Malmö Municipality were gathered.
As it mentioned before, this kind of documents define the decisions for all actors and also the citizens
to know about the city’s policies and plan and should be legally available. Therefore, there should not
be any specific purpose to publish some special document and not the others. However, even if there is
a selective approach to the publishing them, this shows the purpose of the organisation on what and how
documents are presented. In case of this thesis aims and problem, to see if the smart city is a means of
branding and marketing, this point is positively important.
In relation to the insufficient details, Bowen (2009) elaborates that as documents are usually provided
with some purposes other than research, so they are not based on the research agenda. In the case of this
thesis, we use the documents to analysis them based on their own specific purposes. It means that, for
example, the comprehensive plan of Malmö is analysed to see what the policies are and how this
document develops them.
To complete the data collection, we also conducted interviews as a supplementary method to cover some
blurred aspects in documents and if there were a need to gather more data concerning a specific topic,
e.g., the way of collaboration in smart city planning and projects. For this, the interviewees are selected

17
from the main departments and actors involved in urban development and main smart projects in Malmö
as representative.
The list of documents and interviews are provided in Tables 1 and 2.

Table 1: The list of documents

Title of the document Type of the document Source Theme/Category


Strategic Innovation Agenda for Smart Strategy/national KTH Royal Institute of Smart city/
Sustainable City (2015-2050), (2015) scale Technology (with Partnership
several representative
in developing
including Malmö
Municipality)
Sustainable City Hyllie – concept, content and Presentation E.on and Siemens Smart city project/
direction, (2011) Partnership

Malmö’s Hyllie Climate Contract, A Public– Presentation Malmö Municipality Smart city project/
Private Partnership for Smart City Solutions, Partnership
(2015)
Sweden Builds for Sustainability. The winning Brochure Swedish Research Smart city project/
cases from a competition, (2014) Council Formas and Sustainable urban
Swedish National planning
Board of Housing
Smart City Malmö. Past experiences and future Presentation Malmö Municipality Smart city projects/
challenges, (n.d) Partnership
Climate-Smart Hyllie – Testing the sustainable Report Malmö Municipality, Smart city
solutions of the future, (2014) E.on, VA Syd project/Strategy/
Partnership
Climate-Smart Malmö. Making sustainability Report Malmö Municipality Smart city projects/
reality, (2009) Strategy
Comprehensive Plan for Malmö (2014-2030), Strategy/ city scale Malmö Municipality Urban planning
(2014) strategy
Co-operation for Sustainability. Swedish focus Report Malmö Municipality, Smart city projects/
on built environment, (2008) Swedish Research Partnership
Council Formas
Building Climate-Smart Cities in Malmö, (2013) Brochure/report Cascade, Malmö Smart city project
Municipality
Smart City Malmö – Sustainable Presentation E.on Smart city project
Neighbourhood Hyllie: Concept, Strategy and
Innovation, (2013)
Environmental Programme for the City of Strategy/ city scale Malmö Municipality Environmental
Malmö (2009-2020), (2009) strategy/
Sustainable urban
development
Climate Adaptation Strategy, The City of Strategy/ city scale Malmö Municipality Environmental
Malmö, (2013) strategy and goals/
studies /partners
The Open Skåne: Skåne's Regional Strategy/ regional Skåne Region Regional strategies
Development Strategy (2014-2030), (2014) scale and goals
Smart City projects: The City of Malmö, (2011) Presentation of Malmö Municipality Projects and
projects strategies
Sustainable urban mobility plan, (2016) Strategy/ city scale Malmö Municipality Projects and
strategies
UTBYGGNADSSTRATEGI: till Översiktsplan för Strategy/ city scale Malmö Municipality Projects and
Malmö- Expansion strategy for comprehensive strategies
plan of Malmö, (2016 in Swedish)

18
Innovationsområdet: Smarta hållbara Städer- Strategy/ national Skåne Region strategies and goals
innovation area: Smart Sustainable cities (2016- scale
2020), (2016)
Omvärldsanalys Region Skåne- Intelligent Skåne Strategy/ regional Skåne Region Strategies and goals
region, (2016)
Det Digital Malmö: Program för Malmö stads Strategy/ city scale Malmö Municipality Strategies and goals
digitalisering- The Digital Malmö: Programme
for Malmö city digitalisation (2017-2022),
(2017)
Malmö: The Green Digital City, (2009) Presentation of Malmö Municipality Strategies and goals
strategies
Continuing work for a socially sustainable Strategy/ city scale Malmö Municipality Social sustainability
Malmö, (2017)
Empowerment Evaluation of Policies Towards a Strategy/ City scale Malmö Municipality Social sustainability
Socially Sustainable Malmö, (2013)
Commission for a Socially Sustainable Malmö, Strategy/ City scale Malmö Municipality Social sustainability
(2013)
Western Harbour: a New Sustainable Presentation Malmö Municipality Sustainable urban
Citydistrict in Malmö, (2008) planning
The creative dialogue’ for Flagghusene, (2011) Report Malmö Municipality Stakeholder
engagement
Planprogram Sege Park, (2015 in Swedish) Strategy/district scale Malmö Municipality Development of
Sege Park
Markanvisningsprogram för Sege Park, (2016 in Strategy/district scale Malmö Municipality Development of
Swedish) Sege Park
Sharing for Affordable and Climate Smart Report Malmö Municipality Development of
Living, (2015) Sege Park
The ”Eco-City Augustenborg”- A walk along the Report VA-Syd Development of
path of storm water, (2011) Augustenborg
Websites Municipal website Information and Malmö Municipality Smart city projects
(the Cited ones in the analysis text1) resources on plans Sustainable urban
on the public sector’s planning
platform
Hyllie Smart City The main tailored Malmö Municipality the most important
website for Hyllie E.ON, VA SYD. smart city project
district
Smart City Sweden Website Swedish smart city projects
Environmental in Sweden
Research Institute
(IVL)
E.on/Vasynd Website Private sectors’
(the Cited ones in the analysis text2) platform

1
-
Malmö Stad, 2016a. Sustainable urban development. [Online]
Available at: https://malmo.se/Nice-to-know-about-Malmo/Sustainable-Malmo-/Sustainable-Urban-Development.html [Accessed 2018].
Malmö Stad, 2016b. Sustainable Urban Planning in Malmö. [Online]
Available at: https://malmo.se/Nice-to-know-about-Malmo/Sustainable-Malmo-/Sustainable-Urban-Development/Sustainable-Urban-
Planning.html [Accessed 2018].
2
-
E.on. (2011). E.on and Siemens agree on climate cooperation. [Online]
Available at: https://www2.eon.se/en/Ovrigt/Presscenter/Press-releases-2008/EON-and-Siemens-agree-on-climate-smart-cooperation--/
[Accessed 2018].

19
Table 2: The List of representatives of interviews

Representative of Interview Role and Organization Sector Duration Interviewee


Expertise Type
Sustainable Urban In person Project leader of the Public 60 Kristoffer Widestam
Planning and Comprehensive plan of Malmö, Sector minutes
Development Malmö Municipality, strategy
department, City Planning Office
Environmental In person Project manager and EU Public 60 Roland Zinkernagel
strategies and smart coordinator/ Environmental Sector minutes
city / EU projects Department
Smart city Projects In person Commercial Project manager Private 60 Patrik Thuring
(specifically in /Sustainable Cities Department, Sector minutes
Hyllie/Sega Park) E.On

For analysing the documents, the main and initial criteria include the purpose and scope of the document,
the scale of them, if they are national, regional or in urban scale, the political status, if they are a political
report as a legal resource for development or a document for reporting the process or project, and the
main developers.
The documents categorised into two main groups, those which is specifically about the smart city and
smart projects, and the other strategy document related to the urban development. At the first step, we
read through the whole documents to find the main themes and highlight the relevant and important
statement and senescence, coded them in order to cluster the relevant ones together.
Among the first group our consideration was to find the definition of the smart city as a concept, the
way it is perceived and presented, how and in what areas it is defined in relation to development policies
and to the sustainability concept, and how strategies are formulated for that. Also, the type of smart
projects and their area of initiatives were mapped.
For this part, as our data is from both public and private sectors’ resources, this point was also important
to see what kind of data developed by which sector and also what is the differences between them
regarding language, quality, and quantity of documents, etc.
For the other group of documents- not directly related to the smart city-, at the first step, we tried to find
out how and where the smart city concept, strategy or projects are defined or mentioned in the documents
and to see what is the relation of the smart city to their strategies.
Then, in a separated review, the main themes, goals, strategies, and policies regarding their specific area
and scope of the documents extracted. This point was considered to find the relations of strategies and
goals among documents from different areas and scales and find how they complete or contradict each
other, and also to analyse the context of planning under which projects including the smart city projects
happen. So, the main criteria were to find the shared and common theme under which main strategies
and goals are defined. Therefore, in analysing these documents which are not related to the smart city,
e.g. comprehensive plan for Malmö or Skåne strategy, it was not the main criteria to find out in which
way they address social sustainability in the planning. However, in the documents specifically related
to the smart city, the concern of social sustainability remains, to analyse how much smart city concept
or projects address this issue.
In general, in term of finding the main themes, the analysis was deductive, based on the analytical
framework. So, the main analysis categorised into the three main themes including 1. strategy and
definition to analysis smart city as a concept, strategic planning, and find the integration of strategies,
2. smart projects to find how the smart city concept is translated into the implementable projects, and 3.
the partners and actors to find out who are the main developers of smart city concept and projects, how
it is defined in terms of collaboration and partnership, etc. However, for the analysing the finding under

20
the main themes, the inductive approach was taken which based on that, the sub-themes were
extracted.
After the initial analysis which were resulted in a clustered data and then a draft of analysis, we
conducted semi-structured interviews based on an interview guides for each representative (Appendix
2). The main guiding questions aimed to shed light on the obscure aspect of documents –e.g., the main
leading planner of smart city projects among involved actors - and also to reject or confirm a finding
which was important or raise hesitation for the conclusion. The interviews transcribed to be readable for
both reviewers and the important part of dialogs were highlighted to be able to be checked or used as
quotes.
After completion of the supplementary data and initial analysis, the content for each part of the main
themes developed, at first, as a draft by one person then reviewed by the other person to be discussed
which base on that the final version of the text can be produced.
In order to support the analysis, some selected quotes are mentioned in the text, and some other examples
are provided in the appendix to avoid a prolonged text and provide convenience for the reader. So, they
are the representatives of the possible quotes as the example.

4.2. Case study selection

Malmö is an interesting and important case study for this research since as it mentioned before, this city
is undergoing transition and has invested heavily on environmental aspects and smart city projects to
brand itself as an attractive place (Freeman, 2017). Yet, it is suffering from several social and societal
problems that some of them are aftereffects of those development policies such as segregation
(Mihailova, 2017), polarisation (Holgersen & Baeten, 2017), and eco-gentrification (Sandberg, 2014).
For the main purpose of the research, looking at social sustainability in urban development and
considering Malmö’s challenges in this regard, the dichotomy of the smart city as a sustainable approach
or techno-environmental competitiveness will more appear. It means if smart city is considered as an
approach for solve complexity or managing main challenges of the city should address those problems
otherwise it is considered in another way.

4.3. Ethic Consideration

Regardless of having consideration towards plagiarism and acknowledging sources of information, as


the research dealt with the document as secondary data, the trust has been the vital consideration to take
into account. This means:
- Avoiding any bias conclusion from the content of documents or manipulating data based on
researcher desires,
- Shattering any preconception to start reviewing documents,
- Avoiding bias selection and presentation of documents based on the authors’ purposes.
- Avoiding bias selection and presentation of quotes as a reference in the analysis based on the authors’
purposes.
Also, since study deal with empirical data from interviews as well, the ethical consideration towards
interview also is taken into account. The participants are given information about the topic and purpose
of the study, and their consent to be referred to in the text and also about recording their talk were asked.
Two interviewees requested to have the final thesis which will be provided at the time of completion.
Moreover, the same level of trust towards analysing and presenting data from interviews is also taken
into account.

21
5. Analytical framework
In this section, several theoretical debates are addressed, in relation to the study’s objective and topic as
an analytical framework. At first, sustainable urban planning with the focus on the social sustainability
is considered since smart city concept is introduced as sustainable approach and branded as a sustainable
city. The focus has been on social sustainability since as it mentioned before, the main challenges and
critiques have targeted the lack of social consideration and the overlooking of complexity and challenges
of urban setting from the social perspective in the current smart city. Also, through looking at this
dimension of sustainability the complexity of city and its planning become clearer, the dimension that,
based on the urban planning history, has been more neglected (Trivellato, 2016) and it is claimed that
“sustainability is often conflated with environment or ecology, thereby obscuring the social dimension”
(Jonas and While, 2007, cited in Mihailova, 2017, p.12). This part has been seen from either the concept
point of view or the process of planning which is about the place of stakeholders in sustainable urban
planning. Moreover, as the smart city has been introduced as a concept or a conceptual and visionary
term, the urban conception and urban vision, and its role in planning is also touched.
In relation to the smart city concept as it was mentioned before, there is no any specific theoretical
foundation, however there is a need to provide an overview about the most common definitions,
dimensions, and the debate around them. So, in the final section, the smart city definition from different
perspectives, mainly from researchers and also as a comparison from the private sector perspective is
provided. Moreover, the most commonly used dimensions of the smart city are introduced since it
provides a simplified overview of where and in which areas the smart city is possible to be applied and
can portray its complexity.

5.1. Social sustainability in urban planning

Cities are long-term physical settings for the concentration of human interactions, activities,
communication and cultural development, therefore diminishing the importance of social aspects in
urban planning possibly creates socio-economic problems (Fainstein, 2000; Polèse & Stren, 2000;
Ghahramanpouri et al., 2013). It has been observed that even though cities are developing in general,
the gap between wealthy and poor is widening, social inequality and political fragmentation are
increasing even in developed countries (Polèse & Stren, 2000). Concerning sustainability, equal
significance has been given to social, environmental and economic aspects, but lately, social
sustainability has been considered important particularly in urban studies (Ghahramanpouri et al., 2013).
According to Polèse and Stren (2000, cited in Ghahramanpouri et al., 2013, 187p) “social sustainability
of a city is defined as development (and/or growth) that is compatible with harmonious evolution of
civil society, fostering an environment conducive to the compatible cohabitation of culturally and
socially diverse groups... [and] encouraging social integration, with improvements in the quality of life
for all segments of the population.” Therefore, their definition focuses on diversity and highlights the
importance of increasing the level of social inclusion. Polèse and Stren (2000) also stress that different
policies ought to contribute to social sustainability by creating cohesion for society by bringing people
together and increasing the accessibility to public services and employment. In addition to this by
emphasising urban perspective in defining social sustainability, Yiftachel and Hedgcock (1993, cited in
Ghahramanpouri et al., p.187) underline that “urban social sustainability is about the long-term survival
of a viable urban social unit.”
Social sustainability is emerging in planning practice (Bramley et al., 2006; Dempsey et al., 2011; Kyttä
et al., 2016). Nowadays, it is common in planning circles for urban planners to describe efforts to reverse
problems of urban sprawl, congestion, and decline as a search for urban sustainability. Although this is

22
the case, in urban theory no consensus exists as to which human settlements embody sustainability
(Basiago, 1999; Kyttä et al., 2016). The vitality of a city is considered as a complex system, the quality
of life of its citizens, or the capacity of nature to support the activities of urban sustainability. This
concept is often defined narrowly concerning the economic sustainability of a city, its potential to reach
qualitatively a new level of socio-economic as well as demographic and technological output which in
the long-term reinforces the foundations of the urban system (Basiago, 1999). Particularly
environmental activists connect urban sustainability to broader social principles of the future, equity,
and participation, especially the involvement of public citizens in the land development process and
various urban projects (Basiago, 1999).
Based on several researchers (Polése & Stren, 2000; Bramley et al., 2009; Colantonio, 2010; Manzi et
al., 2010; Dempsey et al., 2011) the following table (Table 3) illustrates the most common elements of
social sustainability in urban planning.

Table 3: The social dimensions of sustainable development: contributory factors.

Non-physical factors Predominantly physical factors


Education and training Urbanity
Social justice: inter- and intergenerational Attractive public realm
Participation and local democracy Decent housing
Health, quality of life and well-being Local environmental quality and amenity
Social inclusion Accessibility (e.g., to local services and
Social capital facilities/employment/green space)
The sense of community and belonging Sustainable urban design
Community cohesion Walkable neighbourhoods
Active community organisations
Safety
Mixed tenure
Fair distribution of income
Social order
Social cohesion
Social mix
Social networks
Social interaction
Employment
Residential stability
Cultural traditions
Note: The table modified from Dempsey et al. (2011)

Table 3 provides a list of factors discussed by theorists and practitioners as contributing to urban social
sustainability and socially sustainable urban settlements. The table illustrates the wide range of related
concepts and is suggestive of the close conceptual proximity between factors, described by some as
‘social aspects of sustainable development’ and others as ‘sustainable communities’.
There are two key, overarching concepts at the core of the idea of social sustainability. While social
equity issues are powerful and crucial political and policy concerns, and centre upon a distributive
notion of social justice – that is ‘fairness in the apportionment of resources in society’ – there is a more
collective ‘sustainability of community’ dimension which, although seemingly more nebulous, is also
essential to the concept (Bramley et al., 2006, p.5.). This second dimension is fundamentally concerned
with the continued viability, health, and functioning of ‘society’ itself as a collective
entity, generally under the heading of ‘community’ (Bramley et al., 2006, p.5). This is not to suggest
that these two dimensions are completely independent of one another, merely, that this is a useful
conceptual distinction (Bramley et al., 2006, p.5.).

23
Undoubtedly, to meet the requirements of equity in urban development, it is important that these provide
proper opportunities in terms of accessible jobs and affordable housing. These aspects tend to receive
the most attention in strategic planning. However, there are other complementary aspects of equity
which also deserve attention (Bramley et al., 2006, p.5). Some key elements of access to local services
are identified as important for equity between and within local communities (Bramley et al., 2006).
A project is said to be socially sustainable when it creates a harmonious living environment, reduces
social inequality and cleavages, and improves quality of life in general (Chan & Lee, 2008). The Figure
3 summaries the significant components highlighted in the literature that can affect the social
sustainability of urban development projects (Chan & Lee, 2008).

Figure 3: Influential factors of socially sustainable projects (Chan & Lee, 2008)

The concept of urban social sustainability is also associated with the pursuit and realisation of social
equity, social inclusion and social capital (Bramley & Power, 2009).
While there is relatively limited literature that focuses specifically on social
sustainability, there is, however, a broader literature on the overlapping concepts of social
capital, social cohesion, and social exclusion. The box (Table 4) below illustrates the parallels between
these concepts. Other terms such as ‘quality of life’ are also used (Bramley et al., 2006).

24
Table 4: Key definitions of social sustainability (Bramley et al., 2006, p.4)

Social Capital
Social capital refers to features of social organisation such as networks, norms and trust that facilitate coordination, and
cooperation for mutual benefit.
(Putnam, 1993, p.35)
Suggested elements:
Empowerment Participation
Associational activity Common purpose
Supporting networks Reciprocity
Collective norms and values Trust
Safety Belonging
(Forrest and Kearns, 2001)

Social Cohesion
Social cohesion can emphasis the need for a shared sense of morality and common purpose; aspects of social control and
social order; the threat to social solidarity of income and wealth inequalities between people, groups and places; the level
of social interaction within communities or families; and a sense of belonging to place.
(Forrest and Kearns, 2001, p.2128)
Suggested elements:
Common values and civic culture
Social order and social control
Social solidarity and reductions in wealth disparities
Social networks and social capital
Territorial belonging
(Kearns and Forrest, 2000)

Social Exclusion
Social exclusion is a process that deprives individuals and families, groups and neighbours of the resources required for
participation in the social, economic and political activity of society as a whole. This process is primarily a consequence of
poverty and low income, but other factors such as discrimination, low educational attainment and depleted living
environments also underpin it. Through this process people are cut off for a significant period in their lives from institutions
and services, social networks and development opportunities that the great majority of a society enjoys.
(Pierson, 2009, p.7)
Suggested elements:
Poverty and low income
Lack of access to jobs
Lack of social support and networks
Effect of the local area
Exclusion from services
(Pierson, 2009)

5.1.1 The planners’ triangle

Planners have been facing difficult and challenging decisions to position themselves in protecting the
green city, promoting economically growing city or advocating social justice. The conflicts among these
goals are not simply based on personal preferences, nor are they based on ecological, economic and
political logic from a conceptual perspective, nor originated from temporary problems, so rather these
conflicts came from the historic core of planning. Thus sustainable development has the potential to
offer a holistic way of resolving these conflicts (Campbell, 1996).
Scott Campbell (1996) uses a simple triangular model to understand the conflicting priorities of
planning. He argues that the different languages of environmental, economic, and political ideas caused
misunderstandings, however translating across disciplines alone is not sufficient to abolish these genuine
clashes of interest (Campbell, 1996). However, sustainability can be developed into a powerful and
useful organising foundation for planning if it is redefined and incorporated into a broader understanding

25
of political conflicts in industrial society (Campbell, 1996). Campbell (1996) also highlights that the
more it generates a sort of conflict and sharpens the debate among different perspectives, the more
effective the idea of sustainability will be in long-term.
Not only the conflicts are illustrated by the triangle, but also the potential complementarity of interests
(Figure 4). This approach requires a special role from the planners to act as mediators, which role needs
creativity in order to build coalitions between various interest groups such as labour and
environmentalists, or community groups and businesses (Campbell, 1996). Campbell (1996) suggests
that planners need to combine both their procedural and their substantive skills which lead them to
become key and influential players in the fights over economic growth, the environment and social
justice. Several scholars in planning (Harvey, 1985; Fainstein, 2000; Healey, 2003) expect from planners
to be the protector of disadvantaged groups and socio-economic equality. The planners’ effort and
contribution in urban rehabilitation and redevelopment, highway planning, public-private partnership,
zoning has been strongly contradicting with the image of equity planning. Thus, planners have been
taken an ambivalent distance between the goals of economic growth and economic justice (Campbell,
1996). Furthermore, Campbell (1996) argues that the planner must reconcile at least three conflicting
interests in order to generate economic growth, distribute this growth fairly, and in this process not
undermine the ecosystem.

Figure 4: Planners’ triangle (own design, inspired by Campbell, 1996)

Ideally, planners would strive to achieve a balance of all three goals, however the case is different in
practice due to professional and financial constraints that significantly limit most planners’ space of
manoeuvring (Campbell, 1996). The reality of practice often restricts planners to serving the narrower
interests of their clients, authorities, and bureaucracies, however the ideal would be serving the broader
public interest.

26
The Edges of the Triangle: The Economy, the Environment, and Equity
Planners usually represent and define themselves by one specific goal while neglecting the other two
perspectives. On the figure the edges show the current fragmentation of professional practice and the
centre of the triangle illustrates the sustainable development planning. (Campbell, 1996). However, it is
important to stress that this ideal centre cannot be reached directly, but only approximately and indirectly
by series of confrontations and resolving the triangle's conflicts (Campbell, 1996).
According to the triangle of conflicting goals for planning there are three types of planner in the urban
context. The economic development planner considers the city as a place where the production,
consumption, distribution, and innovation are located. Moreover, competition plays a vital role with
other cities for attracting labours, investors and new industries. In this type of planner space has
economic reasons by planning highways, market areas, and commuter zones (Campbell, 1996).
The environmental planner sees the city as a system which consume different resources and produce
waste, while there is an intensive competition with the nature for unique resources and land. The urban
sprawl is considered as a high treat to the nature and it occurs to the expanse of the nature. Space here
is the ecological space of different green areas, water and ecological functions (Campbell, 1996).
The equity planner however sees the city as a location of conflict over the distribution of resources and
wealth, of services, and of opportunities. There is a distinction from the economic development planner
due to the fact that in this type of planner the competition is within the city among different social
groups. Space is considered as a social space of communities, organizations, where accessibility and
segregation are important issues (Campbell, 1996). Although there are further essential perspectives of
the city for instance the architectural, transportation or psychological, thus it is even more complex, but
this triangle is useful for its conceptual simplicity (Campbell, 1996).
In the following section the focus is going to be on the three edges of the triangle which represent
clashing interests that lead to three fundamental conflicts. The foundation of the first one, namely the
property conflict is the competing claims on and use of property which is basically due to the conflict
between the economic growth and equity. For instance, this conflict can occur among management and
labour, landlord and tenants or gentrifying professionals and long-time residents (Campbell, 1996). It
makes this conflict more complex and contradictory the tendency of the democratic and capitalist society
to define property (e.g. housing and land) as private product, while it also relies on public intervention
(e.g. zoning, public housing etc.) to ensure the social benefits of the property. The conflict is fed by the
private sector due to their continuous resist against the need for social intervention as well as
highlighting the negative effect of intervening and influencing the free market. Thus the conflict
expresses that the boundary lies between private interest and the public good (Campbell, 1996).
The resource conflict is based on the different interests between economic utility in the industrial society
and ecological utility in the natural environment. In order to economic flow there is a priority to involve
and exploit nature resources, thus businesses resist the regulation of their exploitation of the nature,
while there is a need for regulation both from public and private sector to conserve those resources for
present and future demands (Campbell, 1996). The economic and ecological conflict shows similarities
to the growth-equity conflict where the labours are also considered as resources from the profit-oriented
businesses which is tend to be exploited as the nature while the environmental values can be considered
as public good that is conflicting with the private interest (Campbell, 1996).
The development conflict is the most elusive and challenging one which is lying between the social
equity and environmental protection. In order to achieve sustainable development social equity has to
be increased and the environment has to be protected at the same time in a growing and stable economy.
Thus, it is difficult to find better economic opportunities to those who are at the bottom of the society
while environmental protection requires the deceleration of economic growth. Furthermore, the
development conflict at the local level creates resource-dependent communities which commonly are at

27
the bottom of the economy's hierarchy of labour (Campbell, 1996). In addition to that poor urban
communities are often vulnerable and forced to make the no-win choice between economic survival and
environmental quality. Environmental protection usually considered as a luxury of the wealthy which is
the core of the development conflict where environmental segregation is the consequence of economic
segregation (Campbell, 1996).
By seeking sustainable development within the triangle of planning conflicts, Campbell (1996) suggests
that the role of planners is therefore to engage the current challenge of sustainable development with a
dual, interactive strategy. Firstly, to manage and resolve conflict and to promote creative technical,
architectural, and institutional solutions. Moreover, planners must both negotiate the procedures of the
conflict and promote a substantive vision of sustainable development (Campbell, 1996).

5.1.2. Planning actors: Stakeholder engagement in planning

The practice of urban planning has a strong need for immediate implementation of policies in order to
tackle urban issues and handle urban complexity, thus legitimate policy decisions are prerequisite for
this. Plan-making involves complicated process of considering economic, social and environmental
aspects in relation to spatial configuration in urban areas. The introduction of communicative processes
to urban planning strengthens the strain between making a decision and engaging broadly on the
formulation of that decision. The theory of deliberative democracy has emerged from political science
and sociology which emphasises the importance of inclusive and open engagement (Legacy, 2010).
In theory, the formal process of stakeholder deliberation is valuable and advantageous due to the fact
that it stimulates inclusive dialogue and exchange of ideas among stakeholders during the process of
planning (Legacy, 2010). However, once stakeholder deliberation is involved in the planning process,
it often occurs as an empty ritual of participation and has no direct effect to the planning process
(Arnstein, 1969; Lane, 2005; Legacy, 2010). Stakeholder deliberation events (e.g. conferences,
workshops, surveys, etc.) are very common, although this engagement is fairly tokenistic and often has
no significant impact. These events ought to generate knowledge within these various micro-events
which reflects the knowledge between stakeholders (Legacy, 2010). Due to stakeholders’ diverse
approach – based on their values - towards social, environmental, and economic dimensions of the city,
this deliberative and inclusive engagement make further planning more complicated and complex. In
order to increase the level of inclusivity and include various types of knowledge into the process, these
formal stakeholder deliberation events are added to the planning process at certain stages (Legacy,
2010).
Lash’s tripartite model is used to offer a normative illustration of the relationship between the planner,
the public, and the politicians, and in planning (Figure 5). This model highlights the importance that the
included three key stakeholder groupings have different procedural and substantive contributions to the
planning process (Albrechts, 2006; Legacy, 2010). Among of these stakeholders the public is a vital one
since they are the one who are intensive users of the city which means that the public are directly affected
by the implementation of the policies. The public is a valuable element of the process due to its local
knowledge, therefore the planning process benefit from their inclusion. Thus, there is a higher chance
that different policies can fit to the local context (Legacy, 2010). This sort of knowledge is tacit and the
inclusion of the public create a “lived experience” of the individual (Legacy, 2010). Therefore, it shows
that it has a legitimate place within the planning process.

28
Figure 5: Lash’s model (Legacy, 2010, p.2710)

Planners possess the key resources and skills to implement and realise policies in cities which makes
their involvement important in contrast to the participation of the public. In addition to that, the planners
are empowered to maintain and sustain their expert position through encouraging the application of their
technical knowledge, thus to determine the quality and feasibility of the decisions (Legacy, 2010).
Finally, in order to implement policies political power is necessary for that, therefore the politicians are
the one who hold this formal and legislative power as well as they are able to offer the leadership in
order to ensure that policies are implemented (Legacy, 2010). To conclude, each of these three
stakeholder groups has a crucial role in the development and implementation of plans and policies,
because if one pillar is missing or eroding then the triangle figuratively collapses and undermining the
legitimacy of the plan during or end of the process (Legacy, 2010).
This inclusive stakeholder engagement in the planning process enables and potentially empowers
numerous stakeholders who are external elements of the formal structure of decision-making. The
professional planners, the politicians, and the public have special roles to generate and exchange
knowledge among each other and also to manage this knowledge within urban planning. Therefore,
these three key stakeholder groups are interconnected and the way of their engagement facilitates this
common articulation between the formal process of stakeholder engagement and the process of planning
(Legacy, 2010).

5.2. Urban utopia, conception, and visionary

Theoretical level:
The history of urban planning has shown us many efforts to create revolutionary concepts- in some cases
as a utopia- in various decades (Friedmann, 2000) which through its imaginary capacity, scholars and
planner can envision future of the city, guide human action and aspirations (Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017).
We opened upon this issue in the introduction where it is shown that various concepts and paradigms
have been formed with different perspectives over time, brought some opportunities and limitations
from their specific visionaries. Here, we touch this again within some theoretical debate to indicate that
these conceptions are aimed to represent visions of what cities might look like in the future (Angelidou,
2015) and in this way would affect the urban planning practise.
Looking at this point is relevant and important. It is relevant since the smart city, in the recent decade,
is associated with utopia to be defined (Angelidou, 2015; Vanolo, 2016; Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017). And
also, the way of representing projects or concept by its advocates, namely public and private actors
(Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017) shows this trend and intention to offer smart city directly and implicitly as

29
utopia or future city. For example, some labeling can show this trend such as “welcome to the city of
Utopia…in Florence, city of the digital Renaissance” (Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017, p.80), “Bo01: the city
of tomorrow” (Malmö Stad, 2001), and some indirect quotes which show the notion of being utopia like
“the future begins in smart Hyllie” (Stenzenberger, 2016), and another one which was mentioned by
Grossi and Pianezzi (2017): “The major point of contact with the idea of smart cities is however in the
New Atlantis of Bacon […] In this city, science is sovereign”. In this regard, Vanolo (2016) describes
the picture of European Commission’s agenda for the smart city as the cover of the old-style science-
fiction book since its way of envisioning smart city is a stereotype image of future by digital flow, tall
building, and absence of people. Adding to that, also, utopia and dystopia thinking to develop a debate
around the smart city has recently emerged among researchers (Angelidou, 2015; Vanolo, 2016; Grossi
& Pianezzi, 2017).
This point is also important not because it is relevant or as is currently used in smart city conceptualising
by actors. Since there might be more critical perspectives towards utopia thinking in the contemporary
urban literature (Ganjavie, 2012) and we also do not aim to take utopia thinking as a theoretical
foundation which formulates debates around the smart city. This is here important for its underlying
aspects which can entail.
One of these aspects is about the capacity to imagine the future with a constructive vision which creates
concrete imagination to propose steps that would bring us closer to a world we would consider
(Friedmann, 2000). It means that this has a potential role to “trigger transformative force for society
(Vanolo, 2016)”.
This capacity in urban planning is connected to spatial imaginaries (Vanolo, 2016) and has been
translated into practical development so that every conception, e.g. Garden City of Tomorrow by
Howard (1850s) influenced planning practices for many years thereafter (Angelidou, 2015). This trend
has been the same for the other conceptions to a greater or lesser degree (Friedmann, 2000), but the main
point here is that the most famous ones like Garden City which could affect city for a long time, “were
not utopia in the pejorative sense which implies unrealizable and impossible vision, but they were
defined as coherent programmes of action, resulting from a deep reflection that sought to transcend the
immediate situation – programme that (if implemented) would break the structure of an established
society (Ganjavie, 2012, p.12).”
This coherent programme of action can be seen as a holistic concept or by another word urban
conceptions. For example, the conception of Compact City conveys an opposite concept and image of
urban sprawl (Neuman, 2005). This concept by envisioning specific future and spatial imaginaries will
develop, consequently, some specific practices and principles such as intensification, mixed-use
planning, high density, the public transport system (Lee et al., 2014). These principles are in line with
the concept’s aim, and its bigger picture which is, for example, energy efficiency (Neuman, 2005). Also,
around this conception which affects (spatial) urban form, other implications can be imagined such as
more livability, accessibility (Lee et al., 2014), more community-oriented social patterns (Neuman,
2005), etc. So, clearly within this specific envisioning, planner tries to develop strategies and plans
around this framework, avoiding the others which might contrast the holistic vision of this concept.
Another aspect inherent in utopia, which can bring critiques for many, is about its dialectic with ideology
(Morgan, 2015; Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017). “Ideologies have a practical impact on daily life, but they
produce a collective imaginary that reinforces existing systems of social domination while preventing
the production of alternative imaginaries. […] This is related to its illusory self-understanding which
help the dominant class to sustain and reproduce its power and control (Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017, p.80)”.
That might why utopia is sometimes defined as a code word synonymous with totalitarianism (Ganjavie,
2012).

30
Backing specifically to the concept of the smart city, Vanolo (2016) explains that looking at the
evolution of smart city narratives reveals that it is not an academic concept that has progressively
informed urban policies and subsequently raised the interest of economic actors, the process that has
happened for the other conceptions like ‘creative cities’, introduced and developed by scholars and then
implemented at a global scale. He continues that “in the case of the smart city, the discourse has been
firstly and mostly developed by a small number of multinational companies such as Cisco and IBM” as
it is frequently mentioned in critiques (p.27).
Practical level
Looking at these issues from practical level, a concept and coherent visionary - even as a utopia by a
coherent programmes of action- can be translated into integrated plan, policy, or urban development
which is seen crucial for sustainable development3 and Its significance is partly underlined due to the
complexity and magnitude of urban challenges (Bentivegna et al., 2002; Deutscher-staedtetag, 2011;
European Union, 2014; Yigitcanlar & Teriman, 2014; Eisenbeiß, 2016; European Investment Bank,
2018; JESSICA, n.d.).
“An integrated plan for sustainable urban development comprises a system of interlinked actions which
seeks to bring about a lasting improvement in the economic, physical, social and environmental
conditions of a city or an area within the city. The key to the process is “integration”, meaning that all
policies, projects, and proposals are considered in relation to one another. In this regard, the synergies
between the elements of the plan should be such that the plan as a whole adds up to more than would
the sum of the individual parts if implemented in isolation (European Investment Bank, 2018)4”.
Bentivegna et al. (2002) by considering sustainable urban development as a process, point out the
importance of integration from strategic planning on one hand to utilization of the resulting built
environment at the other, seeing this integration either in content or scale of plans, assessment,
development and management processes (Yigitcanlar & Teriman, 2014). Also, development of
integrated models is considered critical for more efficient management and avoiding any resource
deficiency (Alberti & Waddell, 2000).
A Study by Yigitcanlar and Teriman (2014) shows that “adopting such holistic planning and
development process generate a potential to further support the progress towards achieving
sustainability agendas of our cities.”

5.3. Smart city definition and dimensions

Definition:
The current phenomena require cities to find ways to tackle new challenges. Cities worldwide have
started to look for solutions which enable transportation linkages, mixed land uses, and high-quality
urban services with long-term positive effects on the economy. For instance, high-quality and more
efficient public transport that responds to economic needs and connects labour with employment is
considered a key element for city growth. Many of the new approaches related to urban services have
been based on harnessing technologies, including Information and Communication Technologies (ICT),
assisting to create what some call ‘smart cities’ (Albino et al., 2015).
The concept of the smart city is far from being limited to the application of technologies to cities. In
fact, the use of the term is rapidly increasing in many sectors without agreeing upon common definitions.

3
- “Integrated urban planning is well aligned with system approach thinking originated from the Systems Theory” (Yigitcanlar & Teriman,
2014).
4
- http://www.eib.org/products/blending/jessica/faq/what-is-an-integrated-plan-for-sustainable-urban-development.htm

31
This has led to confusion among urban policymakers, hoping to institute policies that will make their
cities ‘smart’ (Albino et al., 2015). Numerous definitions of smart cities exist and constructed by private
companies, municipalities and even researchers from various fields. A range of conceptual variants is
often obtained by replacing “smart” with alternative adjectives, for example, “intelligent” or “digital.”
The label “smart city” is a fuzzy concept and is used in ways that are not always consistent. There is
neither a single template of framing a smart city, nor a one-size-fits-all definition of it (Albino et al.,
2015). For corporations such as IBM, Cisco, and Siemens, the technological component is the key
component to their conceptions of smart cities, and many cases their definitions represent their current
business interests (Albino et al., 2015).

Table 5: Different definitions of the smart city with main focuses

Definition Main Focuses Source


Smart Cities’ initiatives try to improve urban performance by using Technology Marsal-Llacuna &
data, information and information technologies (IT) to provide more Public services López-
efficient services to citizens, to monitor and optimize existing Collaboration Ibáñez(2014)
infrastructure, to increase collaboration among different economic Innovation
actors, and to encourage innovative business models in both the
private and public sectors.
Smart community – a community which makes a conscious decision Technology Eger (2009)
to aggressively deploy technology as a catalyst to solving its social and Economic development
business needs – will undoubtedly focus on building its high-speed Job growth
broadband infrastructures, but the real opportunity is in rebuilding Increased quality of life
and renewing a sense of place, and in the process a sense of civic
pride. […] Smart communities are not, at their core, exercises in the
deployment and use of technology, but in the promotion of economic
development, job growth, and an increased quality of life. In other
words, technological propagation of smart communities isn’t an end
in itself, but only a means to reinventing cities for a new economy and
society with clear and compelling community benefit.
A smart city infuses information into its physical infrastructure to Economic socio-political Nam & Pardo
improve conveniences, facilitate mobility, add efficiencies, conserve issues of the city (2011)
energy, improve the quality of air and water, identify problems and fix Economic-technical-social
them quickly, recover rapidly from disasters, collect data to make issues of the Environment
better decisions, deploy resources effectively, and share data to Interconnection
enable collaboration across entities and domains. Instrumentation
Integration
Applications
Innovations
A city is smart when investments in human and social capital and Management and Caragliu et al.
traditional (transport) and modern (ICT) communication organizations (2011)
infrastructure fuel sustainable economic growth and a high quality of Technology
life, with a wise management of natural resources, through Governance
participatory governance. Policy context
People and communities
Economy
Built infrastructure
Natural environment

Several large and transnational private companies have their own approach and focus on the concept of
smart city. Deloitte that provides various professional services claims that there are three goals can create
foundation for a smart city initiative, these are quality of life, economic competitiveness and
sustainability, and the company also created a smart city framework (Eggers & Skowron, 2018). While
there are companies such as IBM, Cisco, and Ericsson which have a strong focus on technology, thus
their approach and services provide smart city solutions from a very technical perspective by developing

32
and constructing smart infrastructure for mainly the public sector (Ericsson, 2017; Cisco, 2018; IBM,
2018).
Dirks and Keeling (2009) stress the importance of the organic integration of a city’s various systems
(transportation, energy, education, healthcare, buildings, physical infrastructure, food, water, and public
safety) in creating a smart city. Researchers who support this integrated view of a smart city often
underline that in a dense and complex environment, no system operates in isolation. To conclude this
section, based on previous findings the following points are the most common characteristics of smart
cities:

 a city’s networked infrastructure that enables political efficiency and social and cultural
development
 an emphasis on business-led urban development and creative activities for the promotion of
urban growth
 social inclusion of various urban residents and social capital in urban development
 the natural environment as a strategic component for the future

Smart city dimensions

As the smart city definition, no defined criteria regarding smart city initiatives exists, however, there are
groups of clustered-dimension which are used as the most common ones in some studies, reports,
organizational websites, etc. for different purpose like as a means of measurement and mainly for
ranking cities and evaluating cities’ smartness (Monfaredzadeh & Berardi, 2015). For example,
European Smart Cities which developed four versions of smartness assessment base on this dimensions
created a benchmark for European medium-sized cities ranking to show competing areas of smartness
between them (Giffinger et al., 2015). These dimensions (Figure 6) encompass six components of ‘Smart
Economy,’ ‘Smart Mobility,’ ‘Smart Governance,’ ‘Smart Environment,’ ‘Smart living,’ and ‘Smart
People’ (ASIMER, 2017). In the following a short definition of every dimension is presented
(Monfaredzadeh & Berardi, 2015; ASIMER, 2017, p.5):
Smart people or human capital: linked to the level of qualification of human and social capital,
flexibility, creativity, tolerance, cosmopolitanism, and participation in public life. The existence of
citizens able to participate wisely in smart urban life and to adapt to new solutions providing creative
solutions, innovation and diversity to their communities is needed.
Smart mobility: Smart Mobility pursues to offer the most efficient, clean and equitable transport
network for people, goods, and data, referring to local and supra-local accessibility, availability of ICT,
modern, sustainable, and safe transport systems.
Smart economy: an aspect linked to a spirit of innovation, entrepreneurialism, the flexibility of the
labour market, integration in the international market, and the ability to transform.
Smart governance: relates to participation in decision-making processes, transparency of governance
systems, availability of public services and quality of political strategies.
Smart environment: understood in terms of attractiveness of natural conditions, lack of pollution, and
sustainable management of resources.
Smart Environment: uses data collection from utility networks, users, and air, water, and other city
resources in order to establish main areas of action in urban planning and city infrastructure planning as
well as to inform urban services managers to achieve a more efficient and sustainable urban environment
while improving the citizens’ quality of life.

33
Smart living: involves quality of life, imagined and measured in terms of availability of cultural and
educational services, tourist attractions, social cohesion, and personal safety. The wise management of
facilities, public spaces, and services using ICT technologies to put the focus on improving accessibility,
on the flexibility of uses, and on getting closer to the citizens ́ needs.

Figure 6: Smart city dimensions (own design, inspired by ASCIMER, 2017)

The more elaborated version of this clusters, in which it is tries to define the main relevant actions, is
produced in a report by ASCIMER (Assessing Smart City Initiatives for the Mediterranean Region) in
2017. Although it is not a scientific paper, it provides the clearest details of every dimension through
with it is possible to see the potential areas and panel of possibilities in which smart city projects should
happen. This reports considers itself as a general tool, being applicable to any project in any city as
means for evaluating and prioritising projects facing them to the real challenges of cities, however,
believes that choosing the right project is not enough for achieving its success since smart city projects
development is a long process in which ‘governance issues’ become the key for achieving the objectives
and understanding the role of stakeholders in each of the phases is key (ASCIMER, 2017). Moreover,
it is more in line with the smart city projects rather smart city concept (Figure 7). The projects actions
based on the given dimensions are defined in the tables 6:

Smart City

Smart
projects

Figure 7: Smart city concept and projects relations where projects are defined based on the smart city concept
(ASCIMER,2017)

34
Table 6: Smart city project actions

Smart People:
Digital education
Creativity
ICT - Enabled working
Community building and urban life management
Inclusive society
Smart Mobility:
Traffic management
Public Transport
ICT Infrastructure
Logistics
Accessibility
Clean, non-motorised options
Multimodality
Smart Living:
Tourism
Culture and leisure
Healthcare
Security
Technology accessibility
Welfare & Social inclusion
Public spaces management
Smart Governance:
Participation
Transparency and information accessibility
Public and Social Services
Multi-level governance
Smart Environment:
Network and environmental monitoring
Energy efficiency
Urban planning /urban refurbishment
Smart buildings and building renovation
Resources management
Environmental protection
Smart Economy:
Innovation
Entrepreneurship
Local and global interconnectedness
Productivity
Flexibility of labour market

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6. Analysis
The analysis part is carried out by firstly looking at approach and strategies towards the concept of the
smart city in Malmö, secondly, the smart city projects as the executive tool to deliver the visionary of
the concept, and thirdly the main actors and partners in developing this concept and projects. This
category is in line with the analytical framework in terms of urban conception and visionary, integrated
urban planning, and main actors (stakeholders) in planning.
The main perspective here is to see how the smart city concept is envisioned and defined, how it is
related to urban development strategies and urban context of Malmö, and then how it is translated into
smart initiatives. Through this, we can find if it is seen as a strategic approach specifically in relation to
contextual issues such as the social aspect of sustainability, and how policies and strategies are
formulated within and around it.
In the first section which is related to the broader part of definitions, strategies, and goals plus their
relations, findings are analysed around the sub-themes under which the main trend and approaches can
be organised.

6.1. Smart city concept and strategies

6.1.1. Semantically use of sustainable city and smart city

Based on the reviews of documents, and searching for “Smart City” concept and projects, different terms
came across to introduce smart city projects. In the documents and descriptions of Malmö Municipality,
Smart (City) mainly comes with sustainable city or sustainable urban development, “Climate Smart
City,” “Green IT city” or “green digital city,” and “smart energy efficiency.”
In fact, there is a strong articulation of interrelatedness between the smart city and sustainable city,
therefore they are meant to convey the same meaning. In many cases, smart city projects are used as
sustainable urban development or sustainable living. In a document about presenting experiences of the
smart city in Malmö, it is indicated that “for Malmö, sustainable city is a Smart City (Smart City Malmö.
Past experiences and future challenges, n.d.).”
This mixture and various interpretations which are seen in the title of documents, at first place mislead
the readers if the document is about sustainable development or smart city, and secondly, shows that
these two concepts are being presented and aimed to be perceived in the same way. This is frequently
seen where sustainable urban development projects are introduced by almost only mentioning those
projects that are considered as smart city projects. Among all projects and sub-sections of sustainable
urban development, only one projects are not introduced and considered as a smart project.

6.1.2. Lack of definition, the clear strategic approach, and framework

Looking for how smart city is located and defined in Malmö Municipality, it is seen that smart city is
not defined as a strategic approach or specific concept and is located within the main physical urban
development areas as smart practices which are defined under the Environmental Department
subdivisions. In general, it cannot be seen any specific and organised visionary or strategy, or model
towards the smart city concept in smart city documents or even among the other strategy documents.

36
This absence of holistic view was also seen in interviews, appeared in the form of different definitions
or a complete absence of involvement. In fact, every main representative which are involved in smart
city projects had different perception and expectation from the smart city so they revealed the smart city
concept and understanding based on their perspective within their specific field. And, this is bolder when
it comes to city planning department where there is no any practical involvement regarding smart city
concept. This point can be associated with another level which is about disconnection of the smart city
to the rest of development strategies and plans.
Other main strategy documents show a meaningful linkage to each other such as the comprehensive plan
as a political document so that in this documents, even other related reports are mentioned and visualised
in the text as a reference to show the chronology of policies and strategies and their conceptual relations.
This connection is seen among the visions and visionary of urban development so that the intention for
following the holistic approach and bigger picture is clear. For example, the visionary of the
comprehensive plan for Malmö is compact city according to which one reason for developing Hyllie as
the largest developmental plan is to fill the gap had excluded this part from the city (Widestam, personal
communication, 2018). This continuum and chain are obvious among other main visions and ambitions.
For example, the vision for attractiveness, or regional connection are clearly seen in every document,
showing the meaningful understanding of a holistic approach towards a common goal. If this chain is
tracked back in terms of scale, the existing linkage to upper scale documents, e.g., to the Skåne strategy
document, shows that smaller scale documents are in accordance with the largest scale as well.
However, when it comes to smart city projects, it is seen that this chain is relatively broken, not showing
any connection to the urban development strategies or strong connection to the rest of main strategy
documents in sense of conception and holistic perspective and also strategies. This is the same for the
projects though the way of representing them is linked to climate adaptation aims.
It was continually tried to find a framework, model, or strategies within which smart projects and
concept might be perceived and defined. It was found that in urban scale and in case of smart projects,
the same trend which is seen between ‘sustainable city’ and ‘smart city’ terms, also exist within
strategies which are applied to define smart city projects in Malmö Municipality. In this case, four main
strategies of the Environmental Programme, are used in different sections of Malmö Municipality and
for presenting different projects or concepts. In fact, environmental actions and sustainable urban
development also considered in parallel, implying that they are applied and meant in the same way at
least until a specific time, presenting the same reflection of the smart city, sustainable city, and
environmental policies.
Four main strategies developed in Environmental Programme (2009), which are, nearly, frequently
mentioned in documents and Malmö Municipality description in different sections and topics include:

 Sweden’s most climate-friendly city


 Malmö – the city of the future
 Sustainable use of natural resources
 It’s easy to do the right thing in Malmö
It seems other topics in different domains are defined based on these strategies such as smart city,
Climate Hyllie, green digital city, and even sustainable urban planning. In explaining the main
approaches in sustainable urban planning in Malmö Municipality (Malmö Stad, 2016b), these strategies
are mentioned, and they are also used for digital city report by adding the word “smart city,” in the
following way:

 Malmö is Sweden’s most climate smart city


 The urban environment of the future is in Malmö
 Natural resources are managed sustainably in Malmö

37
 In Malmö, it is easy to do right
In addition, Climate Smart Malmö, regardless its focus on environmental action does not provide any
clear definition or strategies for the smart city except for mentioning some actions and intentions for
energy saving. The mixture of using smart city, sustainable city, and climate action also is seen here.
Interestingly, the only place where the using sensor, which can be related to the main tool of smart
projects in general, is mentioned in traffic, is ambiguously considered only as the advantage of the
climate-friendly alternatives: “Sensors speed things up: A small gadget on some of Malmö’s traffic
lights detects approaching bicycles and buses and controls the traffic flow to the advantage of the
climate-friendly alternatives” (Climate-Smart Malmö, 2009, p.7).
In line with the previous point, it was also found that the way of documenting and developing reports
for smart city projects and concept in the city is not consistent with the rests and in the same level. In
fact, most of them cannot be considered as a political and strategic document and they almost developed
by private partners, being found mainly in the form of presentation, not a formal document. However,
where the smart city is mentioned and considered in a strategic document, it lies on a regional or national
scale to the relation of a broader perspective of innovation. For example, we can mention ‘Strategic
Agenda for SSC’ (2015) and ‘Smarta hållbara städer’ (2016).
The first document which does not seem to be a legal one5, does not provide any framework, model in
general or strategies in relation to development. In this documents, it is indicated that “establishing
sustainable urban development goals relevant to smart sustainable cities cannot be undertaken in the
scope of this agenda. Rather, this agenda establishes the following visionary objectives stemming from
the threefold vision: 1- Sweden is a leader in sustainable urban development by designing, testing, and
implementing integrated ICT enabled solutions, 2- Sweden has strong growth in sectors developing
smart solutions for urban sustainability, and 3- Sweden has an open innovation climate that facilitates
new solutions and accelerate the market uptake of SSC (Smart Sustainable City) R&D solutions”
(Strategic Agenda for SSC, 2015, p.15). In fact, this document “recommends actions to develop an
innovative environment that will enable Sweden to a) become role models for smart sustainable cities,
b) undertake world-leading research and innovation on smart sustainable cities, c) become a leading
nation in attracting investments from the emerging multi-billion-dollar market of SSC-products and
services, and d) boost Swedish competitiveness in SSC-technology-markets (Strategic Agenda for SSC,
2015, p.3)”
The second documents, on a regional scale, also targets sustainable smart city based on a broad
innovation perspective, being limited to some “directions of the work on Smart Sustainable Cities
Innovation.” Here, still the aim is to “become ‘Europe's most innovative region 2020’” (Smarta hållbara
städer, 2016, p.2), so it seems the concept of the smart city is considered as a means to fulfil this aim.
This document has been developed because smart sustainable city is one the three detected priorities of
Skåne strategy Agenda in line with smart specialization6. However, it does not provide a specific
framework, model or agenda for itself smart city, but gives some direction why and how innovation
should be considered around this issue. Therefore, it does not portrait how smart city concept should
look like or how it should be defined in relation to urban development in the context of Skåne though
one might ask if this is in the scope of a regional strategy document.
Furthermore, again in this document the sustainable development is more frequently mentioned, but it
is not clear that why and how smart city is considered as sustainable urban development. In general, this
is a document to show vision for Skåne to be “internationally leading by 2020 in create, test and

5
- which can force actors to act upon that.
6
- Smart specialization as one the EU policy for Strengthening innovation in Europe “is a place-based approach characterised by the
identification of strategic areas for intervention based both on the analysis of the strengths and potential of the economy and on an
Entrepreneurial Discovery Process (European Commission, 2017).” Smart here means “Identifying the region’s own strengths and
comparative assets,” specialization means “Prioritising research and innovation investment in the competitive area” (European Commission,
2017).

38
implement innovations for smart sustainable cities” (Smarta hållbara städer, 2016, p.7) which is strongly
correlates with the previous national document. It aims to envision that “Skåne will be a natural choice
when companies and individuals around the world want to invest, research and develop products in the
Smart Sustainable Cities innovation area” (Smarta hållbara städer, 2016, p.7). Yet, it is not clear and
defined that how and through which way this ambition happens and can be achieved.
Another point which could reveal the difference between smart city projects and the other political and
strategic documents is about the process of approving. For example, comprehensive plan document
should be sent to the different department of Malmö Municipality or even to the external non-municipal
organisation (e.g., checking against fire safety criteria), to be checked against their standards and agenda
(Zinkernagel, personal communication, 2018) which again shows the importance and understanding of
integration. However, this process is not clear in the case of smart city projects assumingly because they
are a project-based initiative in small scale not a strategic approach in an urban scale.
However, the process through which smart Hyllie7 was legitimised and implemented shows a strong
partnership, collaboration, and dialog-based approach between Malmö Municipality and private sector,
but this collaboration does not seem to be about defining smart city initiatives but about finding synergy
for the process of implementation.
These smart city projects such as Hyllie are, in fact, initiatives of the private sector which have been
granted by Malmö Municipality since as long as solutions meet sustainability, especially environmental
dimension, and innovation goals, there is an open atmosphere to be accepted. For instance, when we
asked about the influence of the urban planning department on smart projects, it was found that the idea
of projects is developed from the private sector in relation to the bored sustainability goals:
“As a city planning office we are providing possibilities, our goal is that this town be very sustainable
and then it is up to the private companies if they want to build and solve the problem. So let’s say we do
not really provide the answers to those questions (Widestam, personal communication, 2018)”.
“The city has its ambitious, agenda of being sustainable so in 2020 they will be renewable within the
organisation and in 2030 they want the city 100% renewable. And E.on has its own ambitious targets
as well so we find a joint platform to able to help each other out (Zinkernagel, personal communication,
2018).”
This open atmosphere can have a number of reasons. For example, Malmö Municipality does not have
power when the private sectors are the owner of the land and projects (Widestam; Zinkernagel, personal
communication, 2018), so convincing them to follow sustainability goals is challenging and require
efforts (Widestam, personal communication, 2018) therefore if they follow certain sustainability criteria,
it is voluntarily. This is also about the time of returning capital and profit for the private sector which
can contrast with the long-term sustainability goals (Zinkernagel, personal communication, 2018),
creating another tension in these urban developments. Therefore, it is clear why, for example, Hyllie
Climate Smart Contract8 which has been set out after several dialogues between private and public sector
and could attract private sector to invest and built apartments, is seen as a positive, successful and
referable achievement by both Malmö Municipality and private partners, even if the project does not
show considerations toward social sustainability9. Furthermore, it can be clear why in most places where
smart city projects are presented, the language of branding outweigh the other aspects, the ambition
which was found beneficial for both sectors. This also shows consistency with the regional objective of
being internationally attractive for innovation or investment. The last given points about branding and

7
- As the main current smart project, which its analysis and information is given in the following sections, Smart city projects and actors.
8
- This is a voluntary contract, and Malmö Municipality cannot force companies to follow (Zinkernagel, personal communication, 2018), and
has been elaborated in the smart city actors section.
9
- more information in the smart city projects.

39
attractiveness are elaborated in the following sections where the common goals underline the strategies
of plans are analysed.

6.1.3. Thematic integrated strategies

In relation to formulating policies and strategies some key points are seen in all strategy documents
which can be considerable to notice. They are considered important to the aim of this thesis since they
portrait the whole visionary and ambition for the future development and show the context of integrated
policies so needed to grasp a more precise conclusion. This could enable us to analyse the relational and
links between policies, and see how the smart city concept and projects are possibly affected by them.
The main important points, as the bolder approaches or visionary, are as the following which are
elaborated in continue:

 Environmental perspective and ambition,


 Ambition for being an international model,
 Emphasis on attractiveness,
 Emphasis on cross-border connection,
 Physical planning as means for achieving main goals.

Environmental ambition and perspective:


Smart city and rather sustainable urban development are defined under Malmö’s Environmental
Programme umbrella which emphasis on environmental and climate actions. Even, comprehensive plan
of Malmö as a strategic document which provides directional targets for municipal decisions on all level
(Comprehensives plan for Malmö, 2014), is mentioned as one of the most important steps or approach
to achieve the overall objective of climate action programme, and environmental policies such as
adaptation actions should be part of a comprehensive plan (Environmental Programme, 2009). As it
mentioned before, its main strategies were deployed in other documents and specifically in case smart
projects. Environmental perspective has been the dominant approach so that the absence of social
consideration made politicians set up a commission with the mission of working on social sustainability
of Malmö. The point here is that the integration of policies, e.g. between comprehensive plan,
environmental programme, and climate action, in general, ecological dimension, are more obvious than
this document. However, it was found that according to (Zinkernagel, personal communication, 2018)
the main perspective of the environmental department is health, the angle which is also the main
perspective of social sustainability document, to address social issues such as unemployment,
segregation, etc. from a health perspective as the foundation.
Attractiveness:
It is interesting to see that there is a strong emphasis on attractiveness and ambition to make Malmö an
attractive place, consequently formulating actions and policies around this goal. This is a clear
prominence so that in many places especially in the comprehensive plan and Skåne development strategy
attractiveness comes before and along with sustainability. Or it is integrated mission for sustainable
mobility when it comes to smart city concept in that documents (Sustainable Urban Mobility plan, 2016).
In the elaborating of the main and opening visionary of comprehensive plans for Malmö, the critical
statements are addressing attractiveness integrated with sustainability goals (Appendix 3-1). This
emphasis is seen in a schematic model of comprehensive plan approaches toward sustainability where
the core of triple sustainability is defined by attractiveness (Figure 8)

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Figure 8: Sustainability dimensions in Comprehensive plan of Malmö (Comprehensive plan for Malmö, 2014, p.3).

In this document, where they mention the priorities, a regional generator is one of the main priorities
under which development for the attractive city is a continual approach (Appendix 3-1). We can continue
by extracting different quotes from different sections where the attractiveness is repeatedly mentioned
for defining the main policies and sub-strategies, almost in the first place, as a goal or for achieving the
main goals. Some of them are mentioned in the Appendix 3-3 from the comprehensive plan for Malmö
(2014)
In addition to this, this prominence strongly is aimed at Skåne regional development strategy plan,
showing a regional ambition and also reasoning why the comprehensive plan as a subordinate, regarding
scale, follows this goal. In this strategy documents, working for attractiveness is one the five prioritised
standpoints which is seen from a global perspective, not for regional-scale inhabitants (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Prioritised standpoints in Skåne strategy (The Open Skåne 2030, 2014, p.6)

The same as the comprehensive plan, this words can be seen frequently in the different parts of
document, among the main and subdivision strategies and visionaries. For example, it is indicated that
“The open Skåne shall be developed as an internationally attractive place to visit, live and work for
people and companies alike (The Open Skåne 2030, 2014, p. 41).”
This attractiveness can be seen interlinked with the ambition of competitiveness and also the economic
attraction. In some parts, it is defined as economic sustainability, and in most cases, it is seen as an
ambition to attract business, private companies, and knowledge people to invest and stay (Appendix 3-
4).

41
International role model:
Another strong visionary in defining main approaches is an ambition for being recognisable as a model
regionally and internationally. This is the clearest ones through which smart city projects and even
sustainable development are represented.
We can see this point is outweighing other aspects of development even the sustainability, or implying
that sustainable development is aimed to be addressed in such a way that results in a considerable and
recognisable achievement globally. In Malmö Municipality, sustainable urban development is explained
as “a series of pioneering residential construction projects has attracted international attention and put
Malmö on the map as one of the world’s top cities for sustainable city development (Malmö Stad,
2016a).”
The main opening statement of Environmental Programme states: “We Take on the Challenge: Malmö
will be the Best City in the World for Sustainable Urban Development by 2020” (Environmental
Programme, 2009, p.2) and this is presented in the Climate Adaptation Strategy, where the
Environmental Programme’s strategies are mentioned, in this way: “The aim of the programme is for
Malmö to become a global leader on sustainable urban development by 2020 (Climate Adaptation
Strategy, 2011, p.8)”. It is interesting to mention this visionary, in this programme, is defined based on
serious challenges discovered and various criteria measured as to which show the importance of
developing environmental and adaptation plans.
Similarly, it is also a clear way of defining and formulating smart city projects (it is elaborated more in
the section of smart projects) but much stronger in Skåne regional development strategy which also
shows the aim of competing with the world (Appendix 4):
“We shall put Skåne on the international map […] Skåne shall strengthen its international
competitiveness […] We shall attract expertise from the entire world. As such, Skåne needs to strengthen
its appeal and international image to face the competition of tomorrow (The Open Skåne 2030, 2014, p.
41).
Accordingly, this ambition for being internationally recognisable is inherently defined in comprehensive
plan by trying Malmö attractive place for investors. The base step to achieve this goal is seen as working
on physical planning as functioning the society (The Open Skåne 2030, 2014, p. 42) so it is not surprising
that comprehensive plan has been affected by this visionary, emphasising on “structural investment as
a good way of physical structure which is seen vital for economic competitiveness (Comprehensive plan
for Malmö, 2014, p. 4).”

Physical planning as means for achieving main goals:


This strategy as it mentioned, is a foundation of achieving goals and ambitions in the main strategy
documents even in regional scale like in Skåne strategy (The Open Skåne 2030, 2014) in which this is
defined as the first step for being attractive (Figure 10).

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Figure 10: Mans steps for creating attractive city (The Open Skåne 2030, 2014, p.42).

It can be seen that this approach is considered as a central strategy for a long-term functioning for Malmö
Municipality: “As an organisation, the City of Malmö is an important player with its investments,
operations, and services, and in order for these to be financed long-term through taxes and other fees it
is important that they must be coordinated with spatial planning. Infrastructure investment is a good
example of a physical structure that is vital for economic competitiveness. (Comprehensive plan for
Malmö, 2014, p. 4)”
And even in defining approach and strategy for the regional cooperation, physical investment is seen as
a critical requirement: “The Copenhagen-Malmö Region should be Scandinavia’s business centre, with
the best climate for international companies. This will require a number of physical investments and
strategies: (Comprehensive plan for Malmö, 2014, p. 11)” such as transport infrastructure, land
infrastructure for future business and entrepreneurship, cooperation between Malmö and Lund for
infrastructure investment (Comprehensive plan for Malmö, 2014).

Regional and cross-border strategy


The other important approach through which the main strategies are defined is the regional connection,
especially with Copenhagen. Skåne (The Open Skåne 2030, 2014) considers this regional connection as
a polycentric urban structure which can be taken as a competitive advantage for development and be
attractive (The Open Skåne 2030, 2014). Therefore, one of the reasons why there is a specific focus on
Hyllie even among Smart city projects’ areas become more clear however this is not the only reason
behind this specific focus since as it mentioned interviews brought other reason such as creating
cohesive urban fabric.

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6.2. Smart city projects in Malmö

Besides looking for how smart city concept and its policies and strategies are defined, various smart city
projects were mapped to see what sort of projects are defined and what their focuses are and how they
cover the smart city dimensions. 22 smart city projects and initiatives were identified in Malmö from
research on Malmö Municipality’s websites and mainly on Smart City Sweden’s platform
(https://smartcitysweden.com/) which is a national export and investment platform for smart and
sustainable city solutions, and is managed by IVL, Swedish Environmental Research Institute
(https://smartcitysweden.com/about/, n.d). This platform was founded by the Swedish government and
the Swedish business sector, now owned and managed by IVL. However, the point here is that many
identified projects are not considered as smart city project from the Malmö Municipality or not
mentioned in the documents. Table 7 shows the projects which are considered as smart city projects
with their focus areas- based on the platforms’ descriptions. Also, based on the project descriptions,
each smart city project and initiative was analysed with smart city dimensions to have a clear overview
of the projects’ focus.

Table 7: List of Smart City projects in Malmö

Platform/recourse List of SC Initiatives Focus Area (based on the developer’s description) Smart City
Dimensions

Smart City Sweden’s Sege Park The City of Malmö has the aim to make the Sege Park Smart Living
platform and Malmö area a frontrunner in sustainable urban development Smart
Municipality and several goals have been set up. Sharing for Environment
Affordable and Climate Smart Living is an open Smart People
competition to develop innovative solutions for the
area.

Recycling Park The Kristianstad recycling park is one of the best Smart
examples of the Swedish system of waste management. Environment
The material and energy recycling rate is currently 97%
and the goal is to reach 100% in the near future. Through
extensive cooperation arrangements with the region’s
heat and power plants the recycling park delivers
household waste to Beleverket in Hässleholm and SYSAV
in Malmö.

The Eco-City In 1996 the decision was taken to create an eco-city. This Smart
Augustenborg provides an excellent example of a successful Environment
sustainable makeover of an urban district. The make- Smart Living
over focused on efficient water systems, green roofs, Smart People
and solar energy. The Augustenborg project was the
cooperation with the tenants in the area around the
goals and management of the project.

Bo01, “The City of This “city within a city” has its own systems for managing Smart Living
Tomorrow” in the its energy supply and waste treatment. Car traffic in the Smart
Western Harbour area has been minimized as an environmentally friendly Environment
approach to urban planning and mobility.

Comprehensive In Malmö with its 300,000 inhabitants’ household waste Smart


waste is collected by the waste management company VA Syd. Environment
management In the residential area of Augustenborg all fractions of
waste are sorted in waste management houses close to
residential buildings.

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Climate-smart Hyllie Hyllie, Malmö´s largest development area, will lead the Smart Environm
way towards Malmö becoming a sustainable city. By as Smart Living
early as 2020, Hyllie will be 100-percent sustained by Smart Mobility
renewable or recycled energy.

Smart Cities The project integrates the development of sustainable Smart Environm
Accelerator solutions and data between energy systems with regard Smart Economy
to citizens' welfare, laws and learning to facilitate more
and more sustainable solutions in the municipalities.

Sustainable Climate-SMART food centre - The knowledge of kitchen Smart


Rosengård staff, educators and children about food's origin and its Environment
significance for climate change, environment, health Smart
and learning will be approved. Governance

Smart City Sweden’s CLIRE – Climate The CLIRE project consists of four sub-projects, each Smart Living
platform Friendly Health and focusing on a particular aspect of health care Smart
Care management with substantial potential for Governance
improvement in terms of sustainability and the use of
clean technologies and practices.

Hydrogen fuelling Region Skåne and the city of Malmö opened Sweden’s Smart Mobility
station first mobile fuelling station for hydrogen in Sege Park in Smart
Malmö. The hydrogen is produced from pure water, Environment
using renewable electricity, and water is also the only
emission when driving.

Improving energy As a part of the FP7 project A2PBEER the technical Smart
efficiency of public museum in Malmö was retrofitted with new and Environment
buildings innovative technologies increasing the energy efficiency.

Improving waste Swedavia is an international role model today for Smart


management in developing airports with the least possible impact on the Environment
Malmö Airport climate. Malmö Airport was the first airport in Sweden Smart Living
to install a solar heating facility featuring vacuum tubes.
The airport facility consists of a solar heating unit and
boiler system that provide 100% of total heating
requirements.

Sjölunda Sjölunda Wastewater Treatment Plant, Malmö at the Smart


Wastewater Sjölunda plant in Malmö wastewater from 550,000 Environment
Treatment Plant inhabitants is treated. The plant was built in 1963.
Recently expansion of biological treatment has reduced
the use of precipitation chemicals to meet the Swedish
requirements and the plant has at the same time
reached emission requirements of organic compounds,
phosphorous, and nitrogen

Malmöinitiativet Malmöinitiativet is an online platform for residents of Smart


Malmö to suggest and share ideas which potentially can Governance
be realised and implemented by the City of Malmö Smart People

Skanska – Zero Implementing smart solutions in apartment buildings in Smart Living


Energy Buildings in relation to energy consumption. The project living Smart
Limhamns Sjöstad energy is built in cooperation with E.ON Environment

HSB - Hilda building Comprehensive renovation in 760 apartments with 2500 Smart
tenants (e.g. energy efficient ventilation, renewal of Environment
radiators, facades renovation etc.). Information system
(monitors and webpage) to change behaviour.

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Integrated Energy Implementing smart solutions in apartment buildings in Smart
System in relation to energy consumption. Environment
Lindängen

Integrated Energy Implementing smart solutions in apartment buildings in Smart


System in relation to energy consumption. Environment
Lorensborg

Smart Home in Implementing smart solutions in apartment buildings in Smart Living


Hållbarheten from relation to energy consumption. Smart
E.on Environment

Lighting Metropolis To strengthen the significant role lighting can play in Smart
supporting safety, accessibility, identity, health, and Environment
education for people in cities.

Malmö by Bike Malmö by Bike is a project for bike rental in Malmö in Smart Mobility
cooperation between the City of Malmö and
ClearChannel. It was opened in 2016 with an online
platform to register, make transactions and track
available bikes in the city.

Observation Skånetrafiken In Skånetrafikens application the passenger can search Smart Mobility
Informatics System for a trip and buy single tickets for bus and train within
Skåne and to Denmark as well. The ticket applies to any
time for the selected distance. The passengers able to
pay with bank card.
Note: the descriptions of projects are extracted from smartcitysweden.com, Malmö Municipality’s website, and
skanetrafiken.se.

The identified Malmö’s smart city dimensions correlate with the previous findings, showing that the
projects are mainly focusing on certain elements of smart environmental dimension such as energy
efficiency, smart buildings, waste management, and building renovation. Smart people here is referred
to the educating tenants about waste management and the ways to recycle as well as how to save energy
with smart solutions. Therefore, at the first glance, the smart city projects and initiatives seem lacking
in the social dimensions such as smart people and smart governance.
There are some smart projects can show contribution to other dimensions but they are not considered as
smart projects in the documents or public sector’s platform. For example, the Municipality of Malmö
financed a public service with smart solutions to improve the quality of services and quality of exchange
information between the municipality and the citizens. Malmöinitiativet is not considered as smart city
project at the Municipality, but it is an example to involve locals to decision-making by using an online
platform where citizens can interact with each other and city officials as well in order to improve their
closer or wider neighbourhoods. Although by visiting the website it is visible that the Malmöinitiativet’s
online platform does not keep up to nowadays standards, therefore its effectiveness and functionality
are questionable.
Another example is Skånetrafiken Informatics System neither considered officially as a smart city
project, but it strongly relates to smart mobility since it provides an integrated real-time traffic
information to passengers and the opportunity to pay online on a mobile device as well, thus it assists in
the promotion of public transportation.
The list of smart projects includes projects and initiatives from a different range of scale, thus the impact
of each project is different. The most important projects which are presented in documents and Malmö
municipality’s platform and are considered as the most prioritised area of urban development in Malmö
are Western Harbour (Västra Hamnen) and Hyllie (Figure 11). The City of Malmö has been planning to
develop these areas for a long time, however, involving smart city solutions is originated from the private

46
sector. Following them, the Sage Park is mentioned as the recent smart city project, but it is not in the
same scale or priority in urban planning as the two previous ones. In Appendix 4 brief history of its
planning is given, but here the main concluding parts from analysing the data is presented.

Figure 11: Prioritised development areas (Comprehensive Plan for Malmö, 2014, p.5)

The most vital link between those projects is that they are followed-up experiments therefore after
experimenting different innovative solutions in Western Harbour, the new form of smart solutions
attempted to be tested in Hyllie and in Sage Park recently.
Bo01, the “City of Tomorrow in Western Harbour is a “city within a city” which has its own systems
for managing its energy supply and waste treatment. In order to achieve these goals several smart city
solutions were implementing in the newly developed area to monitor, track and optimise those processes.
The aim of the new waste management system was to reduce, recycle and renew (e.g. making biogas)
waste. Moreover, the goal also was to only use renewable energy in the buildings with high energy
efficiency (Western Harbour, 2008). This illustrates that the main focus was on energy and waste
management which are under the smart environment dimension. Numerous smart solutions were
introduced first time in the Bo01 project and functioned as testbeds to test new technologies and
solutions. This is supported by Patrik Thurning from E.on (Thurning, personal communication, 2018)
who emphasised that it was a learning process for the company and some of the smart solutions worked
in their buildings and some of did not meet with their expectations due to complexity or early
introduction to the market etc. However, after evaluation and improvement several smart solutions were
implemented in the next large-scale urban development in Hyllie.
Bo01 stimulated the further developments and expansion in Western Harbour with Bo02 (Flagghusen),
Bo03 (Fullriggaren), however developers and the municipality claim that these projects aimed to lift the
quality by using improved solutions and new approaches such as the ‘creative dialogue’ to engage
stakeholders in order to realising sustainable and affordable housing. In the ‘creative dialogue’ it is
mentioned that the stakeholders strived to shift the focus and include social and economic sustainability
aspects in the developments and each projects by increasing the proportion of rental housing, decreasing
the rental prices and flexible design of housing (The creative dialogue’ for Flagghusene, 2011).
However, the main focuses and the smart environment dimension remained as dominant focus of the
expansion

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Since the Bo01 was considered as successful experience from municipality and its developers, Climate-
Smart Hyllie has become a further step to use the previous experiences and test new ways of
implementing smart city solutions.
By 2020 the energy supply in Hyllie is planned to be entirely provided by renewable or recycled energy,
and a large-scale smart grid is being implemented, that does not only provide solutions for electricity,
but also for heating and cooling. The aim is to develop a smart integrated infrastructure system focusing
on interaction between central and local production, a so-called smart grid. This development than the
previous one also stresses the importance of energy efficiency to exploit the capabilities of the overall
smart systems as well as to supply energy needs through locally produced renewable energy, such as
solar and wind energy (Climate-Smart Hyllie et al., 2013). These focuses strongly relate to the smart
environmental dimension which includes network monitoring, energy efficiency, smart buildings and
resource management.
In addition to this tenants are involved where the future energy systems are tested enabling people via
smart devices to actively calculate, control and influence their own energy consumption, and also be
able to produce energy themselves. The goal is defined as to stimulate a climate-smart lifestyle by
providing user friendly and accessible platforms which concept relates to technology accessibility that
is one of the elements of the smart living dimension (Sustainable City Hyllie, 2011; Climate-Smart
Hyllie, 2013).
A new experience in this project is conducting a contract, Climate Contract, between Malmö
Municipality and the main partners from private sectors E.on and VA-SYD. This contract is considered
as one the success factors of this project since created a new form of partnership and collaboration. The
contract created a foundation for the development and set goals and sustainability criteria in
implementing project with the main focus on energy and waste management (Climate-Smart Malmö,
2009).
Following these experiences and types of smart solutions, recently another projects has started in Sege
Park. The main difference in its approach is that there is tried to test and experiment those smart solutions
in existing and not in a new developmental area. The aim from E.on is that the project is implementing
affordable housing by 2025, as a shift to affordability and social aspects from both public and private
sector in the planning (Planprogram Sege Park, 2015; Markanvisningsprogram för Sege Park, 2016).
However, it is also mentioned that the idea is to test how those previous smart solutions can be
implemented in the existing buildings which implies the intention to expand the tested solutions to the
other possible parts of city (Sharing for Affordable and Climate Smart Living, 2015). The development
shows similarities to the ‘eco-district’ project in Augustenborg, Malmö where it is also implemented
climate-friendly solutions by improving blue-green infrastructure in a low-income neighbourhood with
existing buildings (The Eco-city Augustenborg, 2011). In these project the emphasis is still on improving
the existing physical environment by renovation, energy efficiency, green infrastructure and
development of drainage system (blue infrastructure), thus the focus is still on the smart environmental
dimension. The development in Hyllie is taken as a good example and the attempt is to develop this
model in Sege Park as well in order to potentially become the new model for sustainable urban
development. The development is financed by the European Union and partly by Malmö
Innovationsarena (Planprogram Sege Park, 2015).
Another different approach for experiment in Sege Park is the idea of sharing economy. After the
development the energy, the waste system, mobility and water solution will be shared among the tenants,
and besides the food production, sustainable pro curement and the community building will be shared
as well (Planprogram Sege Park, 2015; Sharing for Affordable and Climate Smart Living, 2015;
Markanvisningsprogram för Sege Park, 2016).

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Furthermore, in relation to these projects, another important point is about the way they are presented
in document and in both public and private sector’s platforms. The most documented ones are Western
Harbour and Hyllie. Both are tried to be branded so that even for Western Harbour it is tried to attract
tourists and organise tours for professionals to visit the project area (Widestam; Thurning, personal
communication, 2018). The intention of branding is seen beneficiary by both sectors. Moreover, both
projects are introduced as the models for sustainable development. Climate-Smart Hyllie is introduced
by its developers as one of the most important sustainable urban development in the city and as “Future
of Malmö” or “the most climate-smart city” in the Öresund region. It is also one of three large test beds
in Sweden for smart grids and frequently referred as “the largest expansion area in Malmö” (Climate-
Smart Hyllie, 2013). In appendix 5, Hyllie is taken as an example and tried to elaborate on the given
points by also mentioning some quotes.
There are smart city projects which are initiated from private companies in the energy and construction
sector or housing associations, namely from E. ON, Skanska and HSB. The two leading private
companies’ main focus is to create high-quality housing with smart solutions in order to increase energy
efficiency and use renewable energy, while the housing association, HSB prioritise the improvement of
its existing building by the comprehensive renovation. For the large private companies, these projects
are considered as pilot and reference projects for future smart city projects in Sweden and
internationally.
Our interviewees described Hyllie as “the 2.0 of Western Harbour” (Widestam; Thurning, personal
communication, 2018) which implicates that the focus on energy and waste management are remained
similarly as in the Bo01 development, while this strong environmental focus foreshadowed the lack of
the social aspects and socially related smart city dimensions such as smart governance with participation,
public and social services, smart people with community building and urban life management and
inclusive society, and finally smart living with welfare and social inclusion.
The flagship urban developments in the prioritised areas and in Sege Park have been experimental
projects and having a project-based approach, therefore they function as test-beds where new solutions
and technologies are tested and implemented. The differences between the development of Hyllie and
Western Harbour and Sege Park that the latter is realised in an existing area where the newest smart
solutions and experiences will be implemented.
To conclude, most of the smart solutions in the smart city project in Western Harbour and Hyllie are
basically making people’s lives more convenient (smart living dimension) and fulfilling environmental
standards (smart environment dimension). In Malmö the majority of the smart city projects’ objectives,
especially the large-scale developments with significant impact are attempt to achieve environmental
goals. Although in general planning is considered to shift from an environmental to a social focus which
process is claimed by the interviewees both from public and private sector. However, the social aspect
is completely missing from the smart city projects, especially specific segments of smart people, smart
living and smart governance in relation to the six dimensions. The current practices in specific areas of
smart city projects, so far, lack the other dimensions of smart city and cannot define smart city even
based on the currently used six-dimensional definition. Moreover, the difference which exists in
considering and presenting smart city projects between the public sector- Municipality-, as the main
planner of the city, and private sector platform is notable to mention.

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6.3. Actors and partnership

This section focuses on the key actors and the nature of partnership in smart city projects in Malmö by
analysing documents and the findings from the interviews both from the public and the private sector.
The municipality of Malmö has the policy-making powers, and use it as a foundation for decision-
making in their specific departments. The Environmental (Miljöförvaltningen) and City Planning
(Stadsbyggnadskontoret) Departments are responsible for urban developments, therefore, they are the
one who creates visions, strategies and setting the direction for urban planning in Malmö. Kristoffer
Widestam (personal communication, 2018), the leader of City Planning highlighted that when it comes
to smart city projects the City Planning office provides possibilities and an open atmosphere for
archiving their goal, a sustainable city, however, it strongly depends on private companies what they
want to build and how they want to solve a problem in the area. Furthermore, the Municipality of Malmö
as a public entity has great access to national and European Union funds thus an additional financial
source is often involved in smart city-related projects.
The other key actors consist of various private companies. There are several large private companies
such as E.on, Siemens, Sweco, NCC and Fujitsu which have been involved in smart city and sustainable
urban projects in Malmö. The majority of them has a transnational profile, being operated globally.
Particularly E.on is well-established in Malmö due to its special monopoly position in the energy sector
by owning the energy infrastructure and electricity grid in the city and has the ability to develop and test
new technologies and solutions in this areas. The two construction companies Sweco and NCC also
dominant in their fields and influential in real-estate development as well as having a strong focus on
sustainability. From Skåne region several small and medium-sized enterprises such as RP Malmö,
Tyréns AB, Innoventum AB, Hulteberg Chemistry and Engineering AB and AquaP AB are represented
and involved in smart city projects with a focus on waste management, water and sewage technology
and consultancy.
Our interviewees both from the public and private sector underline the importance of close collaboration
between the Municipality and private companies in smart city projects and sustainable urban
developments in Malmö. Patrik Thurning (personal communication, 2018) from E.on described it as a
prerequisite of being successful in sustainable urban development. Due to E.on’s profound relationship
with the Municipality and special position in the energy sector, the company has been introduced early
in the implementing process, especially in the new development areas such as the Western Harbour,
Hyllie, and also in Sege Park, therefore it contributes E.on to plan better energy solution for the area
(Thurning, personal communication 2018). Previously the Municipality mainly interacted only with the
real-estate owners and constructors in the early stages. This is supported by Kristoffer Widestam
(personal communication 2018), according to him the Swedish housing market strongly relies on private
constructors and companies, therefore also Malmö had to establish a close collaboration with the private
sector to mitigate the shortage of housing in the city. This close collaboration is also essential due to the
intensive involvement of various external funds in smart city projects, therefore the well-functioning
and close collaboration are the interests of both the public and private sector.
There is a document in national scale which functions as a sort of innovation policy document or
directive in smart city concept. Strategic Innovation Agenda for Smart Sustainable Cities for Sweden
(2015) was conceived and written by representatives from a number of stakeholders within the
innovation area of smart sustainable cities in Sweden, including municipalities, research institutes, large
private companies and NGOs. As it mentioned before, it does not provide strategies and policies in the
city scale and also in relation to defining smart city in an urban setting. Rather, it aims to show the
importance of working in the smart city for Sweden “as the potential for Swedish innovation and targeted
growth, providing goals, ambitions, and recommendations” (Strategic Agenda for SSC, 2015, p.4).

50
Patrik Thurning (personal communication, 2018) from E.on described the partnership in smart city
projects in Malmö as a triple helix collaboration where the Municipality, the academia, and the private
sector form an alliance in order to improve decision-making and the implementation of projects. This
approach strongly resonates with this Agenda (2015) where the three key group of stakeholders also
considered as important actors in relation to the smart sustainable cities (SSC), however in the national
scale. The Municipality of Malmö was one of the cooperated organisations of making this Agenda
(2015), therefore it should represent the City of Malmö’s opinion and approach to smart city projects.
The numerous organisations which were involved in making the Agenda (2015) are also actively
participating in various smart city projects in Malmö such as Siemens, NCC, Sweco, Skåne Regional
Council and Lund University.
The following quote shows that the Agenda (2015) starts with a strong statement about the need for a
collaborative approach and call for actions by placing citizens in the centre of the smart sustainable cities
and emphases the importance of citizen engagement and social cohesion in these initiatives.
“This agenda represents the shared vision of a multi-stakeholder consortium and a strategy for Sweden
to become a leader in the smart sustainable city research and innovation and the realization of the smart
sustainable cities. Citizens are core contributors to the smart sustainable city. Therefore, this agenda
recommends actions that will enable socially cohesive communities with empowered and engaged
citizens and cities that enable environmentally sound choices.” (p.3)
“Co-creation refers to a creation process where new solutions are designed with people, not for people.
It is closely related to notions of ‘participatory design,’ ‘co-design,’ ‘design attitude’ and ‘design
thinking’: approaches that in recent years have been emphasised as central to innovation and will be
an integral part of the activities suggested in this agenda.” (p.7)
The Agenda (2015) highlights the importance of co-creation approach, however it is different in reality
for smart city concept or at least limited in Malmö’s smart city projects. Although, there is an active
partnership and cooperation between the City of Malmö and private companies in terms of implementing
projects, the existing or future residents’ point of view and demand is limited, and cannot be truly
presented due to the fact that the smart-climate project in Hyllie was built from scratch and Western
Harbour used to have an industrial function. Therefore, these areas did not have a significant population
to involve before the development has started there.
More importantly, this collaboration in the level of planning the concept and projects- types of
initiatives- is blurred. In fact, in the level of a project in private sector, based on the Thurning (Personal
Communication, 2018), this partnership might exist in implementing projects, but when it comes to the
smart city as a concept and strategic planning, this fact and process are not clearly visible. Specifically,
in term of people, in the documents, it is seen that the role of people is mainly considered as the followers
and users of the projects and that is why the strategy “in Malmö, it is easy to do the right thing,” is one
of the principles. Mentioning the importance of people is also seen in providing the higher quality of
life and a more convenient lifestyle, while they are provided ‘with the environmentally sound choices’
(Climate-Smart Hyllie, 2013).
Furthermore, the Agenda (2015) clearly states its contribution to the maintenance of Sweden’s leading
position in business rankings and attracting international investments. Also, one of the purposes of this
strategy is to straighten further the area of ICT, urban sustainability, and innovation as well as the
Swedish economy and job market in overall.
The Agenda’s objectives (2015) do not include or mention any socially related topic, rather it is focusing
on that Swedish cities should be the role models for the smart sustainable cities and Swedish industry
should become the global leader of providing SSC solutions. These two objectives strongly resonate
with the Agenda’s observation that the large developing countries with rapid economic growth such as
China and India become the leaders in implementing smart sustainable city solutions, therefore the

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involvement of Swedish companies with experience and reference in SSC solutions to those new urban
developments would provide a great business opportunity for them (Strategic Innovation Agenda for
SSC, 2015).
In Malmö, after learning from Bo01 development in Western Harbour, the next stages needed a new
framework in collaboration. Malmö’s Planning Department introduced ‘the creative dialogue’ in the
further developments in Bo02 and Bo03 in 2004 by involving numerous developers and creating a test
panel of engaged citizens in order to initiate a dialogue about architecture, planning, environment and
quality in the area. The goal was that this type of dialogue “would lead to a complete and detailed plan
for realising good, sustainable and affordable housing” in the Bo02 development (The creative dialogue
for Flagghusene, 2011, p.8). The special was in this framework that the Municipality encouraged
developers to share knowledge and know-how rather than competing with each other. The idea was
behind that the developers could reduce the production costs of new sustainable solutions, thus reducing
the housing prices. According to the Municipality the framework resulted cooperation between
developers and carried out join procurements in their projects (Malmö City Planning Office, 2011).
In Climate-Smart Hyllie the project is based on a collaboration called Climate Contract for Hyllie
(Climate-Smart Hyllie, 2013), and it was signed in 2011 by the Municipality of Malmö, E.on, and the
municipally owned infrastructure company VA-SYD. This document set a framework for those private
actors who are being involved in the project. Only those companies and their subcontractors are allowed
to be involved in the construction which signed the Climate Contract. However, according to our
interviewees, the Climate Contract does not force the involved companies to fulfil sustainability criteria
and make the dwellings affordable for instance. The chosen approach in the construction and facilitating
the buildings depend on the companies because it is a voluntary decision. Therefore, there are companies
which are the forefront of sustainability and implementing sustainable solutions, and there are others
which rather focus on the functionality of the buildings and taking the profit out of it.
The signatory parties agreed on the foundation for Hyllie “to become the Öresund region’s most climate-
smart city district and a global benchmark for sustainable urban development” (Climate-Smart Hyllie,
2013, p. 2). The vision what was formulated also illustrates the intention to develop a new district in
Hyllie which potentially become the global model for sustainable urban development and increase the
city’s competitiveness.
In addition to that, E.on and Siemens signed a separate cooperation agreement in the same year where
E.on is responsible for the overall planning of the new energy solutions, while Siemens is developing
the technological applications and smart infrastructure in Hyllie (E.on, 2011). Furthermore, in this
agreement, the two large multinational companies strengthen the intention of the Climate Contract and
set a common goal to bring the best smart solutions to the project (E.on, 2011). By signing this contract,
these two companies created a competitive advantage and became more influential in the projects of
Hyllie. Both companies benefit from this agreement and develop more quality solutions which
potentially place E.on and Siemens on the map for other smart city projects nationally and globally.
As similar to Hyllie’s Climate Contract was signed in the development of Sege Park in 2018 between
the same key actors City of Malmö, E.on, and VA-SYD. This partnership also based on the triple helix
collaboration model where the public (the City of Malmö and Vinnova), private (E.on and Trianon) and
academinia (International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) form a partnership to undertake the implemented project
within a certain framework for this project.
In Malmö, the municipality strongly relies on the large multinational private companies such as E.on
and Siemens in their smart city projects in the development of urban areas. These companies are also
the constructor and facilitators of the smart city projects. E.on and Siemens are the most dominant in
Malmö’s smart city projects in relation to energy, especially in Hyllie where the two companies signed

52
a cooperation agreement to complement each other’s areas of lack. The City of Malmö provides access
in the very early stages of implementing, to these key actors in smart city projects. In general, the
cooperating and partnership can be seen more in terms of implementing and facilitating the projects by,
for example, providing settings and regulations, or providing an open atmosphere for collaboration with
private sectors. In fact, regarding the notion of partnership, generally, there is positive experiences and
potentials in regulations and implementation though in the planning phase and in the case of the concept
of the smart city as strategic and integrated plan, this potential is urban scale seems to be neglected.

Concluding points of the analysis:

 Smart city in Malmö is a project-based approach rather than a strategic and holistic plan, which
the projects are mainly defined based on the environmental goals or based on the angel of
innovation rather based on a holistic vision of smart city concept. Many of these projects are
considered as experimental projects and test beds.
 These projects, based on the context of city and social sustainability, are not addressing the main
challenges of city
 The related strategies are defined in the national and regional scale which are naturally broad
and abstract, following more general ambitions. So, the place-based strategy and plan in the city
scale are lacking.
 In the strategy and goals level, the common strategies and goals are being economically
attractive, and internationally role model and leading, highlighted in most documents.
 The main developers of these projects are mainly from the private sector. The partnership is
seen in the projects mainly in terms of implementing rather defining them.
 The smart city projects are more recognisable in the private sector platform than the public
sector. Some projects are not mentioned as one of the smart city projects.
 The projects address a few dimensions of smart city concept especially when it comes to social
aspects like smart people, smart living. Regarding smart people and living, projects show mainly
convenient life, the opportunity for choosing the environmentally sound behaviour (like
participating in energy saving and waste management, etc.) and educating people in those
regard, and raising awareness.
 Among the projects, those which mostly and frequently mentioned in the public sector platform,
are those projects which are branded-strongly as sustainable planning.
 There is a strong potential, opportunity, and strength point for partnership and collaboration
between the public and private sectors in Malmö in general, and in case of implementing
projects with a sustainability profile.
 There are also potentials to follow sustainability goals, as many private sectors show willingness
in engaging with sustainability criteria in line with their responsibility.
 The data from the interviews did not provide other information about the reality of projects,
plans, and policies were found from the documents, but revealed considerable information about
the challenges and difficulties exist because of the complexity of the issue of city planning, and
other issues can bring tension or limitation like political issue, funding, and regulation issue,
etc. Many of them are taken as concluding points to make the argument around them in the
discussion part.

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7. Discussion and Recommendation

This section aims to answer the research question with the argument based on the debate in the analysis
part. This argument is shaped around the more important challenges and issues which were mapped and
concluded from the data and analyses. They are also categorised into the headlines to make arranging
the argument structured. The first point addresses the most missing consideration and the second one is
about the different tensions which exists or can be created. Under each point, it is discussed what are
the implications of this current understanding and practicing of the smart city for sustainable urban
planning and policy-making. Also, since this study looked at Malmö city as the case study, the final
section discusses what the potentials in Malmö in relation to recommendations are.

7.1. The needs for strategic vision and planning, fitting to the city scale

Our review of this case study evidenced that the smart city is not defined as a strategic concept in urban
scale, showing no clear sign of holistic envisioning in urban development. It could be seen again smart
city “is just a little more than marketing tools label, being still a hollow urban imaginary in search of
meaning (Buck & While, 2017, p.504)”. This already notified fact, here, crystallised in the form of
detached private project-based ideas and fragmented strategies from urban planning and contextual
issues of the city.
In this sense, it will not be surprising that Malmö is not fully benefiting from smart city initiatives
especially in order to address its main challenges when there is no holistic vision portraying how smart
city concept should take role for a city, and also the contribution of public sector i.e. municipality in
defining this concept and its framework is considerably lesser and subordinate to the private sector.
This point is considerable since at first municipalities have the monopoly of planning (Widestam,
personal communication, 2018) - at least in case of Malmö - and there will be a question how this sector
can contribute in planning and developing initiatives without having definition, framework, or model.
Moreover, how it can scale and evaluate the projects in relation to the other plans and a border
perspective.
To elaborate, this trend of developing smart city projects can be limiting for a city since the possibility
and competence of private sector is limited to their core responsibility and as it mentioned before they
define smart city based on their field of expertise. Thus, for instance, it is not relevant to expect a
company such as E.on as an energy provider to address public engagement, social integration or
inclusion, truism or mobility, etc. when it comes smart city concept. Considering the latter example, the
point becomes more crucial when we look at the previous studies and critiques which expressed that the
current smart city either as a concept or in many practices already leaded or can lead to exclusion. This
exclusion is not only for the city, as the benefit of digital innovation, such as smart grids, will be
unevenly distributed across population and private sectors become attracted to wealthier parts of city,
but also for economic actors and homeowners who are not capable of involving in smart projects and
product or cannot invest (Buck & While, 2017; Martin et al., 2018).
In case of Malmö one can claim that smart projects such as in Hyllie or Western Harbour have been in
line with the city’s environmental sustainability programme by focusing on energy efficiency, renewable
energy, and waste management. This fact itself in level of a project might be logical and valid, but in
city scale cannot provide a strategic and holistic approach. In fact, this is a matter of strategic planning
and a coherent plan of actions, providing a setting within which various initiatives with different targets
can be envisioned and come true, and then can be evaluated. The absence of holistic planning strategy

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results in the emerging of the smart projects as single component, implemented based on an individual
basis, hindering them to be sync with each other. Even if the individually perform well- which can be
discussed- but the lack of connection creates fragmentation and even sometimes contrast (Cugurullo,
2018).
In this regard, if one again claims that there is an intention to focus on these type of projects, such as
energy efficiency and waste management or smart grids, based on one dimension, then it can be
discussed from at least three perspectives: the confidence level guarantees the single-oriented approach
to succeed, the implication of insisting on branding it as the sustainable development, and its correlation
to sustainability concept with this narrow perspective.
At first, from the previous literature and empirical studies there are critiques, raising this concern that
“digitising urban infrastructure alone does little to protect the environment” (Martin et al., 2018, p.3) or
“energy efficiency alone will unlikely lead to an effective reduction in resources' consumption
(Lombardi & Trossero, 2013, p.274)”. Also, it is seen as a superficial concern with the environment
which is used as justification by companies to seek new markets for their products, and municipalities
for realising efficiency and optimising recourse (Martin et al., 2018).
In this regard, another tension is about the culture of consumerism and the consumer behaviour which
these smart projects such as smart grids and metering, rely on that (Vanolo, 2016). Critics argued that
at first the notion of consumerist culture embedded in these smart city projects is not compatible with
environmental protection and also the level of consumer engagement is not consistent over time, there
also is a possibility that efficiency saving from smart grids might be diverted by consumer to the other
resource-intensive products (Martin et al., 2018).
There is not aimed to exemplify the case of Malmö in relation to the given critiques, but it needs to
mention again the implications of project-based perspective without strategic and holistic vision which
contravene integrated urban development policies. In fact, there should be a strong reason to answer
why local government and digital technology corporates are engaged in initiatives to digitise the
infrastructure (for energy efficiency) instead of other initiatives to protect the environment. According
to Martin, et al. (2018, p.3) “Urban ecosystems including green space and infrastructure, which improve
the quality of life of citizens and reduce environmental impacts of the urban metabolism tend to be
neglected in visions of the smart city.”
The second issue is about the intention behind representing smart projects synonymous with the
sustainable urban development or sustainable city. This one-dimensional approach can be easily
questioned by looking at the global model of sustainability, triple bottom line, and also by looking at
the results of some practices in the reality.
Several studies showed that even in fulfilling those environmental goals smart city projects cannot
guarantee or did not fully successful. For instance, in the case of British cities, Yigitcanlar and Teriman
(2014) showed that there is no a positive correlation between smart technology adaptation and
sustainability outcomes. Also, in the case of BO01 the energy efficiency goal was not achieved
(Freeman, 2017) though the project is considered as a good experiment from developers’ perspective.
Moreover, as it mentioned before, one of the given critiques resulted from literature reviews, evaluation
studies, etc., is raising doubt if current smart city - as concept or project - is sustainable or, some claimed
that it is not. This dichotomy between the discursive of smart city in literature and the language of its
practical actors and developers can be another matter of question.
Therefore, insisting on considering smart city term, with this narrow vision, synonymous with
sustainable development/city is not only contradictory for some cases, also can be ‘misleading’
(Zinkernagel, personal communication, 2018). In fact, there can be a threat of institutionalising this
doubtful or under-experiment approach as sustainable however, the projects might not necessarily fit
sustainability criteria except carrying the label of ‘smart’. In this regard Parks (2018) discussed that how

55
some smart experiences in Malmö reshaped and possibly institutionalised the urban environmental
governance only to the expense of energy efficiency despite their invasiveness, and also how smart grids
and housing might redefine sustainability in the eyes of property developers.
Freeman (2017) and Grossi and Pianezzi (2017) also support this process of normalisation or
institutionalisation exist in smart practices in relation to neoliberalising and depoliticising of the
planning. Freeman (2017), specifically by tracking Malmö’s journey from the development of Western
Harbour to Hyllie, explains that although Western Harbour was an attempt to attract elites to city with
high-class profile, it ‘triggered debate and resistance’, but in case of Hyllie all those ‘contestation and
political debate has vanished’ and it showed that they institutionalised the previous experience
(Freeman, 2017, p. 58).
This approach in current private-oriented trend can only provide a branding or marketing possibility to
the benefit of smart products’ providers. In this sense, it is not surprising why the only smart projects in
the form of smart housing and grids are being commercialised in the public sector’s platform.
This trend, when it comes to the presenting smart city as utopia, can even exaggerate the challenge.
Because as it tried to clarify in theoretical analysis, there is a relation between utopia and ideology
(Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017) or collective thinking (Ganjavie, 2012; Brown, 2015), and there is a power
in this word in relation to promising a good means of planning, and impressing citizens (Ganjavie, 2012).
However, this utopia regarding the smart city appeared as some (unsuccessful or controversial) private-
oriented projects and lack of strategic visionary without an integrated plan of actions for the city.
It is considerable to mention that many studies suggest that smart city utopia conflicts with its aspirations
when it is translated into practice (Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017) and there is a disconnection between smart
city concept, the way it is presented as sustainable development or utopia, and its contribution in public
policies in reality (Angelidou, 2015; Vanolo, 2016; Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017). Hence, Grossi and
Pianezzi (2017) conclude that “techno-utopian smart city solutions might become rhetorical devices
mobilized to divert the attention away from the real problems of the citizenry (Grossi and Pianezzi,
2017, p.80).”
However, the argument is not just about why they are presented in the synonymous but is also about the
practical relation of the smart city with sustainability as the third issue. In this case study, it was found
that smart city projects have limited contribution to social sustainability and not integrated into city
policies. Its disconnection to strategic planning of city can show its underestimation from city’s
complexity and also sustainability tension in planner triangle (Freeman, 2017) while its developer
promised that smart city is aimed to manage complexity (Sujata et al., 2016). The experimental project-
based perspective makes a concept- here smart city- happens in a chaotic and uncoordinated instead of
integrated manner (Cugurullo, 2018).
On the other hand, Cugurullo (2018) through ‘urban experimentation’ lens, argues that “when two
different elements of an urban experiment contrast each other, the most remunerative one prevails” and
this urban experimentation approach, principally, prevents the formation of sustainable cities due to the
imbalance in planning. This point can be a matter of dissection in case of Hyllie or Western Harbour
when the balance of two dimensions of social and environmental sustainability might be seen in contrast.
This imbalance becomes more crucial in the scale of city. Freeman (2017), in case of Malmö, mentions
that the insisting on practices in low carbon development and environmental goals, as a one-dimensional
approach, could result in slowing down or even stopping the previous projects and addressing most
pressing problem, here inequity and housing shortage, which does not show balance in social and
environmental sustainability, and between long-term and short term perspective. He believes this is the
point above all what should qualify a city as a smart city. The ambition that without strategic plan and
holistic vision is unlikely to achieve.

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Moreover, our study showed the imbalance of involvement in defining and planning projects between
stakeholders. The lack of involvement from planners and local public sector and also people in defining,
envisioning, and planning smart city concept, especially based on the city context, make Lash’s tripartite
model (Campbell, 1996) out of the question to consider. Its implication is not only about escalating the
current smart city situation and leaving it to the private sector contribution, which is not rooted in the
social theoretical foundation, but more is about the legitimacy of projects. Because as Legacy (2010)
expresses, if one of the actors is excluded, the legitimacy of the plan breaks down. On the other hand,
the public engagement is one of the important concerns and subject matters in urban planning (Legacy,
2010) which in case of the smart city can be questioned.
The place of the private sector in defining and bringing initiatives in the smart city, based on the Lash’s
model, can be interpreted wrong or a new phenomenon, calling for developing new sector model in
planning for the smart city. It is mentioned that the engagement of the private sector in the smart city
project is inevitable due to the technical issues which the public sector lacks. However, Buck and While
(2017, p.506) believe that “the delegation of public tasks to the private sector is misunderstood as a
discharge of public duties, and the enabling of private-sector intervention requires new regularity task
for management, performance evaluation, and supervision by public authorities.”
This is also alarmed that this trend in envisioning smart city, which shows a neoliberal-based smart city
(Vanolo, 2016; Buck & While, 2017; Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017) may lead to privatisation of decision-
making and exercise of power insulated from democratic accountability (Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017).
Besides all arguments, another point which is sometimes used as justification is that smart city projects
are experimental to make experience and learn. This is a considerable point of view, however this point
is also notable to ponder that “the city is not necessarily a supine patient waiting to be experimented on
and reward, but bringing its own challenges and demands in different ways (Buck & While, 2017,
p.506).” Therefore, considering the previous arguments, the importance of having strategic plan which
can balance the different perspectives and lead the projects to the harmonious appears from another
perspective as well.

7.2. The tension between stakeholders’ interest

7.2.1. Public interest vs. private interest

The magnitude of complexity of a city is huge (Sujata et al., 2016), and through this case analysis, some
challenges in the form of lack of economic resource, political and legal tensions, and collaboration
appeared in managing and planning a city. However, in this atmosphere, the City of Malmö has shown
a positive relation and communication with private sectors and created an open atmosphere so that
Holgersen and Baeten (2017) mentioned this is one reason that developers consider Malmö as an
advantageous place for development and investment. However, they believe this is not only due to the
highly qualified staff and expertise of Malmö city but also because of municipality’s priorities which
can be the intention to attract business and capital to invest and then based on that bringing benefit for
city (Comprehensive plan for Malmö, 2014; Holgersen & Baeten, 2017)
Therefore, despite the challenges were mentioned before, the current experiences of smart city projects
- in Hyllie and Western Harbour - are seen positive from both sectors involved, since it was an
achievement in finding synergies. This synergy can be seen as an achievement regarding the
implementation process in the project scale. For instance, when private sector needs legitimacy or
facilitation in regulations and laws from the public sector, or when convincing private sectors and
developers to follow sustainability goals is very challenging, thus reaching this collaboration can be

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considered as an achievement. However, when we zoom out, seeing the smart city as a concept and as
a plan which should be defined strategically in urban development, this synergy gets blurred and does
not show public sector and citizen involvement.
Nevertheless, these experimental projects - particularly in Hyllie - are considered as a win-win situation
even for Malmö municipality (Widestam, personal communication, 2018). The reasons are attracting
private sector to fill housing shortage (Widestam, personal communication, 2018), making an attraction
for business to move there (Comprehensive plan for Malmö, 2014) and keeping and inviting high-
income people to pay taxes in Malmö instead of surrounding municipalities (Holgersen & Baeten, 2017;
Zinkernagel, personal communication, 2018). This might be justifiable form a perspective which wants
a city inclusive for every economic class, however, it is beyond of this thesis’ scope to discuss how
taking this perspective in urban development can affect the city and what its implications are.
But from this study’s perspective, it can be discussed that pursuing this trend implies using the smart
city as a means of marketing and neglecting other aspects of smartness to the benefit of the city. Because
this policy is being justified in the condition that there is no strategic plan for the smart city in urban
scale, and its initiatives mainly come from private sector, and also when it comes to presenting, mapping
smart city projects reveals a strong focus of those types of projects which have the possibility to sell
smart products. This presumption becomes more robust by looking at the way through which sustainable
smart city is articulated in the national document (Strategic Agenda for SSC, 2015), which is form
business perspective tied up with goals of attractiveness.
It should be noticed that the given trend is emerging in the condition that many studies and researchers
mentioned to the segregation and polarisation as a process in Malmö (Holgersen & Baeten, 2017). In
this regard, it is explained that applying those policies (attracting investment and increasing the tax
income to have a more benefited city) not only did not succeed (made the poor poorer) also could
reproduce the problem of segregation and polarisation on a different geographical scale because it means
that regions and districts should compete against each other to attract the rich which results the increase
of economic polarisation (Holgersen & Baeten, 2017).
The City of Malmö follows similar objectives such as Hammerby Sjöstad from Stockholm to use smart
city initiatives and projects in order to brand and market the city internationally which potentially bring
and attract investments and highly skilled people to the city. However, studies show (Ignatieva & Berg,
2014; Cele, 2015) that the new development in Hammerby Sjöstad created an area with high-quality
housing with multiple green places for recreational options and at the same time mostly attracted high-
income and a homogeneous social group into the newly developed district. Specifically, due to the
development conflict between equity and environmental protection (Campbell, 1996), there might be a
high risk in Hyllie and in Western Harbour to create eco-gentrification in the area with rising property
values and turning the transformation to spatial segregation for wealthy people.
Thus, the existing economic segregation can generate this type of environmental segregation. By linking
the development conflict to the concept of just city it is important to underline that public investments
and regulations ought to decrease the gap between the opposite sides of the society and should not make
the wealthy wealthier and increase significantly their access to high quality of living (Fainstein, 2000).
In addition to that, the above mentioned urban developments involved serious amount of national and
EU funds which should theoretically serve the general public interest and not only citizens with higher
income. Again in this sense, we can question how this smart city concept - in this case study - claims
sustainability when even intends to be a means for serving these policies.

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7.2.2. Demand sector vs. Supply sector

The way of developing smart city initiatives by the private sector, without laying on a strategic plan and
without integration to the urban development strategies, can open up another matter of subject to discuss
which relates to technology push as the existing force in the current smart city concept which was
mentioned as one the critiques. This force is seen in tension with the demands of society so that the
current smart city based on this force is more supply driven than demand driven (Angelidou, 2015). This
push can become critical as technology is increasingly developing new idea and releasing new products
which are not necessarily based on the demands (Angelidou, 2015; Buck & While, 2017).
In that case, when a city does not have a strategic programme for smart city in relation to urban planning
and its complexity, and also based on the Lash’s model, when the share of main actors in envisioning
smart projects is limited or not defined, it is unlikely for a city to lessen this tension or guide projects
towards city’s demands. That is why smart city solutions are criticised as they are disconnected from
the social context of the city, failing to tackle a city’s problem (Angelidou, 2015) or the way of
undersetting it has a limited consideration of actual social needs and aspiration (Vanolo, 2016).
Moreover, private sector by its nature tends to produce a universal solution that can be applied globally
with limited adaptation (Buck & While, 2017) this tendency can exacerbate the tension between their
supply and the contextual demand which might be very specific to a city. On the other hand, their interest
in short-term perspective can conflict with the long-term perspective of the city and its plans. In this
regard, the absence of public sector, which is supposed to address the city demands, in defining the
smart city vision and framework, and also the lack of place-based smart city solutions appears critically
problematic.
This need becomes more considerable when it was found, in the case of Malmö, the current smart city
initiatives can be easily interpreted in line with national policy and goals which seeks, for instance,
international attractiveness and being the leader of innovation in the smart city. In fact, while these
projects can be justified based on those national goals, cannot be evaluated based on the city demand
and its context because there is no any framework and plan in the scale of the city. This is another tension
was found from the review and analysis which is elaborated in the following section.

7.2.3. National scale vs. City scale

In general, the political and legal document in national and regional scale have an influence on the urban
documents so that the correlation of main policies is traceable in different scales. This influence based
on our findings also appeared as a force from a political level which unlocked another tension in policy-
making which is related to gain political support to be legitimated and accepted (e.g., social
sustainability document). However, this trace is not clear when it comes to the smart city concept.
It was discussed that the role of main actors in planning in this case study, based on the Lash’s model,
is uneven and in the scale of a city does not exist. Based on this model, the contribution of politicians
might be fairly seen in a larger scale, because the only documents that provide vision and ambition, in
the form of the political document exist in the national and regional scale. However, the problem is that
in this scale, obviously, strategies and policies are broad, abstract and more general. In fact, they can
provide a political and legitimised setting in which other strategies and projects can be developed. The
larger scale, the lesser connection they have to the practical strategies for a city. So, that is the reason
why Strategic Agenda for SSC (2015) indicates that it is not in its scope to define the smart city for
sustainable urban development. In fact, even if we, presumably, consider those documents positively
effective, there is gap in hierarchical order.

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The point or problem here is that how those broad documents which provide national vision and goals
are translated into city projects and tailored to the city scale and its context? That is why as it mentioned
before, in the micro-level and in case of single project, one can see for example the smart initiatives in
housing or smart grids in line with the goals and strategies. Since they are experiments in the area of
innovation, can make attraction, and also can be branded as one of those project for being internationally
role model, or fulfil part of environmental and climate actions. However, the city cannot figure out how
much projects are in line with its urban issues and demands, and what kind of other initiatives can be
developed within the smart city concept which is now missing.
The vision of being internationally role model in the national and regional documents might seem
sensible. However, when there is no place-based strategic approach toward a concept, and mainly private
sector takes action to bring initiatives based on their competence, therefore it is not surprising that most
presented smart projects are tied with smart products that can be sold, and come with branding
languages, or meant to be in this way.
In this atmosphere where there are abstract ambitions but not strategic and city-tailored plan in urban
scale, and the focus is on the single model rather than the whole (Cugurullo, 2018), there is a possibility
that many projects are defined based on those ambitions to get legitimacy but without necessarily
bringing benefit to the entire city. So, considering the way of representing them as sustainable or utopia,
they can be used as references for future projects either in other countries or the local context.

In summary, this research showed that the current way, under which smart city is being understood and
practised, has, not only, the limitation to achieve sustainable development and is not able to tackle the
complexity of urban planning, but has also potential to have the opposite contribution. The study showed
that although the smart city concept is introduced as a sustainable paradigm in the city planning, it is
incapable to play an effective role in urban developed. This concept is incompetent as long as it cannot
define itself integrated into the strategies and urban plans and continues to its fragmented experimental
projects which are mainly developed based on the private sector supply rather the actual city demands.
Above of and based on all these discussions, one important conclusion can be about the relation of this
current smart city concept with the social sustainability concept which is the most problematic and ironic
one. It is not only because of the limit contribution of smart city projects in social sustainability which
was mapped and discussed before but is more about the impossibility that exists in this type of smart
city visionary for addressing social sustainability.
It can be questioned how this current vision and practice, detached from the city demand, is able to
address social sustainability which is based on the contextual issues varies in every community and city.
How the goal of being role model for the word which is claimed by many smart city projects can fit the
notion of social sustainability either in term of dissimilarities in challenges or the public and citizens’
inclusion. The citizens who are not unified (Vanolo, 2016), even if this very technical smart city concept
would be able to involve them.
How this visionary can be a part of social sustainability programme, when even its relation with the
innovation- as a foundation- is seen as a means to compete, to be world leading, and to make benefit of
possible market (Strategic Agenda for SSC, 2015), rather seeing the innovation for problem-solving and
addressing the community’s challenges.
Referring back to the originating process of the smart city concept by international private companies,
it can be interpreted that why the current focus has been on environmental dimension since the
environmental issues may be generalised across the world but social issues may not.

60
Therefore, as Vanolo (2016, p.26) concluded that smart city concept is poor as a model for citizens’
urban life in the future, since they are considered as passive and unified subjects (smart projects that aim
to be international model), here, it can also be claimed that this current smart city can be poor for
addressing social sustainability concept in planning. It is a poor concept as long as it cannot define itself
based on the community demands and contextual-related strategies and framework and with the
involvement of different stakeholders in envisioning it.
In this regards, the smart city concept needs strong leadership model and requires local government and
municipalities to take this leadership position in order to make policies to define a strategic concept of
the smart city. This concept either in terms of urban conception or sustainability concept needs to be
envisioned holistically and, in the level of practices, be integrated into the strategic planning of the city.

7.3. Potential of smart city concept in Malmö

The City of Malmö attempts to position itself as a leading sustainable and green city, a role model for
other cities, thus their major urban development’s strive to achieve these goals. Many of the city’s urban
developments has been involved smart city solutions in their projects from housing to infrastructure
where large portion of them were originated by the private sector. This type of approach strongly
resonates with Cohen’s first generation of smart cities where the process is driven by large multinational
technology companies, and in Malmö these dominant companies are E.on, Siemens and Skanska while
at the national scale Ericsson and IBM just to mention a few (Strategic Agenda for SSC, 2015).
Moreover, the relevant departments do not have the sufficient knowledge and experience working with
the newest technologies, therefore the Municipality strongly rely on companies from specific fields to
implement their plans and solutions (Cohen, 2015). This requires high level of trust, otherwise the public
sector can be vulnerable and highly dependent from the private sector, however Malmö and for instance
E.on has built a profound and positive relationship which created a solid foundation for further
cooperation.
If Municipality of Malmö wants to decrease its dependency from the private sector, a more proactive
approach should be taken in order to increase quality of life by improving public services and not
consider citizens as customers in urban developments. This turn would lead the city to Cohen’s second
generation of smart cities and would create new possibilities to support the technology industry and
innovation as well as to hold expos in this field which would also place the city as a whole on the map,
and not only certain projects (Cohen, 2015). The prerequisite of this to have forward-thinking mayors
and planners in key decision-making positions. This level also requires a strong cross-sector
collaboration with research institutes and key private companies in order to foster innovation and being
the leaders in sector, however these initiatives ought to originate from city leaders and planners which
would guarantee that the public interest is considered (Cohen, 2015; Ferrer, 2018).
In order to improve quality of life and public services the smart city concept should be defined in a
strategic level and integrated into the existing policies and plans. A smart city strategy could provide a
holistic approach and vision for the city through specific smart city action plans. These action plans
function would be to cover all different segments and public services of the city, and not managing and
tackling them separately. Furthermore, the idea is to connect data, citizens and knowledge which can
function as a hub for building productive, open and shared indicators and tools, thus enabling residents
to collectively build their own neighbourhood and the city as a whole. The City of Malmö has also a
great access and insight to various data about citizens and infrastructure which is also essential in smart
city projects. Thus this ability should be involved and developed in order to improve decision and policy-
making as well as to create more integrated smart city projects for the benefit of the city.
Residents and local communities are essential in a legitimate planning process by engaging them in a
meaningful and active way where key knowledge is exchanged and implemented in the end of the

61
process. The public is an important pillar of the planning process, therefore a tokenistic involvement is
not efficient to achieve legitimacy in certain plans and policies. Cohen’s third generation of smart cities
suggests that citizens should be the catalysts of smart city initiatives, therefore it is essential to finding
new ways to encourage citizens to form their initiate ideas for the benefit of the city. This makes citizens
an integral actor for transformation. In the case of Malmö, a potential would be improving the online
platform of Malmöinitiativet for citizen input and creating a more meaningful and not tokenistic
collaborative planning with current residents in order to create more socially sustainable and inclusive
urban developments in Malmö.
Furthermore, social innovation is a cornerstone in smart city initiatives in leading smart cities which
strives to foster the efforts of private and public sectors and NGOs for the implementation of proven and
solutions to local context (Ferrer, 2018). There is a profound and positive relationship and collaboration
between E.on and Malmö so future smart city projects should be built upon this partnership by
continuing and maintaining it. The City of Malmö established a close collaboration with the key private
stakeholders from developers to the energy sector. Malmö potentially can improve its smart city projects
due to the well-established relationship and cooperation between the municipality and key expert private
companies as well as Skåne region has a strong third sector with Lund and Malmö University which
potentially could contribute in research and innovation. Moreover, Living Lab at Malmö University
potentially can bring new ideas in social innovation and improve social sustainability in the city with
strong collaboration with the municipality and the private sector and investors. In general, municipalities
should remain the catalyst to engage and keep all stakeholders connected in order to ensure the support
from every stakeholder and to foster innovation in a continuous way (Cohen, 2015; Ferrer, 2018).
Since the technological development does not show signs to slow down, and more advanced and faster
technologies appear in the foreseeable future such as 5G wireless network system which will provide
thousand times faster data traffic than the current 4G system after 2020. This trend shows that cities
more likely are going to involve and implement technology in order to manage city life, thus the
importance of smart city solutions is going to increase (Phan & Qureshi, 2017). Therefore, the social
deficit and lack of social aspects can appear also in future smart city projects if this trend continues. This
means that technology should not be seen as a goal, instead it should be considered as facilitator in order
to assist better decision and policy-making at the city level. Increasing number of cities will face to
similar challenges in relation to social sustainability and urban policies such as Malmö where the
integration and implementation of smart city concept is going to be crucial. Moreover, if this current
approach continues, the policy-makers will not achieve sustainability and also public sector will not gain
power in shaping policies. The concept of smart city should serve the citizens’ interests and engage them
in improving their city by strengthening them with tools and knowledge.

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8. Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to find and map out how the current understanding and practicing of smart
city concept - which lacks clear definition and theoretical foundation, and is dominated by technical
perspective and the private sector’s contribution- can affect sustainable urban planning. This objective
pursued by examining the city of Malmö as case study and analysing the policy and strategy documents
in planning, and smart city projects. The analysis was also supplemented by the interviews from the
representatives of the main actors in smart city projects and urban planning.
The findings revealed that the lack of holistic understanding of smart city among actors and also lack of
social contribution in defining it hinders the smart city act as a holistic and strategic concept for the city
and mainly practised based on the experimental project-based initiatives mainly developed by private
sectors.
This lack results in a condition under which the smart projects are developed and legitimised based on
some broad strategies and goals which are not tailored to the city’s context and scale. This trend can end
in some projects which do not address necessarily the main demands of the city or alleviate its most
pressing issues which consequently can be questioned for their contribution to social sustainability
concept. Moreover, without a defined framework for the smart city as a strategic concept for the city, it
is unlikely to evaluate the contribution of projects towards different aspects of sustainable urban
development.
For instance, regarding this thesis’s case, the projects mostly showed a limited perspective, targeting
one dimension of sustainability- environmental- which were legitimised based on the controversial past
experiences. Despite the controversies, they are still seen leading since they could define themselves
based on the general or national goals of attractiveness, innovation, and climate actions.
It is also claimed that this trend can result in a chaotic form of the smart city which cannot benefit the
city planning holistically, and also can offset the other projects and plans by bringing contradictory and
underperforming results. For example, in some cases the social implications of those one-dimensional
projects, as knock-on effects such as polarisation and exclusion, are so considerable that can question
the projects as a whole. Therefore, this trend not only cannot alleviate the tensions and conflicts in the
sustainability interests (planner triangle), also try to neglect the complexity of the city and its planning.
On the other side, since the contribution of public sector -municipality as the sector which monopolise
the planning- is lesser, and sometimes in the subaltern status, the smart city strategies and projects might
not be integrated into the city planning’s strategies and objectives, and cannot act as strategic visionary
and model. This imbalance in the collaboration which is more severe regarding citizens can question not
only the social sustainability of current smart city planning but also the legitimacy of planning. The
position and place of citizens are excluded more, seemingly, due to the domination of technical
perspective which resulted in reducing the strategies to its lowest notion such as ‘being easy to be
followed’. Therefore, from this perspective, the citizens are not seen as an integral stakeholder in the
planning process but as the follower of strategies and projects.
Many scholars are calling for redefining the current smart city approach. This study revealed that in the
first place, the smart city concept needs an interdisciplinary dialogue to be able to be translated
inclusively into the integrated strategies and initiatives. To achieve this, it is required that:

 the public sector, here municipalities, and planners take a leadership position and shift their role
from a passive actor to a proactive actor in defending the concept in the concept in favour of the
city.
 different perspectives and stakeholders are involved in defining a holistic and strategic model
and plan based on the city’s demands and integrated into the urban planning strategies.

63
 an integrated framework is defined under which it can be possible to evaluate the contribution
of smart city projects in different sustainability goals.
 innovation is used as a means of improving smart city concept in different dimensions in order
to community empowerment and problem-solving, addressing demands and challenges, and not
just to test new ideas.

9. Recommendations for further study


Since it is found that there is a need for strong leadership in planning of smart city from municipality,
and on the other hand, it was revealed that many variables can create tension in planning process, further
research in needed to discover what are the difficulties for public sector to develop a holistic model
integrated into the urban planning process. This issue can also be seen in line with the ‘organizational
change’, mentioned in the interviews, as a reasons which hinders the municipality to change direction.
So, taking an organizational perspective to either find out ‘blockages’ or define a ‘leadership model’ is
an effective contribution.
Besides, this study revealed the absence of urban planners or social scholars in defining the smart city
and its consequences in practical level. But, due to the scope and time limitation, the solution like a
model or framework did not provided. So, the further study can work on defending a model or
framework based on which the smart city concept and projects can be seen in an integrated into the
urban planning and sustainability model.
Another significant point is about the citizen’s perception and expectation. Insisting smart city on
improving quality of life and claiming that project put people on the focus, it is interesting to find out
how and to what degree people have found smart city so far in relation to their everyday life. This point
in the scale of a city can also reveal how much smart city could contribute into the citizens’ life
inclusively with providing demographic pattern across the city. This can be the first step in the process
of finding the way how people can be engaged in the planning process. Because, the study also can work
on revealing the public’s knowledge and understanding of the smart city and the quality of this
awareness.

64
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Appendix
Appendix 1: Literature review table

Table 8: Themes from literate review and their disciplines

Themes No. scholars Discipline Method


Critical discursive on smart 14 (Han & Hawken, 2018) social science: 6 QN: 1
city in general or with the (Monfaredzadeh & Krueger, 2015) business & QL: 13
focus on a specific topic like (Kummithaa & Crutzen, 2017) management: 4
equity, citizen right, privacy, (Colding & Barthel, 2017) engineering: 4
innovation, (Calzada & Cobo, 2015)
(Deakin, 2014)
(Hollands, 2008)
(Rosadi et al., 2017)
(Caragliu & Del Bo, 2015 )
(Bibri, 2017)
(Bibri & Krogstie, 2017)
(Yigitcanlar, 2015)
(Vanolo, 2016)
(Buck & While, 2017)
Evaluation or analysis a case 12 (Mappiasse, 2015). Social science: 4 QN: 2
study (Mayangsari & Novani, 2015): business & QL: 10
(Madakam et al., 2017): management: 3
(Macke et al., 2018): engineering: 5
(Garau & Pavan, 2018)
(Cowley et al., 2018)
(Beretta, 2018)
(Shelton et al., 2015)
(Grossi & Pianezzi, 2017)
(Trivellato, 2016)
(Randhawa & Kumar, 2017)
(Cugurullo, 2017)

Propose model (focus on a 5 (Effing & Groot, 2016) Engineering: 5 Mixed: 1


specific aspect like, IT, E- (Lorimer et al., 2017) QN: 1
participation/technical (Ibrahim et al., 2017) QL: 3
solution) (Hara et al., 2016)
(Sujata et al., 2016)
Evaluation of smart city as a 7 (Ahvenniemi et al., 2017) social science: 3 QN:4
concept: Comparison (Monfaredzadeh & Berardi, 2015) Engineering: 3 QL:3
sustainability (Anand et al., 2017) business &
indicators/definition and (Monzon, 2015) management: 1
smart city (Trindade et al., 2017)
indicator/definition- based on (Martin et al., 2018)
literature review (Mora et al., 2017)

Case study evaluation or 4 (Yigitcanlar & Kamruzzaman, 2018) Social science: 1 QN: 2
measurement: based on (Komeily & Srinivasan, 2017) Engineering: 2 QL: 1
sustainable development (Manitiu & Pedrini, 2016) business & Mixed: 1
criteria (Anthopoulos, 2017) management: 1

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Appendix 2: Interview Guides

Private Sector/smart city projects:


Opening section: Introductory and the interviewee’s position and role

Guiding questions:

 What is your role and position in smart city projects in partnership with Malmo Municipality?
 What are your values and benefits in doing smart city projects with Malmo Municipality?
 Are Hyllie or Sege park planned based on a specific agenda or strategies framework from
Malmo Municipality?
 (Is there any model or framework for the smart city for Malmo that make you develop ideas
within and based on that?)
 Where the idea of branding of Hyllie comes from?
 What are your action and considerations in social sustainability in project like Sege park? Is
there any similar approach in this regard (affordable housing) in Hyllie as in sage park?
 What is the main criteria or consideration in choosing a partner? (why Siemens)?

Public sector/environmental department:


Opening section: Introductory and the interviewee’s position and role
Guiding questions:

 What is the Malmo Municipality’ understanding of the concept of Smart city?


 Why Malmo Municipality is developing Smart city projects and what they want to achieve out
of this approach?
 In terms of partnership with private sector, how is the process of planning and making ideas?
What benefits Malmo Municipality gets from this partnership?
 What is the role and position of Malmö Municipality in this partnership model?
 How the private sector can affect the planning in smart city projects?
 What is the main purpose behind climate contract in Hyllie and who is the main influencer in
developing this document?
 How Eu policies and fund affect the Malmo Stad’s policy in smart city projects?

Public sector/urban planning department


Opening section: Introductory and the interviewee’s position and role, the role of department in planning

The interview started by the summary of the history of urban planning in Malmo and in relation to the
sustainability, followed by more details about Hyllie district.
Guiding questions:

 How urban planning department take role or influence smart city project like Hyllie.
 Considering that Hyllie is considered as sustainable planning and future for Malmo, why do
you think Hyllie is a good way of sustainable urban development in Malmo in relation to
smart projects?

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 Based on our findings there is an intention to use Hyllie and Western Harbour to brand
Malmo, what is Malmo municipality’s goal and what values will be brought to the city from
that?

Appendix 3: Extracted quotes from documents

Appendix 3-1
Malmö’s comprehensive plan looks two decades into the future. The overarching aim is that Malmö
will be an attractive and sustainable city socially, environmentally and economically. […] The aim
is to create a robust and long-term sustainable urban structure for an increased population, green
growth and a continued development of Malmö’s attractiveness (Comprehensive plan for Malmo,
2014, p.16).

Cities and regions compete for people and capital. A city’s overall attractiveness is influenced by a
range of factors, including availability of an attractive housing stock and good schools, attractive
public spaces and cultural life, the social cohesion of the city and safety (Comprehensive plan for
Malmo, 2014, p.4).

Appendix 2-1… 3-2


An attractive city is a city that prioritizes environmental issues. Experience will be drawn from
Malmö's visionary initiatives with an environmental or climate focus and continued successful
environmental work will be added to creative developments in order to make Malmö a healthier
milieu for individuals and businesses alike. Malmö's attractiveness and economic and social
development is reliant on a functional housing market which offers a broad selection of good homes.
High quality of childcare is crucial to attract working families. Good schools ensure that as many
young people as possible progress into higher education and future employment (Comprehensive
plan for Malmo, 2014, p.7).

Appendix 3-3
Regional cooperation as the first strategy for comprehensive plan: its importance is seen crucial for
‘Malmö’s future development and attractiveness’

Business and tourism: Malmö’s attractiveness as both a business location and place of residence
should increase.

Functional environments in attractive urban settings will permit more work opportunities per square
foot in both the inner city and designated industrial areas.

Greener city: An attractive and sustainable urban environment needs to be both dense and green.

Traffic and transportation: Malmö's public transport system should become more attractive: faster,
more convenient, comfortable and safe and more easily accessible to different social groups.

Sustainable waste management, energy and construction: Investment in urban ecology


contributes to decreased resource use. Energy efficient housing, resource effective construction and
sustainable buildings combined with attractive architecture create both ecological and economic
values (Comprehensive plan for Malmo, 2014, pp10-14).

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Appendix 3-4
Economic sustainability entails a robust development of the city and its business community, creating
value and supplying the region and the people of Malmö with an income and livelihood. Companies
should have good opportunities to operate and grow and Malmö should be a place which attracts
established businesses. Diversity in the commercial sector is important to secure a strong post-
industrial economy which can supply a range of employment opportunities, ensuring an even spread
of wellbeing. A city with a well-educated population is the basis for a positive development in the
private sector (Comprehensive plan for Malmo, 2014, p. 4).

To be a centre of regional growth where companies can safely invest, it is essential that Malmö can
provide a continuous supply of premises and land for both small start-ups and major international
companies who wish to locate in the city (Comprehensive plan for Malmo, 2014, p. 7).

An attractive region acts as a role model. Succeeding with this will enhance Skåne's global
competitiveness and the region will become an internationally attractive place to live and work (The
Open Skåne 2030, 2014, p.43).

Appendix 4
“Skåne needs to become more well-known in the European and global arenas. This is decisive if
Skåne is to be considered an internationally attractive region and if people and companies are to
want to move here. In this way, we can attract talented individuals, tourists, companies and
investments to Skåne. Skåne shall profile itself as a region with high quality of life and welfare,
with an open and welcoming attitude. We shall market the open Skåne as an attractive,
international melting pot with unique cultural and natural values and develop tourism in Skåne
from an international perspective” (The Open Skåne 2030, 2014, p. 42).

“Malmö has the ambition to be a world leader in sustainable urban development which provides a
range of challenges, for example regarding environmental issues. Achieving a socially balanced
city where everyone can enjoy good conditions for life is a decisive challenge for Malmö. A
prioritised target is therefore to strengthen the economic base for the livelihood of Malmö’s
citizens. ... Malmö, together with Copenhagen, will function as an engine in the Öresund region to
strengthen competitiveness (Comprehensive plan for Malmo, 2014, p. 16)”.

Appendix 4: The brief Description of projects

Bo01, “The City of Tomorrow” in Western Harbour

The development of Bo01 began in 1995 as the result of the comprehensive planning process undertaken by the
Municipality of Malmö, and it was financed by the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning
(BOVERKET) and partly involved European Union fund. Bo01 as a project for the European Millennium Housing
Exposition set high expectations and placed high pressure for all stakeholders involved in order to produce a
successful project. This type of complex urban development was new and challenging to the Municipality that
time, therefore a collaborative process between national agencies, public and private stakeholders was essential
for successfully implementing different concepts in the projects (Western Harbour, 2008; Austin, 2013).

The Bo01 development started in 2001 and it was the first phase of a larger revitalisation project in the
Western Harbour with a focus on creating a mixed-use neighbourhood. The closing of several industrial
areas on the Western Harbour accelerated the process of planning, and freed up large amount of valuable

77
real estate spaces which allowed Malmö to continue its transition from an industrial city to a knowledge-
based and sustainable city with a potential to be a transnational hub as well (Austin, 2013).
The car traffic and parking spaces in the area are minimised as an environmentally friendly approach of
urban planning while walking, bicycling and cars with alternative fuel stations are promoted and
emphasised in the development. These environmentally friendly solutions are combined with public
transport which operates electric and natural gas buses in the area as well as the bus stops provide
information on arrival time and schedule on displays (Austin, 2013).
The initial idea was also to offer some affordable housing in the area which was brought high expectation
to one of the housing associations, HSB in their development. The most emblematic and controversial
building is the Turning Torso in the area which is owned by HSB and constructed by NCC. The criticism
emerged due to increasing construction and rental costs, the latter contradicted with HSB’s values on
providing affordable housing for ordinary citizens. In addition to this, HSB had to sell off a substantial
part of their own assets due to cost increases and time delays. Therefore, the project failed to bring and
implement smart solutions based on welfare and social inclusion which is part of smart living
(Tryggestad et al., 2010).

Climate-Smart Hyllie

Since Hyllie is located in an ideal transportation hub between the centre of Malmö and Copenhagen
through the Öresund bridge, focusing on mobility was obvious, thus the Municipality constructed a
tunnel for trains and placed a train station in the centre of Hyllie in order to create good conditions for
regional public transport (Climate-Smart Hyllie, 2013; Widestam, personal communication, 2018).
Later various smart solutions were established for gas and electric vehicles, carpooling and for bikes.
Due to the location of the development and the built infrastructure for transportation the smart mobility
dimension is also part of the Climate-Smart Hyllie with its special focus on carpooling and shared bikes,
clean and not motorised options, traffic management and multimodality (Climate-Smart Hyllie, 2013).
Furthermore, there is plan that Hyllie will be connected to two low-income surrounding areas, namely
to Holma and Solbacken, thus the goal is to expand Hyllie closer and link physically to the city. Thus,
the final goal is to connect Hyllie to the rest of the city and the new district should not be an island
(Widestam, personal communication, 2018).

Sege Park

In Sege Park a former hospital area in East part of Malmö is going to be developed where innovative
and smart solutions will be implemented to create a resource efficient and climate-friendly
neighbourhood with affordable housing between 2018-2025. Sege Park has a smaller scale than the
previously mentioned urban development due to its neighbourhood level, and it is outside of prioritised
development areas, however the Municipality and E.on claim that it is an important project in the city
because it illustrates a shift to affordability and social aspects. The development shows similarities to
the ‘eco-district’ project in Augustenborg where it also is implemented climate-friendly solutions by
improving blue-green infrastructure in a low-income neighbourhood with existing buildings. The
development in Hyllie is taken as a good example and the attempt is to develop this model in Sege Park
as well in order to potentially become the new model for sustainable urban development. The
development is financed by the European Union and partly by Malmö Innovationsarena (Planprogram
Sege Park, 2015; Sharing for Affordable and Climate Smart Living, 2015; Markanvisningsprogram för
Sege Park, 2016).
Sharing is the foundation of the Sege Park development in many segments of the project from planning
to implementation, the area will be built with the ambition to enable high quality of life with low

78
consumption of resources in reasonable costs through circular economy and sharing economy. Thus,
according to the plan this approach also should contribute to affordability (Planprogram Sege Park,
2015; Sharing for Affordable and Climate Smart Living, 2015; Markanvisningsprogram för Sege Park,
2016).
The concept of sharing appears in the early stages: sharing drawings, know-how (follows ‘the creative
dialogue’ recommendations), place making. After the development the energy, the waste system,
mobility and water solution will be shared among the tenants, and besides these the food production,
sustainable procurement and the community building will be shared as well. Furthermore, a digital
platform is planned where the sharing activities take place within the local community. In addition,
various services will be shared such as laundry and repair services will be related to the concept of
sharing. Therefore, sharing economy mainly is focusing on waste management, energy and
transportation (Planprogram Sege Park, 2015; Sharing for Affordable and Climate Smart Living, 2015;
Markanvisningsprogram för Sege Park, 2016).

Appendix 5: Climate Smart Hyllie

Among the given projects, two projects are mentioned as the most important and prioritised area of
urban development in Malmö which are Hyllie and Västra Hamnen. These are mentioned as the most
important smart projects as well. So in this regard we look at Hyllie in the following to present more
information in detail. Hyllie is introduced as “Future of Malmö” and “the most climate-smart city” in
Öresund region. It is one of three large test beds in Sweden for smart grids and frequently referred as
“the largest expansion area in Malmö” (Climate-Smart Hyllie, 2013). looking at documents from both
public and private sectors about smart city smart Hyllie, some main points can be highlighted.

 This project is introduced as a successful model for sustainable development from Malmö
Municipality perspective and its partners which are involved in planning and implementing that.
“Hyllie to become the Öresund region’s most climate-smart city district and
a global benchmark for sustainable urban development. […] In the City of
Malmö, there are many companies that want to focus on innovative
technology, and to contribute to new approaches to transportation, living
and working. In Hyllie we are working together to test and develop the
concepts that will serve as a role model for Malmö’s continued progress as
a sustainable city (Climate-Smart Hyllie, 2013, p.1)”
“Hyllie, Malmö´s largest development area, will lead the way towards
Malmö becoming a sustainable city” (Malmö Stad, 2016)”
In the Hyllie city district, we are testing the solutions that we later want to
deploy throughout the city. By as early as 2020, the city district will be 100%
sustained by renewable or recycled energy. This is driving developments for
the companies that want to be part of achieving this goal (Climate-Smart
Hyllie, 2013, p.12)”

 It is branded and defined as a global and regional model.


“Hyllie is the Öresund region’s most climate-smart city district and a global
benchmark for sustainable urban development (Climate-Smart Hyllie,
2013)”
“after we spent two days with our colleague Peder Berne, project leader at
E.ON Sverige, we had a very concrete idea about what a smart city of the

79
future could look like – and that it could happen anywhere. Then, the
requirements of the projects were clear right from the beginning – it needs
to be scalable in a way that the blueprints of change can be transferred to
any other district and city (Stenzenberger, 2016)”.
“Hyllie is one of the leading European showcases for sustainability
(Stenzenberger, 2016)”.

 It is branding in a way within which emphases are mainly on inviting people to live and business
to invest and for private sector as a reference to market.
“Its homes, workplaces, hotels, shops and amenities enjoy an exceptional
location at the foot of the Öresund Bridge” (Malmö Stad, 2016).
“The unique location, combined with modern architecture, parks and nearby
countryside, will create an attractive environment for local people,
businesses and visitors. Rich agricultural land, excellent public transport
links and regional integration are the hallmarks of Malmö’s southern entry
point” (Malmö Stad, 2016).
Today, it’s a prime real estate destination, especially for young families. How
do these changes impact the residents in their everyday life? We took a look
for ourselves. From small, efficient one-family houses to the big, efficient
apartment complexes, we examined everything (Climate-Smart Hyllie,
2013)”
“[…] we asked him (project leader at E.ON Sverige) what the secret to
success was for Hyllie. He thought about it for a second, then said that the
most important factors are: Good partnership, a proactive city, trust, open
dialog and the integration of systems […] We took the buzzwords, “trust and
integration “, along with us on our trip back to Copenhagen. On the long
bridge over the Öresund, we saw the mushroom shaped water tower from
Hyllie in the background growing smaller and smaller. At the exact same
moment, we received a text message from our colleague Alex, who had spent
the last couple days in Munich, back in Germany. On the grounds of the so-
called workers ‘quarters there, E.ON helped to build another, smaller smart
city project. He was amazed. All we could do was to shrug our shoulders…
To meet the ambitious climate goals of the German capital, we have to work
with the best (Stenzenberger, 2016)”.
This motif can also be seen from other angles e.g. its connection to Denmark (in some cases to the rest
of the world) which is mentioned frequently as one of the key focus point and advantage of this area,
defining this area as a “world-class sustainable city”, or the great emphasis on its relation to Öresund
region as the best hub.

 It is completely defined by environmental projects.


In the Table 9 the main vision and strategies of smart Hyllie are summarised which shows that Hyllie
portraits an entirely techno-environmental perspective towards smart city. The main actions and projects
within Hyllie target energy consumption, recycling and renewable energy, and waste management.
In some parts, they mention people and mobility as strategies which are supposed to promise some
initiatives regarding the quality of life or socio-cultural issues. However, by looking at the actions
relating to those statement, we see that the focus on people is defined only regarding mandatary waste
management which should be easy to do, environmentally certified office buildings, or providing smart

80
housing in which tenants can control and measure their energy consumption by applications or receive
higher standard of living. And in this case, owner will conserve energy and save money. In this regard,
when they mention “generation sense of community”, it is considered through urban farming. Moreover,
in relation to mobility, the actions are carpooling and station for charging electric cars, station for bikes,
and Hyllie station which are more defined again based on environmental purposes.
Table 9: The main goals and actions in smart Hyllie

Goals Main standpoints Main actions/possibilities

renewable or Quality of life for people living in a manner that is resource-efficient and energy-
recycled energy smart/application for waste management and energy
consumption
Mobility Carpool, bike station, near to Hyllie station, charging
stations for electric cars
Green and nature close to nature. Parks, planting areas
People in focus Mandatory sorting of food Living and working in the Öresund region’s most climate-smart city
waste should be easy to live a climate-smart life, Easy to recycle and sort
The smart home waste, energy consumption through application
Urban farming City of Malmö is promoting urban farming as a successful method
for creating a greater sense of community,
Sustainable travel great access to carpools and it will be easy to refuel with biogas or
charge your electric car.
Easy to recycle and In Hyllie, companies will have the ability to enhance their
sort waste environmental profile by moving into environmentally certified
office buildings.
Tomorrow’s Smart grids Residents of the property will achieve a higher standard of living
energy systems The control of energy while the property owner will conserve energy and save money as
– smart energy Smart buildings with new the supply and demand of energy are optimised.
solutions energy technology
Balance between the
consumption and production
of energy
Smart buildings Small-scale production of Solar cells
– equipped for the renewable energy
future
Low-energy housing focused The objective of the project is to
on residents and users demonstrate mainstream cost effective
techniques and methods for constructing very low energy
buildings in various
European climates.
Note: data extracted form (Climate-Smart Hyllie, 2013).

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