Smart Cities and the Symbiotic Relationship between Smart Governance and Citizen Engagement

This chapter recognizes that cities are at the forefront of innovation and are increasingly competing for scarce resources. It suggests that for smart cities to succeed they must facilitate human connection. This can be achieved through smart governance, circumspect implementation of the tenants of smart cities, along with human‐centered planning and design. The daily experiences of a city's population represent an often‐untapped source of knowledge about how the city could be improved. Tapping into this knowledge base is essential for smart governance. The symbiotic relationship between citizen engagement and smart governance is explored through a case study on Somerville, Massachusetts. Somerville, Massachusetts, exemplifies the possibility of municipal leadership and urban innovation. Citizen engagement insures that hyperlocal insights can be leveraged to inform the system and identify leverage points for community improvements and growth. Smart governance is needed to facilitate this fine‐grained engagement and to maximize the use of smart cities technology.