Rankings for smart city dialogue? Opening up a critical scrutiny
Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management
ISSN: 1096-3367
Article publication date: 27 January 2022
Issue publication date: 1 November 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore whether and how contemporary rankings reflect the dialogic development of smart cities.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on the synthesis of smart city (SC), rankings and dialogic accounting literature. It first analyses ranking documents and related methodologies and measures and then reflects on four SC rankings, taking a critical stand on whether they provide space for the polyphonic development of smart cities.
Findings
This study argues that rankings do not include divergent perspectives and visions of smart cities, trapping cities in a mirage of multiple voices and bringing about a lack of urban stakeholder engagement. In other words, there is a gap between the democratic demands on smart cities and what rankings provide to governments when it comes to dialogue. As such, rankings in their existing traditional and technocratic form do not serve the dynamic and complex nature of the SC agenda. This, in turn, raises the threat that rankings create a particular notion of smartness across urban development with no possibility of questioning it.
Originality/value
The paper responds to recent calls to critically examine the concept of the SC and the role that accounting has played in its development. This study brings new insights regarding the value of dialogic accounting in shaping a contemporary understanding of rankings and their criticalities in the SC agenda.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank three anonymous reviewers, Jarmo Vakkuri, Jan Mouritsen, Erkki Lassila, Eija Vinnari, Kari Lukka, Oana Apostol and Peeter Peda for their insightful comments and support on the previous versions of the paper. The authors also thank the Research Council of Norway for funding, which made this study possible, namely: (1) international research project “SMARTNORTH: Sustainable development and Management by participatory governance practices in the High NORTH” (funded under NORRUS Pluss programme, grant #288250); (2) international project “EduSmart: Education and Knowledge Development for Smart City Governance and Performance Management in the High North” (funded under INTPART programme, grant #309532).
Citation
Aleksandrov, E., Dybtsyna, E., Grossi, G. and Bourmistrov, A. (2022), "Rankings for smart city dialogue? Opening up a critical scrutiny", Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 622-643. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBAFM-03-2021-0059
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited