Why technology alone keeps disappointing
The mistake is understandable. The phrase smart city still draws attention to the visible parts of digital change: devices, apps, data flows, connectivity, platforms. The technology side. Governance sounds slower, softer, less exciting.
But as our new book Smart City Code argues, smart city projects succeed only when there is mutual adaptation between technology and the existing urban context.
Policies, regulations, organizational structures, institutions, and user practices all need to change together. Where one-size-fits-all thinking and digital universalism dominate, projects become techno-centric, detached from local needs, and more likely to fail.
This is why the real question is no longer whether cities should digitise. They already are. The real question is whether digital transformation can be governed in ways that are inclusive, context-aware, and institutionally robust to ensure public value creation.
That is the difference between technology that serves cities, and technology that simply happens to them.
