Centering context in smart cities research and public policy

Abstract: Cities throughout the world are changing. To respond to these changes, mayors and other urban policy makers are investing heavily in innovations aimed at making their cities “smarter”. This talk will present the argument that making a city smarter rests on the capability of that city to create public value for those who live and work there. Such capability is a function of context. The talk will draw on a forthcoming essay that makes the following point: Researchers and urban policy makers must be incentivised to systematically consider context in smart city investment decision making, particularly when trying to generate public value for citizens. Specifically, academics and researchers must pursue new research that systematically examines the interplay between innovation, context and public value creation in urban environments, and urban policy makers must establish a new focus on context-informed decision making about smart city investments.

Theresa A. Pardo, PhD, serves as Director of the Center for Technology in Government (CTG UAlbany) and Special Assistant to the President at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where she is also a full research professor in Public Administration and Policy, Rockefeller College and an affiliate faculty in Information Science, College of Emergency Response, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity.  Among her numerous advisory and board roles, Dr. Pardo serves as OpenNY Adviser to New York State’s Governor Andrew Cuomo, is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and Chairs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Advisory Committee. Dr. Pardo has over 200 publications and is ranked among the top scholars in her field in terms citations to her published work. In 2018 and 2019 she was named a Top 100 Influencer in Digital Government globally and is the 2019 recipient of the Digital Government Society’s Distinguished Service Award.