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Published: March 2021, in the journal Geography Research Forum

Smart cities are cities of data science.

To initiate inclusive social and climate actions, data provision and integration is necessary, consolidating the many systems and service providers into a principal-agent problem of collective action (Purian et al., 2019). The design of data and services, specifying what information to collect, store or deliver forward, is therefore an ethical design of social relationships, actualizing rules of conduct and shaping norms and responsibilities. The smart reality that spans multi-stakeholder initiatives, through services and platforms that facilitate processes, must be effective from a business perspective. The profit-driven industry must encourage healthier and more sustainable behaviors, in systems and in social practices.

While doing that, the envisioned mechanisms will produce and absorb streams of collective vast big data, anonymized and privacy-protecting. This big data pillar must be specific and selective, and challenged constantly by gatekeepers to address basic questions: do we collect data not for surveillance but for providence. Not to police but to protect. Not anonymously monitoring but attentively listening and taking care?

Today, in the age of technological acceleration and global cities, there is a need for a new perspective that integrates the emerging ecosystems of systems and agents – both socially and environmentally.

The following articles explore these assumptions, delving into the intricate fabric of city building, managing and developing at the opening of a new century.

Special Issue on “Smart, Sustainable and Fair Cities” in GEOGRAPHY RESEARCH FORUM

Published: 2021, March 27. Vol. 40, No 1. https://grf.bgu.ac.il/index.php/GRF/issue/view/44

Table of Contents:

Ronit Purian, Orli Ronen: Between Means and Ends – Sustainable and Smart Cities in Flux: An Editorial Introduction, pp. 1-17 PDF

Jenni Partanen: Smart Urban Futures: Outlining the Smart City Planning Project, pp. 19-34 PDF

Shaily Raju Gandhi: Urban Growth Analyses of Rajkot City Applying Remote-Sensing and Demographic Data, pp. 35-56 PDF

Ronit Purian: A Smart City Anomaly: The Near Becomes Far, The Far Becomes Near, pp. 57-87 PDF

Nektaria Marava, Andreas Alexopoulos, Anastasia Stratigea: Barriers to Empowering and Engaging Youth in Sustainable Urban Development Endeavours – Experience Gained from Korydallos Municipality, Greece, pp. 89-107 PDF

Johanna Lovecchio, Grga Basic, Thaddeus Pawlowski: Urban Heat, Vulnerability, and the Public Realm: Lessons from Tel Aviv-Yafo and Implications for COVID-19 Recovery, pp. 108-136 PDF

Alon Gelbman: Smart Tourism Cities and Sustainability, pp. 137-148 PDF

Avigdor Sharon, Orli Ronen: Municipal Innovation and Sustainability Readiness—Results from a Study of Mediterranean Cities, pp. 149-169 PDF

Theresa Dirndorfer Anderson: Keystone Practices to Enable Smart Cities to Flourish, pp. 171-192 PDF

Rafi Rich: Big, Thick, Small and Short - The Flaws of Current Urban Big Data Trends: A Viewpoint, pp. 193-206 PDF

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