Towards a smart city concept in small cities

The smart city concept brings together technology, government and different layers of society, utilizing technological enablers, such as the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). These enablers, in turn, facilitate development of various aspects of the smart city including, e.g., transportation, governance, education, safety and communications. However, the transition towards smarter cities involves not only technological development but also the changing and evolving roles of citizens, service providers and city authorities. In this transition, the key issue is creating and growing roles of collaboration, participation and coordination. Whereas mainstream research focuses on smart city transformation in big cities, aspects of this transformation in the context of small cities has been a widely neglected topic. This paper presents three cases of smart city development in small cities in Finland, each concentrating on a different aspect of smart city development. The cases reveal how a relatively small-sized city may take remarkable steps in smart city development by selecting a specific theme on which to build smart city activities. These examples also emphasize the critical role of public sector actors, showing that the public sector has a key role in creating the foundations for fruitful ecosystem-based development work.