Exploring Citizen Participation in Smart City Development in Mexico City: An institutional logics approach

We explore smart city development, with a focus on the modalities of citizen participation, using an institutional logics approach. Taking Mexico City as our case study, we describe the presence and dynamics of several logics influencing smart city development. At an organizational level we identify...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Organization studies 2023-10, Vol.44 (10), p.1679-1701
Main Authors: Pansera, Mario, Marsh, Alex, Owen, Richard, Flores López, Jesús Arturo, De Alba Ulloa, Jessica Lillian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bureaucracy
Case studies
Centralization
Cities
Citizen participation
Clientelism
Governance
Government agencies
Organization studies
Patronage
Smart cities
Social construction
Technocracy
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Summary:We explore smart city development, with a focus on the modalities of citizen participation, using an institutional logics approach. Taking Mexico City as our case study, we describe the presence and dynamics of several logics influencing smart city development. At an organizational level we identify the bureaucratic and technocratic logics underpinning the practices of the governmental agency leading smart city development. Characterized by centralization and the pursuit of efficiency, and framed by a discourse of austerity and financial control, these logics promote a modality of citizen participation that is limited and unidirectional in nature, with citizens positioned largely as users. At a supra-organizational level, we identify a logic of active citizen participation in urban governance that is formalized in city laws. However, this logic is itself entangled in a logic of clientelism and patronage, manifested through networks of power. These logics work synergistically to limit broader, inclusive citizen participation in, and realization of benefits from, smart city agendas. We conclude that a richer understanding of institutional logics enhances the analysis of the social construction of the smart city in particular, situated contexts.
ISSN:0170-8406
1741-3044
DOI:10.1177/01708406221094194