Search

Recent changes in service environments have changed the preconditions of their production and consumption. These changes include unbundling services from production processes, growth of the information-rich economy and society, the search for creativity in service production and consumption and continuing growth of digital technologies. These contextual changes affect city governments because they provide a range of infrastructure and welfare services to citizens. Concepts such as 'smart city', 'intelligent city' and 'knowledge city' build new horizons for cities in undertaking their challenging service functions in an increasingly cost-conscious, competitive and environmentally oriented setting. What is essential in practically all of them is that they paint a picture of cities with smooth information processes, facilitation of creativity and innovativeness, and smart and sustainable solutions promoted through service platforms. This article discusses this topic, starting from the nature of services and the new service economy as the context of smart local public services. On this basis, we build an overall framework for understanding the basic forms and dimensions of smart public services. The focus is on conceptual systematisation of the key dimensions of smart services and the conceptual modelling of smart service platforms through which digital technology is increasingly embedded in social creativity. We provide examples of real-life smart service applications within the European context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the background, nature and application of the concept of ubiquitous city, presenting u-city initiatives of affluent and techno-savvy cities in Asia and the West with special reference to the case of South Korea. The focus is on how ubiquitous technologies have been and can be utilised in developing urban infrastructure, including town planning, street and property maintenance, water supply, public transportation and environmental protection. Such an emerging infrastructure is expected to provide everyone with an opportunity to access urban infrastructure and services with the help of ubiquitous technologies. However, in order to become reality, this requires some kind of democratisation of technology, which is a neglected topic in u-city discourse. It is also important to analyse u-city developments from the point of view of production of space with special reference to the potential colonisation of everyday life. Theoretically speaking, one answer to such compelling questions about the rationale of u-city development can be sought from the idea of the ‘right to the city’, a slogan originally coined by Henri Lefebvre. This approach highlights the importance of involving people to envisioning the future of urban form starting from the perspective of their everyday life. Such a dimension should be given more prominent role in current u-city developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]