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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Sustain. Cities
Sec. Innovation and Governance
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frsc.2024.1514040
This article is part of the Research Topic The Dynamics of Sustainable, Inclusive and Equitable Human Settlements View all 5 articles

Social smart city research: interconnections between participatory governance, data privacy, artificial intelligence and ethical sustainable development

Provisionally accepted
Samad Rasoulzadeh Aghdam Samad Rasoulzadeh Aghdam 1,2Behnaz Bababei Morad Behnaz Bababei Morad 3Behnam Ghasemzadeh Behnam Ghasemzadeh 2,4,5*Mazdak Irani Mazdak Irani 5Aapo Huovila Aapo Huovila 6*
  • 1 Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran
  • 2 Institute for Psycho-social Health Research, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran
  • 3 Department of Urban Planning, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran
  • 4 Turbulent Magic Limited, Christchurch, New Zealand
  • 5 School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment, Western Sydney University, NSW, New South Wales, Australia
  • 6 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Espoo, Finland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Social aspects constitute both concerns and opportunities in smart city development, as evidenced by a rapidly increasing body of research. This article presents the first-ever review of all the existing research on social focus in smart cities, delineating the distribution of topics, knowledge bases, and research frontiers that constitute the existing body of knowledge. A bibliometric review was performed to pinpoint publication trends, influential authors, their institutions, and prevalent subject areas within the literature since 2000. Using the Web of Science database, an amalgamation of major indexes (SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, AHCI, ESCI) were applied to consider the research pattern and citation impact in different disciplines. 1,030 selected articles were subjected to bibliometric mapping using VOSviewer. The results show an almost exponential growth in the number of publications from 2015 onwards. Four interconnected thematic clusters cropped up: 1) participatory governance, 2) data privacy and security, 3) artificial intelligence and social media, and 4) ethics in sustainable development. A deeper analysis of key terms used in recent research revealed the following hot topics: 1) governance and citizen participation, 2) artificial intelligence technologies such as machine learning, 3) blockchain, and 4) Internet of Things. Co-authorship and geographical analyses underpin a solid international collaboration for leading institutions. The results underscore the rising significance of social smart city research by emphasizing the interconnectedness of governance, technology, citizen engagement, and ethics for a comprehensive approach to smart city initiatives. Furthermore, they recommend integrating social equity into these frameworks and enhancing geographic studies through greater international collaboration.

    Keywords: bibliometric analysis, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Smart Cities, Social research, VOSviewer

    Received: 19 Oct 2024; Accepted: 17 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Aghdam, Morad, Ghasemzadeh, Irani and Huovila. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Behnam Ghasemzadeh, Institute for Psycho-social Health Research, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran
    Aapo Huovila, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Espoo, Finland

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