The Impact of Managing Diversity on Building the Smart City A Comparison of Smart City Strategies: Cases From Europe, America, and Asia

The use of ICT to optimize urban processes, activities, efficiency and effectiveness of services turns cities into smart. Smart cities make it necessary to plan, monitor and analyze the city, except for the routine functions of the city. The study examined what smart city research projects are in five representative smart cities (London, New York, Singapore, Barcelona, and Istanbul) and whether there are similarities or differences in background assumptions. The literature used has a global reach; cities around the world have been chosen for comparison. By evaluating the existing literature, it has been evaluated that smart cities are the most successful and the weakest issues. Despite the centrality of New York and London’s smart city policies; they are fairly superior in economic competition. Public participation in smart city projects is already weak in Singapore and Istanbul. Barcelona has a more participatory policy than other cities, but it needs to develop a smart governance perspective. The study concludes with how the smart city ideology achieves its goals. The study adds value to smart city research by a critical look at the subject. Combining the results of practical smart city initiatives, it concludes the practicality and usefulness of smart city development.


Introduction
Increased urbanization since the beginning of the 21st century has turned urban areas into complex social ecosystems.Sustainable development forces cities to use information and communication technologies intensively to solve social and environmental problems (Bolivar, 2019, p. 3326).The smart city is relatively new in origin, although it can be seen as emerging from the categories of information city, digital city, intelligent city, or at least as an advanced successor.In recent years, the smart city has gained popularity in 2013 and beyond in academic use, surpassing the sustainable city (Jong et al., 2015, p. 36).
Reducing the use of resources, making the best use of transportation systems, developing urban initiatives with continuous information sharing, and improving data management has enabled us to turn to smart cities (Sta, 2017, p. 411).Smart refers to the potential of systems to create more automated routines, process and respond quickly, and be more resilient to future changes.In urban planning, the smart city is often treated as an ideological dimension where being smarter requires strategic directions.An important change associated with the rise of the smart city model is the emergence of new interorganizational alliances through the development of data-driven governance projects (Albino et al., 2015, p. 5;Richthofen et al., 2019, p. 67;Shelton et al., 2015, p. 16).Smart city discourse naturalizes the concept of the city as a collective actor.It generates new areas of responsibility for the city concerning environmental protection, technological improvement, and quality of life.Smart city discourse means that people adapt to the smart city and are willing to live in these cities (Vanolo, 2014, pp. 891-893).Smart cities are shaped by two forces, which are technology incentives and demand-pull.Technological pressure implies that a new product or solution is brought to the market and society is driven by supply.Demand-pull refers to products or solutions that respond to demand and are commercialized by society (Angelidou, 2015, p. 99).
The smart city balances efficiency with equity by focusing on enhancing citizens' ability to innovate through competition and partnership.Strong links are established with uniform markets in the use and provision of urban services, and the goals lie behind government and business mission statements for the smart city (Batty et al., 2012, p. 496).In a smart city, the application of a clear and viable strategy with top-down participatory coordination and interdisciplinary planning is essential (Angelidou, 2017, pp. 4-8).In this respect, the smart city is global, a phenomenon that spreads over the world with common features and interdependencies.It attracts investments, innovations, and innovative companies.It is also a local phenomenon, as each city's unique geographical and regional characteristics, cultural environment, and needs affect the policy-making process (Appio et al., 2019, p. 8).In this article, we identify the policy similarities and differences in smart city building efforts of pioneer countries in different continents through cross-case analysis and content analysis.The main problems of the study are: What are the key dimensions and elements of smart city initiatives?How are smart city initiatives managed in London, New York, Singapore, Barcelona, and Istanbul?.What are the similarities and differences between smart city initiatives?
The case studies discussed in the article have leadership positions according to the world indexes, have versatile managerial strategies, and meet the fundamental criteria for success and diversity management.The first part of the study deals with the smart city theory, and the second part examine cases and deepen the analysis with the existing literature.

Literature Review
Conceptual Backdrop: Smart City Theory.The smart city was first coined in the mid-1800s to describe new efficient and self-governing cities in the American West.Contemporary roots are in the smart growth movement of the 1990s (Yigitcanlar et al., 2018, p. 146).The smart city is said to have first emerged in the mid-1990s after cities introduced new information and communication technology infrastructure (ICTs) and management services (Shamsuzzoha et al., 2021, p. 1).
Smart cities combine traditional urban sustainability with the needs of modern cities.The concept is an attractive policy framework for cities and supports the goal of sustainable urban development globally (Huovila et al., 2019, p. 151).A strand in the literature suggests the smart city as something identifiable and specific.Smart cities are assumed to reflect a consensus and represent the desired urban vision.The second strand sees smart cities as a deeply political project designed to observe, control, and profit from the citizens.The third strand, smart cities are dreams of future cities that drive a contemporary approach to city construction (Kandt & Batty, 2021, p. 2).Foundation of smart cities is the combination of human capital, social capital, and information and communication technology infrastructure.The city is smart when its human and social capital and communications infrastructure support economic growth and a better quality of life (Caragliu et al., 2011, p. 70).Welfare and quality of life, which are the fundamental elements, are shaped by social norms and cultural context (Macke et al., 2018, p. 718).Smartness is the desire of the city and its inhabitants to improve social, environmental, and economic criteria.Sustainability has been a dominant paradigm in urban development since the 1980s.Increased interest in sustainability has played a role in the emergence of smart cities. Neoliberal smart city sets appropriate targets for cities with their urban benchmarking systems aims to attract foreign direct investment, protect city assets for piloting new technologies, foster innovative domestic start-up sectors or digital hubs, and attract mobile creative elites.Smart cities also expand and deepen the neoliberal concept of citizenship (Cardullo & Kitchin, 2019, p. 816).The smartness of a city refers to its ability to attract human capital and mobilize through the use of information and communication technologies in collaborations between various actors (Meijer & Bolı´var, 2016, pp. 399-400).
The smart city is associated with the new concept of urbanism-based smart growth that emerged in the United States in the 1980s, with policy and planning ideas for American immigrants.New urbanism aimed to improve the urban environment and quality of life by encouraging collectivist ideas and limiting urban spread, land consumption, and forms of development based on personal mobility.The most intellectual result of the new urbanism is the idea of smart growth that is more compact, less greedy and consumes less land (Vanolo, 2014, pp. 817-818).In planning, smart cities emphasize the integration of technological networks and the environment.They prioritize the systematic use of technology with simultaneous investments in social and physical capital and the inclusive use of technology for an overall sustainability plan (David & Mcnutt, 2019, pp. 2-5).
The smart city is basically about redefining and restructuring the relationships within and between people, society, government, and the urban environment.Urban matter formations are redefined determining the boundaries of rationality and action by smart materials and modalities (Ho, 2017, p. 3103).The smart city is about improving the urban environment and its inhabitants, as well as increasing the competitiveness and prestige of the cities to attract socio-economic capital investment (Kong & Woods, 2018, p. 680).Partnership with the private sector and other stakeholders and combined purchasing aim to reduce costs, generate new revenues and attract domestic investment (Hilton & Marsh, 2017, p. 4).Cohen (2015) examines smart cities in three stages.The first stage is the technology-oriented Smart City 1.0 model, led by multinational technology companies.In this model, the results of technical solutions or their effects on citizens' lives are in the background.The smart city 2.0 model emerges as city managers focus on technic solutions to improve the quality of life.Model is a decentralized, people-centered approach to overcoming social issues, addressing residents' needs, and promoting collaborative participation.Municipalities move into a mediator role that encourages the creative capacity of various social actors who share a common agenda (Trencher, 2019, pp. 117-120; Table 1).The first generation of smart cities is characterized by companies.They include cities leading on the second-generation technology (Hoe, 2016, p. 324).In the smart city 3.0 models, citizens play active roles in increasing the quality of life.
In the literature, there are two classifications to discuss smart cities: technology and people-oriented approach.In the technology-oriented approach, smart cities focus on the acceptance and use of technology.The people-oriented approach emphasizes that the use of information and communication technologies through communities should ensure their participation.A smart city should promote human-centered development; including collaborative planning and citizen participation by incorporating technology into urban management (Jiang et al., 2022, p. 3).In the best-case scenario, smart city projects are supported by strategic plans that are useful in defining a vision and methodology for the future development of a city.As technology and society are subject to constant and dynamic change, the smart city consistently redefines itself.It uses information and communication technologies to advance the common good and social welfare (Angelidou, 2017, pp. 3-4).Because of the marked institutional impact on the smart city, the theoretical context has been established on presentational and marketing information for the last 20 years, belief that innovative technological instrumentation automatically transforms a city into a smart city has prevented clearness (Angelidou, 2014, p. 3;Sepasgozar et al., 2019, p. 106), but smart cities represent a comprehensive model of urban development based on the use of collective and technological capital to increase development and welfare (Angelidou, 2014, p. 3).Meijer and Bolı´var (2016, p. 397) refer three different definitions in the literature on smart cities: Smart cities as cities using smart technologies (technological focus) emphasize the possibilities offered by new technologies to strengthen the urban system.Cities with smart people, smart cities (human resource-oriented) take human capital into account.Smart collaborative cities (governance driven) emphasize different stakeholder interactions.Grossi et al. (2020, pp. 637-639) state that the urban governance literature on smart cities includes three sets of articles.They are critical articles criticizing smart cities from a neo-Marxist perspective, normative articles highlighting the potential of smart cities, and studies analyzing technology-mediated models of urban governance.In this context, technocratic, critical, and emergent approaches have emerged.The technocratic approach emphasizes that technologies provide a better lens for the city, but the critical perspective states that this results in myopia.Emergent approaches emphasize that technological measurement is not objective, arises from stakeholder interactions, and can have different forms and functions.
Smart City Features and Elements.In smart cities, innovation has a geographic location, and knowledge has a geographic stickiness.Smart includes fostering a competitive economy.Cities include various components into the innovation process by promoting citizen-centered governance.Cities are flexible in exploring different business and governance models and adjusting to their profits.Small and medium-sized cities compete for resources against large and more equipped cities, forcing cities to harmonize their smart city strategies with a complex web of policy agendas (Angelidou, 2014, p. 4).Characteristics of the smart city are (Angelidou, 2017, pp. 4-6):  Kong and Woods (2018, pp. 693-697) emphasize the heuristic of the fourth space, built on broad and pervasive civic responsibility, created jointly by government, citizens, and the private sector in the smart city vision.The material manifestations of everyday life are the first space.The symbolic, ideological and epistemological representation of the first space is the second space.Subjective geographical imagination and postmodern interpretation of ideas about space constitute the third space.The fourth space is built on a sense of openness, reframing it as the intersection of the digital, true, and imaginary worlds.The fourth space has digital space, data, and power, participatory governance.It represents civic horizons.It defines the roles of citizens as active stakeholders in the urban.Cohen's smart cities wheel (2015) consists of six items globally accepted in the literature on transformation into smart cities.They are smart economy, smart environment, smart life, smart people, smart governance, and smart transportation (Giffinger et al., 2007, pp. 10-11;Vanolo, 2014, p. 887; Table 2).
Developing talents in human resources, innovative and entrepreneurial attitudes, and production of advanced goods and services at competitive prices based on efficiency and sustainability are essential for a smart economy (Bowa et al., 2015, pp. 608-610; T. M. V. Kumar & Dahiya, 2017, p. 13).Smart environment includes smart resource management achieving the goals of sustainable development, ecological and biodiversity related to the natural environment in the city.The efficiency of energy, city planning, smart buildings, and environmental protections are smart environmental projects (Giffinger et al., 2007;Monzon, 2015, p. 26).Smart life aims to connect individuals and their environment through the internet and social platforms by offering better education, health services, and different cultural activities.Smart people describe the quality of social interactions of intelligent human citizens regarding openness to the outside world, their social lives, and integration (Giffinger et al., 2007).It highlights the importance of governments encouraging people to create apps and use data.Governments will act as data facilitators (Calzada, 2018, p. 5).Smart governance is related to participation in decision-making processes, transparency of governance systems, availability of public services, and quality of political strategies (Vanolo, 2014, p. 887).Smart governance becomes accessible to ICT-based applications (Table 1).The partnership between management levels and communities is assured.After the analysis of the situation, a strategic plan is created (Bolivar & Meijer, 2015, pp. 8-9).Smart governance is not just a technical issue.It breaks old bureaucratic patterns through a networked participatory process involving communities and civil society (Ben Yahia et al., 2021, p. 2).Smart city governance is core collaborative and hybrid.Smart city initiatives can use public-private partnerships to meet the needs of various actors formally and informally for an effective model (Sancino & Hudson, 2020, p. 716).It is suitable for the perspective of public administration, which emphasizes that the solution to social problems is a managerial issue rather than developing good policies (Gil et al., 2020, pp. 33-34).David and Mcnutt (2019, pp. 6-8) argue that smart governance requires three types of skills.Technology skills refer to technology, planning, and management to prevent problems encountered.Community skills include different stakeholder groups and advocacy, coalitions, mobilizations, negotiations, and marketing.Data skills emphasize open data and collaborative data analytics.
Smart transportation is about saving time in travel, increasing transportation efficiency, saving time, reducing carbon emissions, and providing instant notification to citizens and network managers (Manville et al., 2014, p. 28).Smart transportation increases the operational efficiency of the city, optimizing the time, cost, reliability, and transportation safety (Silva et al., 2018, pp. 704-706).In smart transportation, new information that integrates usercentered mobility and non-mobility resources, smart infrastructure that generates operational information from users, electrification of the vehicle fleet, and automatic vehicles that do not require any passenger to play an important role (Docherty et al. 2018).Challenges associated with the development of smart cities fall into three categories.Technic challenges include issues such as data theft and cybercrime cases.Socio-economic challenges are about users accepting and using changes and the digital divide.Environmental challenges include global warming, sudden changes in weather conditions, and electronic waste (Ahad et al., 2020, p. 5).Although the smart city is driven by market-based urban solutions and deconstructed in many respects after saturating the political agenda, the experimental city concept is argued.In the experimental city, smart citizens are considered decision-makers.Data sovereignty replaces extractable big data.Cities are evaluated as open platforms.Firms with personal data are sensitive to public controls.Stakeholder dependencies are based on social innovation.Public-private partnerships have resulted from experimental models through urban business models and partnership platforms.Urban problems are solved through scalability and repetition.Sensor networks are responsive to citizens.The system is based on active laboratory experiments.Out of a linear and normative system, the logic of causality based on complex adaptive a system is adopted (Calzada, 2018, p. 3, Table 3).

Case Selection
In the global ideas and practices surrounding smart cities, smart cities are examined not only local but also concerning global discourses (Joo, 2023, p. 2).We adopted the multiple case study research which is widely adopted in management research.''A case study is an empirical study that explores a current phenomenon in a real-life context when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not evident (Yin, 2009).''Our research methodology consists of three phases: case selection, data collection from different sources, including policy documents, websites, academic literature, and data analysis using a comparative research approach (Table 4).
Our main criteria are to sample international cities that can be considered champions for smart cities. Cities that focus on finding solutions to city problems and using new technology, including various factors from the public, private sector, and local citizens, were selected as samples.Theoretical proposition shaped the data collection plan.Case studies have been designed by focusing on the most significant aspects of the case study to provide a high-quality analysis using all available evidence (Yin, 2009).Designed case studies were reviewed, followed by a cross-case analysis examining similarities, differences, and critical themes between cases.Smart city rankings are a valuable tool for measuring the degree of urban development for cities with a set of indicators related to various dimensions.Rankings may present some limitations.Smart city ranking should measure the quality and smartness of the services provided and the amount of technological infrastructure (Escolar et al., 2019, pp. 42-46).International indexes of ARCADIS (2018), The Mori Memorial Foundation, GPCI (2021), and IMD (2021) have been followed as a basis for the selection of the five cities examined in the study (    (Angelidou, 2016, pp. 23-26).
The Mayor of London appointed a digital transformation director to The Post of Chief Digital Officer for London, which he founded in 2017.The digital director advises on strategy and budgeting related to digital transformation, finds and shares best practices, and represents London's digital transformation goals nationally and globally (Hanna, 2016, pp. 5-6) (Hanna, 2016, p. 4).Talk London: It hosts discussions and polls with online focus talks.It includes surveys based on participant opinions on topics like housing, transportation, safety, culture, and environment.Wayfindr: With the application, visually impaired participants are directed from the station entrance to the subway with voice instructions sent from the smartphone application.Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (The Smart Park): It helps to follow the news and events about the park with its super-fast broadband infrastructure.
Here's the East Project: The project is about a digital neighborhood to be developed in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, using the buildings of the former press and broadcast centers of the 2012 Olympics.The Campus will be formed to develop the technology sector by combining business, technology, media, and education data to establish a local innovation system.Camden Council-Residents Index: It collects information from citizens in counties and municipalities in a single database.Perceiving London: Living laboratories measuring air quality and individual activities are established with detection sensors on physical parameters.Meta Sensor: It informs bus passengers about commercial centers and stops in cities. Idle Tower Bridge: It prevents vehicles from putting themselves on hold with signs located on the side of the road.Data Science Institute: It aims to provide scientific research and big data support to the government in technological systems.Hyde Park Detection: The project aims to prevent air pollution, and preserve high biodiversity for public benefit in social areas.Urban Innovation Center: It enables city leaders, academics, and businessmen to come together and create an urban projection for the future.Oyster Card: Oyster Card Data is used to pay for 85% of journeys on the London Underground.On a typical weekday, about 5 million passengers travel on the subway.London has 11 underground and 270 stations, but Transport for London does not use and archive Oyster Card data for any management or policy functions (Kandt & Batty, 2021, pp. 3-7).London has one of the most advanced transportation systems with low carbon emissions and energy efficiency, in the world.A license plate recognition feature has been introduced, which reduces vehicle congestion during peak hours.Also metro has applications such as Wi-Fi connection, smart road management, and bike rental Smart London Plan proposes to use waste as a resource, promoting new market opportunities for efficient waste management.The citizens are encouraged to evaluate services and provide feedback on their experiences (Silva et al., 2018, p. 707).

New York
New York is the most populous city in the USA due to its long history of international immigration, high regional consistency of groups of a different races, gender, age, and income level (Du et al., 2021, p. 122).New York is administrated with a capitalist approach, with a market-oriented and tertiary services-based business sector.Immigration, which is not subject to strict control, is on the rise in the city.Smart city policy is affected by social class segregation, middle-class rebellion, and decentralization (Kubina et al., 2021, p. 7).Strategy has been developed with the participation of city residents, employees, and technology experts to become the most digital city in the world (Angelidou, 2014, p. 7).In New York, the smart city project was guided by the mayoral office of technology and innovation, whose task is to coordinate work with departments responsible for administrative services, transportation and small business services (Hu & Zheng, 2020, p. 14) (Anthopoulos, 2017, p. 141).
In 2016, New York Economic Development Corporation launched Urban Tech NYC, which provides 100,000 feet of affordable prototyping equipment to entrepreneurs and innovators in industries like energy and waste (NYC Office of the Mayor, 2018).LinkNYC, a communication network, you can make free phone calls to any location in the USA with the Vonage app for fast, free, public Wi-Fi, device charging, and access.The citizens with disabilities use the application (Link NYC, www.link.nyc/).New York's smart city policy has a broad perspective covering areas such as education, housing, democracy, human rights, infrastructure, economy, health, and environment.Vibrant democracy, an inclusive economy, thriving neighborhoods, equality and excellence in education, a livable climate, and modern infrastructure are key goals (OneNYC2050, 2019.Smart city projects in New York include (Smartcity, 2017): Midtown in Motion Project: It improves traffic flow on congested streets with a traffic management system that monitors and responds to traffic conditions.City Bike Project: A public bike-sharing system serving the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens (New York's boroughs), as well as New Jersey and Hoboken.NYC Connected Communities: It comprehensively covers more than 300 public housing projects across New York.Coming together and socializing will improve social relations in neighborhoods with safe areas.
Quantified Communities: It is based on Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate project in the USA, answering questions about urban life from 65,000 people passing through office towers, residences, shops, restaurants, hotels, and public schools and public spaces.City 24/7: An interactive platform that integrates information from government, local businesses, and citizens, launched in partnership with Cisco IBSG and the City of New York.HubCab: An interactive visualization that explores how and when taxis pick up and drop customers, and identifies areas of intense activity.CityNoise: A team of scientists from New York University and Ohio State University aims to measure noise pollution by placing 36 sensors in buildings.
As can be seen, New York carries out projects focused on providing the city's digital connection, entrepreneurship, and increasing human quality.New York coordinates between offices, agencies, private and non-profit partners, associates, and New Yorkers to implement initiatives in the strategic plan.Local services differences are taken into account, and planning considers all the service effects.For example; apart from the economic effects, political, social and psychological structures are considered in the services to be provided related to the smart economy.Renewable energy sources and a smart city grid offer an alternative to climate change and power cuts (OneNYC2050, 2019, pp.11-50).Angelidou (2014, p. 9) states that the New York experience is characteristic.Many digital assets are operating on different platforms that are not unknown to the public or have not been updated recently.Municipal government and the lowest-level authorities, levels of government traditionally have limited autonomy and resources.These hinder the holistic success of smart city projects.

Singapore
Singapore's expertise in land planning, infrastructure management, and natural resource conservation has given this city-state leadership in the urban solutions market through pilot agencies and government-linked companies.Singapore announced its smart nation vision in 2014.Smart Nation Initiative has to produce human-oriented and innovative solutions with the government, private sector, and citizens (Hoe, 2016, p. 327;Miao & Phelps, 2019, p. 331).In Singapore, data about the city and the citizen is hidden in data centers with fiber cables.Singapore is an organized city with electronic city roads, 98% of electronic services are online.It has more than 385 e-services and ecitizen portals in 60 ministries (Ching & Ferreira, 2015, p. 155).The country prepared its National Computerization Plan in 1981.The government set up the National Computer Board in the same year, aiming to lead Singapore to excel in the information age.In 1986, the National Information Technology Plan was announced.In 1992, Singapore ONE based on broadband infrastructure was launched with Intelligent Island (IT2000), which aims to develop Singapore as a global hub.Singapore One (A network for all) is jointly operated by the National Computer Board, the National Science and Technology Board, The Singapore Telecommunications Agency, the Economic Development Board, and the Singapore Broadcasting Agency.In 2006, the emphasis was on innovation, integration, and internationalization with Intelligent Nation 2015.Even before the smart nation initiative started in 2014, Singapore made progress in developing smart public transport, road systems, egovernment, etc. Technically, it was already a smart city.In the 2014 Smart Nation Initiative, emphasis was directed on innovative solutions targeting society in general.The national-level program office, led by a cabinet minister, was set up for coordination; the smart nation platform extended existing networks with ultra-high-speed optical fibers (Hoe, 2016, p. 227).The country is currently home to many living labs where global companies, foreign high-tech start-ups, various public institutions, and local initiatives collaborate.Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority has a leading role in hard and soft infrastructure development.It includes standardizing the use of IoT and developing the Smart Nation platform.Smart Nation platform aims to be a new advanced connectivity network that provides heterogeneous networks, pervasive connectivity, a nationwide IoT sensor, and data analysis capability (Shamsuzzoha et al., 2021, p. 9).In 2018, Singapore pioneered the creation of the ASEAN smart cities network (Joo, 2023, pp. 6-10;Mahizhnan, 1999, pp. 14-18).Smart Nation and Digital Government Group (SNDGG) as an online innovation platform in AI Singapore were established by the National Research Foundation, a government-wide partnership of integrated health information systems.The platform enabled citizens to use neighborhood forums, blogs, and websites, facilitating the development of an intelligent elder alert system (Jiang et al., 2022, pp. 10-11).It shows that Singapore considers its perception and management of cultural diversity as a transformation process with a systems approach (S ˇulyova´& Voda´k, 2020, p. 7).Singapore's Smart Nation Program strives to explore and integrate big data analytics into smart city environments by combining existing technology infrastructure to connect entire communities' online (Silva et al., 2018, pp. 709-710) (Das & Zhang, 2021, p. 411).
Singapore also has an integrated functional payment system and smart transport network based on parking routing, mixed land use, bus lane enforcement, accurate detection, fast processing, use of green vehicles, and integrated rail and bus services (Haque et al., 2013).Green areas and urban structures have been built by considering the balance.The project that offers the opportunity to be intertwined with nature by using 54 different types of green plants among concrete buildings has been completed around the 191-meter-long Oasi Hotel.Energy consumption has decreased by 20% with applications such as solar energy, water recycling, low-power lighting access in buildings and parking lots, and energy management system in homes (Bhati et al., 2017, p. 232).Despite the variety of smart practices, citizen participation is weak.Deficiency or unwillingness to participate can lead to new forms of marginalization and exclusion, resulting in behaviors such as avoidance of smart technologies (Joo, 2023, p. 10;Kong & Woods, 2018, p. 691).Different discourses in Smart Nation, which covers political, social, and economic fields, may reveal tensions and possible contradictions (G.K. S. Tan, 2022, p. 13).

Barcelona
The smart city movement in Barcelona started with energy-oriented policies and spread to all sectors.It is thought that the smart city will contribute to creating a sustainable city, ensuring citizen participation and mobility.In the city, this is described as transverse growth (Department for Business Innovation & Skills, 2013, p. 35).Barcelona managed to strengthen the infrastructure of the city by using information and communication technologies very well and establishing the Smart City Management Office (Yaqoob et al., 2017, p. 7).The Barcelona City Council, which directs smart city projects.City Council houses the Barcelona Municipality Information Technology Institute.The city has established the Smart City Management Office within the institute, which coordinates all projects classified with the smart city label.ICT Barcelona International City Habitat Office manages smart city projects coordinately (Gasco´, 2016(Gasco´, , p. 2986)).The smart city vision defines city priorities, the city slogan, improving the economy, encouraging long-term investments, and increasing public spaces (Barcelona Smart City, 2014).Barcelona's mission is based on the idea is a people's city.The private sector, citizen participation, and the development of an innovation ecosystem are the main concerns.For this purpose, the Smart Education Program has been launched in primary and secondary schools to introduce the concepts of ICT-driven urban innovation and smartness to children through practical activities and workshops (Mora et al., 2019, p. 81).Partnership is important to the smart city initiative and is facilitated between stakeholders (businesses, academic institutions, government officials, residents).Digital spaces and web 2.0 tools enable interaction with stakeholders.Small-size integrated projects for smart cities and urban development create urban-scale innovation eco-systems.A smart city profile is shaped by features, priorities, city needs, global market forces and current technology (Angelidou, 2014, p. 9).International incentives, partnerships, and local projects have an important place in the strategy (Angelidou, 2017, p. 9).Smart city strategy focused on technological capacity in 2011, and in 2016 Barcelona Ciutat Digital: A Roadmap to Technological Sovereignty shaped new smart citizen policy.Some smart city projects in Barcelona include: 22@Barcelona: It aims to make Barcelona smart in 22 areas.In the project, renovated buildings were built to create information-sharing centers, laboratories, green structures, and subsidized housing.Many smart initiatives, such as smart parking and bin sensors, were designed in the Barcelona City Lab, which is part of the 22@Barcelona initiative.The project contributed 85 million Euros to GNP in 2014.168000 people benefited from the project.1,5 million municipal data was downloaded, and 83% mobile and 35% Wi-Fi connections were achieved (Batalla & Fumaz, 2015, pp. 16-17;Gasco´, 2016Gasco´, , p. 2985;;Satyam & Calzada, 2017).Fablab: Fablab is an excellent case of publicprivate partnership.Fablab offers 3D printers, laser cutters, and computer-aided design software to the service of researchers and entrepreneurs, providing prototype and digital machine production (Capdevila & Zarlenga, 2015, p. 7).Data Commons and Decode: Data Commons has ensured that 70% of new software development investments based on ethical data ownership and technological sovereignty are made in free and open-source software in municipalities.SMEs are included in the public procurement process, creating an efficient cycle in which any SME, cooperative or self-employed citizen can work on equal terms.In 2018, the city council opened the city data analytics office.The office has a chief data officer and 40 staff from different departments.The Decode project is EU funded to develop a blockchain-based architecture for data sovereignty.Project made possible the full controllable of any citizen's data in a public setting (Calzada, 2018, pp. 11-13;Calzada, 2021, p. 195).

DECIDIM, METADECIDIM, and Urban Commons:
Decidim is an open community-led and designed initiative, mostly city-funded, providing the digital infrastructure for participatory democracy.It is a product of Barcelona's social smart city policy based on the role of citizens (Cardullo & Kitchin, 2019, p. 826).Decidim ensured the active participation of40,000 citizens, started 12 participatory processes, analyzed11,873 proposals, and approved 70% of the proposals as public policy.Metadecidim Barcelona was launched in November 2017 as a techno-political research community to monitor Decidim Barcelona and oversee its work.Digital social innovation was funded by the EU and set up as the Barcelona Maker District at Fablabs in the Poblenou district.Urban Common was launched in 2018 has taken initiatives in digital connectivity, energy, and financial services, identifying economic activities that affect citizens and communities.Barcelona signed the digital rights statement in 2018, along with Amsterdam and New York, to lead a global movement for activism in technological dominance.The selective disclosure of information by protecting the anonymity of the citizens has an important place in the projects (Calzada, 2021, pp. 196-206).
With its smart city model, Barcelona has improved public services, access to information, infrastructure, and highly creative business opportunities (Silva et al., 2018, p. 708).Ethic digital policy toolkit created with data infrastructures, experimental and strategic initiatives such as Decode, Decidim, and Metadecidim have made a solid digital policy operationally.Despite institutional resources, co-creation, and internationalist municipalism, the main challenge for Barcelona is to lead the European digital policy space, the data infrastructure and institutions coordinately.Bureaucratic resistance, financial limits, and the difficulties of building a new political and cultural hegemony are other problems (Blanco et al., 2020, pp. 30-35;Calzada, 2021, p. 161;Calzada & Almirall, 2020, p. 140).

Istanbul
Accelerating Operation Center are collected and processed.An adaptive traffic management system instantly measures the traffic density, enabling the development of a new signaling model and controlling the traffic.iTaxi project provides taxi fees that can be paid with an Istanbul public transport card (Istanbulkart) or credit card.Security has been maximized with the in-car camera and panic button that record with the system applied in4,000 taxis (Barac xlı, 2017, p. 48).Smart parking system, the instant occupancy information of the car parks throughout the city, updated 24/7, is presented to the drivers with LED screens placed on the main roads (Transportation Management Center, 2017, Akıllı Park Sistemleri (Smart Parking Systems)).
Environmental Control Center: It carries out the following, management, and inspection of the vehicles that transport waste with the devices and sensors in the vehicles (ISTAC x, C xevre Kontrol Merkezi (Environmental Control Center), 2019).White Desk: ALO 153 Call Center, called the white desk, was established in 1994 to receive the requests, opinions, and demands of the citizens, but the active usage level of the citizens is low (Yıldırım & Yıldırım, 2018, p. 73) Bingo¨l (2021Bingo¨l ( , p. 1269)), classifies smart city, projects in Istanbul as efficiency and citizen-oriented projects, states that 14 of 37 smart city projects are citizenoriented.Most projects are sustainable environment and transportation.There is no project in which citizens are stakeholders.Citizen participation is at a symbolic level._ Istanbul has often a top-down centralized approach to participation.The number of projects in which nongovernmental organizations participated as stakeholders are nine (Bingo¨l, 2021(Bingo¨l, , pp. 1269(Bingo¨l, -1270)).

Data Analysis: Findings of Multiply Case Comparative Analysis
Cities that rank high in smart city indexes such as New York and London are assertively positioned as global smart society center (Joss et al., 2019, p. 22).High-tech public communication systems (Link NYC) and a typical IoT system based on wireless sensors demonstrate the adequacy of ICT infrastructure in New York and Barcelona (H.Kumar et al., 2020, p. 7).New York has tried increasing local resources, Barcelona aims to respond local communities, and Singapore has focused on the economic sector.London focuses on strategies to use the creative power of new technologies; Istanbul's vision is based on increasing the quality of life.New York is weak in social cohesion despite its power over human capital, governance, and technology.London is strong in human capital, economy, and international reach in London, but the social cohesion index is low like New York (Silva et al., 2018, p. 707).Barcelona's smart city experience formed smart citizenship that emphasizes urban rights (Cardullo & Kitchin, 2019, p. 826).London is more oriented toward intercity competition than the competitive locality of its national innovation policy.ARCADIS (2018, pp. 23-25) Sustainable Cities Index sees London, Singapore, Barcelona, and New York in the balanced innovators' cluster.Cities feature a sustainable high quality of life, connected city, automation, and ease of perception.Istanbul is an evolutionary city focused on informal entrepreneurship, trying to shape its service delivery according to the market logic.In the IMD index (IMD, 2021, pp. 22-114), citizens demand priority given to affordable housing, unemployment, and health services in all examined cities.Air pollution, high housing rents, and traffic jams are common problems.Singapore has successful projects in e-government, e-payment, talent development programs, and national trade platform to achieve the goal of a better life with information communication technologies and data support.Istanbul is a city-focused mostly on infrastructure investments following best practices.As can be seen in Table 6, Singapore, as a young, small and populous city-state, is a unique example of how the smart city can be integrated into the national strategy.With the largest population, oldest infrastructure, and most interesting geopolitical location, London and Istanbul represent the category of old and large cities.In Singapore, London and Istanbul, the smart city vision is tightly controlled from the top down.Most smart city projects are designed by the mayor's office (Shamsuzzoha et al., 2021, pp. 9-10).The strategic development of Singapore, London, New York, and Istanbul is top-down.Top-down smart cities have a long-term vision and strategic framework.Bottom-up smart cities have a deregulated process, self-organization, and a grassroots movement based on civil society (Mora et al., 2019, p. 72).International cooperation development activities are more intense in New York and Barcelona.London and Istanbul are more passive in this regard.Singapore, London, and Barcelona draw attention with their multi-actor cooperation networks and successful initiatives in the smart data approach.

Discussion
Studying Amsterdam, Barcelona, Helsinki, and Vienna, Mora et al. (2019, pp. 74-77) states that these cities adopt a holistic vision with open and inclusive cooperation solving urban problems and spreading technological developments.Barcelona is in the first place with 407 collaborations, and Vienna is in the last place with 255 collaborations.Amsterdam and Helsinki have 350 collaborative projects in Amsterdam and Helsinki.Public-private partnership is the main engine of activity programs.Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and citizens have not been sufficiently included in collaborative ecosystems.
Comparing Helsinki, Singapore, and London Shamsuzzoha et al. (2021, p. 10) state that all three cities include their citizens and companies in smart city innovation.Innovation is driven by open data, and IoT sensor networks are used.IoT is used in London for environmental trials in parks, while Helsinki and Singapore use IoT sensors for the energy efficiency of smart buildings and the cleanliness and safety of neighborhoods.Singapore and Helsinki have more experimentation with smart home projects; London faces more problems with old infrastructure in new housing construction.Cugurullo (2018, pp. 83-86), who examined Hong Kong and Masdar City, states that urban experiments take place at different scales and are tested under controlled conditions without being integrated into the city, and calls this situation Frankenstein urbanism.
Ang- Tan and Ang (2022, pp. 4-7) states that in their study comparing Hong Kong and Singapore, both cities use public-private partnerships to provide public services.Compared to Hong Kong, Singapore was found to be successful in promoting innovation, operations-oriented innovation, encouraging citizen contribution and feedback, and R&D budget.Comparing Singapore and Seoul, Joo (2023, pp. 13-14) found that both cities harmonize their global reach and economic development goals with the logic of local aid and facilitate local SMEs to find export markets.The main differences are that Seoul has activated local living laboratories instead of global living laboratories and has better citizen participation.Analyzing Singapore and Helsinki through 175 questionnaires completed using snowball sampling, Jiang et al. (2022, pp. 8-13) state that in Singapore, the central government is at the center of efforts to develop and pilot informational platforms, but city-wide collaborations with businesses, relevant citizens and knowledge institutes are forming.
In smart urban governance, both cities achieved positive results, although they needed improvements.Sancino and Hudson (2020, p. 713) rank the six cities they surveyed for leadership in professional/public services.Amsterdam, Bristol, Curitiba, and Milton Keynes have strong leadership in the political/democratic field.In Chicago, leadership emerged in the political/democratic sphere, while in Melbourne; leadership in the political/democratic sphere guided the development of the smart city.Cowley et al. (2018, pp. 55-72) stated in their research in six UK cities (Bristol, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Peterborough) that smart city activities do not always suggest a specific concept of publicity.They noted that the development of the smart city needs a broader social and economic agenda as it generates unique local forms.In London, the GLA's role as a driving and advisory actor appeared to result in poor service utilization.Examing 27 cities in their study, Joss et al. (2019, pp. 24-25) conclude that the smart city presents a governance-centered multi-faceted picture and that global policies and practices should be harmonized to local relevance and resonance.Proposing a smart city transformation framework in India by identifying 19 unique service categories with a crowdsourcing approach, H. Kumar et al. (2020, p. 10) argued that proper planning of infrastructure and integration would improve service delivery and efficiency.Belanche et al. (2016, p. 80) stated in their research that information-based services in smart cities will need a high volume of users to achieve a network effect between urban infrastructures.Therefore, digital urban services should be promoted through behavior-oriented actions that facilitate access to urban services.Similarly, De Guimara˜es et al. (2020, pp. 10-11) stated that smart governance should improve the results of public resources through the relationship between private and nongovernmental organizations, and accountability in smart cities positively affects the quality of life of citizens through transparency, cooperation, participation, and partnership.The importance of information sharing has emerged with the use of ICT in Natal.Gil et al. (2020, pp. 33-34) analyzed 73 European cities based on CIMI values developed by IESE Business Scholl.They correlated smart city levels with geographic location and gender of governors.Cities ruled by women in the western region performed better in the smart city rankings.Evaluating the motivations for being smart in four cities (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Turin, Vienna), Nesti (2020, pp. 27-31) stated that urban life laboratories have an integral part of smart city strategies, and all local stakeholders play a role in the smart city strategy.Participating stakeholders in governance processes, seeking more flexible ways to manage cooperation with partnerships, and integrating different political and administrative components are discussed in the smart city policies.Analyzing the relationship between the importance of local economic development and the application of smart city technologies using logistic regression, Abutabenjeh et al. (2022, pp. 3-10) found that smart city technologies are important in local economic development where they are of low priority for local governments.Rijshouwer et al. (2022, pp. 1-11) found that citizens in Rotterdam do not experience the smart city as a social and actionable problem in their survey of 91 people.The smart city symbolizes political neutrality as a technological structure.

Conclusion
Institutions that play a role in designing smart city policy are an important component of smart cities. Smart city strategies should include measures like raising citizen awareness, developing digital skills, and accessing digital resources.Cities should be restructured according to the principles of sustainable urban development with affordable and effective technologies that include all.Cities follow a balanced policy between communities, technology, and policies (Yigitcanlar et al., 2019, pp. 8-9).
National/local governments, private companies, or all of them provide leadership and coordination in smart cities, and long-term goals should be balanced with shortterm interests (Angelidou, 2017, pp. 14-16).Bottom-up development process, partnerships related to ICT, and the cooperation environment have to be coordinated with forums, conferences, workshops, and training courses (Mora et al., 2019, p. 81).The first recommendation for smart cities examined in the study is to explain what economic growth means with alternative concepts and to promote social equality.Good data infrastructure and data transparency will encourage more public participation in the smart city (Loo & Tang, 2019, p. 139).The development of IoT in future smart cities such as Singapore, New York, Barcelona, London, and Istanbul will enable the management of infrastructure decisions, improve the service level of end-users, inter-industry collaboration, and cope with climate change-related problems (Rana et al., 2019, p. 517).Current smart city models tend to view citizens as barriers to the practice of smart technology.It causes the smart city to be limited to functions such as accessing, using, and consuming new technologies to a certain extent (Hollands, 2015, pp. 72-73).It is important to meet basic infrastructure needs, diversify financing resources, and create an eco-system that develops human capital and supports public-private partners by creating a regulatory policy for smart city governance (S.Tan & Taeihagh, 2020, pp. 17-19).Thus, the smart city paradigm will reveal that it is not just a technological utopia, with the concrete results of the public values it produces.The main limitation of the study is to examine specific samples.Future research should analyze network-type collaborative governance models in smart cities on a larger scale for developed and developing countries.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Table 1 .
The First and Second-Generation Smart City Paradigms.

Table 2 .
Items of the Smart City.

Table 3 .
Comparison of Smart City and Experimental City.

Table 3
Smart City Index assesses citizens' perceptions of services and technology applications in cities.It determines the final score according to the data of the last 3 years(2019,  2020, 2021)by surveying 120 people.Singapore ranks first on the rating scale (category A).New York 12th, London 22nd, Barcelona 58th (category B).Istanbul is in 94th place in the C category (IMD, 2021, p. 7) (Table5).mism,and is encouraged by the overlapping interests of academia, government, and industry.Multi-scale and multi-sectoral experiments started through innovation and research.Major R&D efforts focused on urban lab trials(Buck & While, 2017, p. 503).Smart London

Table 5 .
Ranking Smart Cities According to World Indices.

Table 4 .
Case Study Data Sources.Shamsuzzoha et al., 2021, p. 10).Smart London Board supports and guides the mayor.It determines made applications by comparing London with other world cities.It represents London abroad within smart cities. Technology has a central role in the smart city strategy.Bottom-up approach, social and human capital is promoted through network-type partnerships with few project-based pilots . Major smart city projects of London include(Greater London Authority,  2016, pp.18-19; Smarter London Together, 2018): It is a platform established by the Metropolitan Municipality of London in 2010 and undertakes to share information tasks freely with the public.It won the Open Data Institute's Open Data Publisher Award in 2015.It is the first platform to provide open access to public data, used in innovative application development (Silva et al., 2018, p. 707).Tech City UK: It was established in 2010, initially supporting Old Street and publicly funded, and it has gradually included digital technology businesses and entrepreneurs . Strategic documents such as New York City by 2030 or PlaNYC 2030 that point to the smart city and sustainability.A roadmap has been determined to create a digital city for citizen engagement and data development, updated in 2011 with the contribution of the PlaNYC IT department.The plan initiated native open data and open API initiatives.The second plan (One New York: A Strong and Just City) launched afterward provided more than7,500 connections in the city . Smart city projects in Singapore include (Smart Nation and Digital Government Office, 2020): E-Payments: It has been designed to facilitate simple, fast, seamless, and digital transactions that are open and attainable, and to make easy and efficient payments for citizens and businesses.Automated Meter Reading: It follows water usage data and issues such as leaks or leaks.The project started in 2016 and was first implemented in 500 households.

.
Bas xaks xehir Living Lab: It was opened in 2014 as an innovation environment where citizens can research, experience, and test technology design products and services and has been recognized by EU EnoLL (European Network of Living Labs).It is aimed to expand the project all over Istanbul under Zemin Istanbul (Bas xaks xehir Living Lab, 2019; Zemin _ Istanbul (Ground Istanbul), 2019)._ IBB Wi-Fi and BELNET: Since 2014, ISTTELKOM has been supplying free internet service to domestic and foreign users in public spaces.BELNET (Internet and information access support services) emerged in 2007 with the understanding of social municipality.Centers function as free internet cafes with state-of-the-art computers serve in 38 locations (BELNET, n.d.).

Table 6 .
Smart City Comparison Summary.