Participatory Governance of Smart Cities: Insights from e-Participation of Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Participatory governance is widely viewed as an essential element of realizing planned smart cities. Nonetheless, the implementation of e-participation platforms, such as the websites and mobile applications of civic authorities, often offer ambiguous information on how public voices may influence e...

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Published in:Smart Cities
Main Author: Lim S.B.; Yigitcanlar T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI 2022
Online Access:https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85123912539&doi=10.3390%2fsmartcities5010005&partnerID=40&md5=f89276ea07226fb46fbdf017f5a896fa
id 2-s2.0-85123912539
spelling 2-s2.0-85123912539
Lim S.B.; Yigitcanlar T.
Participatory Governance of Smart Cities: Insights from e-Participation of Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
2022
Smart Cities
5
1
10.3390/smartcities5010005
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85123912539&doi=10.3390%2fsmartcities5010005&partnerID=40&md5=f89276ea07226fb46fbdf017f5a896fa
Participatory governance is widely viewed as an essential element of realizing planned smart cities. Nonetheless, the implementation of e-participation platforms, such as the websites and mobile applications of civic authorities, often offer ambiguous information on how public voices may influence e-decision-making. This study aims to examine the status of participatory governance from the angle of e-participation platforms and from the broader scope of linking e-platforms to a smart city blueprint. In order to achieve this aim, the study focuses on shedding light on the e-governance space given to smart city realization in a developing country context—i.e., Malaysia. The Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya smart cities of Malaysia were selected as the testbeds of the study, which used the multiple case study methodology and multiple data collection designs. The analyses were done through the qualitative observations and quantitative descriptive statistics. The results revealed that both of the investigated smart city cases remained limited in their provision of e-decision-making space. The inefficiency of implementing planned initiatives to link the city blueprints to e-platforms was also evidenced. The study evidenced that the political culture of e-decision-making is undersized in Malaysia, which hinders the achievement of e-democracy in the smart cities’ development. This study has contributed a case report on a developing country’s smart cities, covering the participatory issues from the angle of e-participation and e-platforms. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
MDPI
26246511
English
Article
All Open Access; Gold Open Access; Green Open Access
author Lim S.B.; Yigitcanlar T.
spellingShingle Lim S.B.; Yigitcanlar T.
Participatory Governance of Smart Cities: Insights from e-Participation of Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
author_facet Lim S.B.; Yigitcanlar T.
author_sort Lim S.B.; Yigitcanlar T.
title Participatory Governance of Smart Cities: Insights from e-Participation of Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
title_short Participatory Governance of Smart Cities: Insights from e-Participation of Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
title_full Participatory Governance of Smart Cities: Insights from e-Participation of Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
title_fullStr Participatory Governance of Smart Cities: Insights from e-Participation of Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Participatory Governance of Smart Cities: Insights from e-Participation of Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
title_sort Participatory Governance of Smart Cities: Insights from e-Participation of Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
publishDate 2022
container_title Smart Cities
container_volume 5
container_issue 1
doi_str_mv 10.3390/smartcities5010005
url https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85123912539&doi=10.3390%2fsmartcities5010005&partnerID=40&md5=f89276ea07226fb46fbdf017f5a896fa
description Participatory governance is widely viewed as an essential element of realizing planned smart cities. Nonetheless, the implementation of e-participation platforms, such as the websites and mobile applications of civic authorities, often offer ambiguous information on how public voices may influence e-decision-making. This study aims to examine the status of participatory governance from the angle of e-participation platforms and from the broader scope of linking e-platforms to a smart city blueprint. In order to achieve this aim, the study focuses on shedding light on the e-governance space given to smart city realization in a developing country context—i.e., Malaysia. The Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya smart cities of Malaysia were selected as the testbeds of the study, which used the multiple case study methodology and multiple data collection designs. The analyses were done through the qualitative observations and quantitative descriptive statistics. The results revealed that both of the investigated smart city cases remained limited in their provision of e-decision-making space. The inefficiency of implementing planned initiatives to link the city blueprints to e-platforms was also evidenced. The study evidenced that the political culture of e-decision-making is undersized in Malaysia, which hinders the achievement of e-democracy in the smart cities’ development. This study has contributed a case report on a developing country’s smart cities, covering the participatory issues from the angle of e-participation and e-platforms. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
publisher MDPI
issn 26246511
language English
format Article
accesstype All Open Access; Gold Open Access; Green Open Access
record_format scopus
collection Scopus
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