=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2323/SKI-Canada-2019-7-3-4
|storemode=property
|title=Planners Out-of-the-Way to Be “Smart”?
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2323/SKI-Canada-2019-7-3-4.pdf
|volume=Vol-2323
|authors=Zhibin Zheng,Renee Sieber
}}
==Planners Out-of-the-Way to Be “Smart”?==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2323/SKI-Canada-2019-7-3-4.pdf
Spatial Knowledge and Information Canada, 2019, 7(3), 4
Planners Out-of-the-Way to Be “Smart”?
ZHIBIN ZHENG RENEE SIEBER
Department of Geography Department of Geography
McGill University & School of Environment
zhibin.zheng@mail.mcgill.ca McGill University
renee.sieber@mcgill.ca
mentioned in applications. In academic,
ABSTRACT some researchers even see technologies as
the foundations of smart cities (Harrison et
In the Canadian federal smart cities
al, 2010).
challenge, over one hundred communities
What not explicitly noted is that
across Canada are pursuing funding to
planning may be the government function
become “smart”. A shared consensus is that
mostly related to this challenge. Advocating
technologies are significant to achieving the
technologies is not a new trend in the
goal and they must be planned for. However,
most planners actually are less involved in planning field. “The urge to bring scientific
smart city initiatives than one might think. methods to urban planning seems to
Planners and planning divisions seem reappear every few decades” (Townsend,
"pushed out-of-the-way" to be smart. We 2015: 203). Smart cities could represent
performed content analysis on literature such a reappearance. Goodspeed (2015)
and official documents, followed by in- identifies the same underlying concept of
depth interviews to assess the role of smart cities and urban cybernetics, and he
planners in smart cities. Grounded theory, a argues that smart cities are just a rebranding
rigorous qualitative research approach, was of early attempts. Computer-based planning
used to develop an explanation of potential
like rational urban models failed in 1970s
changes in planners’ roles. Data derived
from the literature, documents, and (Lee, 1973) or planning support system
interviews tested the hypothesis that (PSS) has never been valuable since created
planners played an essential role in smart in 1990s (Geertman, 2017). It remains to see
cities. We find that planners need to update how smart cities will be developed.
and expand their skill set if they are to be An interesting phenomenon is that
included in smart city initiatives. planners and planning divisions seem out-of-
the-way to be “smart”. There are chief
1. Introduction administrative office (e.g., City of Calgary)
or new-established smart city office (e.g.,
The smart cities challenge (SCC), a pan- City of Montreal) operating smart initiatives,
Canada competition open to communities of while planners are less involved in. It is
all sizes, is currently undertaking. The worth questioning why this phenomenon
government received 130 eligible occurs and what the role of planers is in
applications from municipalities, regional smart cities. To answer the questions, main
governments and Indigenous communities. contents of computer-based planning and
The themes appeared in the SCC included smart cities as well as their
economic opportunities, empowerment and interrelationships must be understood.
inclusion, environmental quality, healthy Moreover, potential changes on planners’
living and recreation, mobility, as well as work in this smart city age must be
safety and security (Infrastructure Canada, elucidated through continued theory
2018). There was no unified understanding refinement. Theoretical explanation of
about smart cities, but technologies were computer-based planning and smart cities
claimed to be important and frequently has shown promise for certain constructs,
2 Planning, Out-of-the-Way to Be “Smart”?
such as PSS (Harris & Batty, 1993) and the information of attending planners. We first
foundations of smart cities (Harrison et al, made a phone call to a potential participant
2010). However, a framework of planners’ during weekdays. If she/ he was willing to
roles in smart cities is not currently participate, a follow-up email would be sent
available guiding the process of engaging with details about this research, a cover
planners in smart initiatives. The purpose of letter, and a consent form. If the first call
this study was to contribute to this process was not answered, we attempted to send an
through development of a hypothesis email directly inviting participants. If still
illustrating the potential role of planners in without response, we would try one last call
smart cities. a week later. Snowball sampling was
employed for getting more responses. It is
2. Methods and Data worth noting that this study is less sensitive
A grounded theory approach (Lewis, 2015) to randomness of samples. Results can be
was selected because of the lack of significant as long as there are enough
knowledge regarding definition of smart authentic data.
cities, interrelationships between computer- In grounded theory, theoretical
based planning and smart cities. An iterative saturation is the ultimate criterion
process of data collection and analysis was determining sample size, which means data
used to develop a theoretical explanation of need to be collected until the theory is built
potential changes on planners’ roles saturated (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). In this
grounded in data collected from those study, a sample size of 2o planners was used
planning their communities in the smart for in-depth interviews. The final sample
city age. The grounded theory approach was sizes were adjusted by theoretical saturation.
applied to illustrating the essentiality of
planners’ work in smart cities. This study 2.1.2 Literature and Official Documents
was approved by the Research Ethics Board
of McGill University. The literature on PSS and smart cities were
free accessed through McGill library website.
The smart cities were identified on the SCC
2.1 Data Collection
website and the What Works Cities website.
2.1.1 Sampling We then visited the government websites of
selected cities to access official documents.
Comprehensive review was conducted on Content analysis performed on literature
literature about computer-based planning, and documents aimed to development of
mainly PSS, and smart cities. This review guiding questions for in-depth interviews.
includes 165 relevant literature from 1970s Based on the research questions, content
to present. Criterion sampling method analysis should explore constructs of PSS
(Patton, 1990) was employed to gather and smart cities and their interrelationships.
information-rich smart city cases recorded The guiding questions were modified as the
in official documents. Inclusion criteria for content analysis progressed to further refine
this study were western cities with similar the information and develop theoretical
democratic systems as Canada’s, have been explanation.
urbanized, and at least related to one theme
proposed in the SCC. 2.1.3 In-depth Interviews
In-depth interviews were conducted
with Canadian planners from communities When content analysis was completed, we
that competed in the SCC. There was a obtained the guiding questions. The purpose
Canadian institute of planning (CIP) of in-depth interviews was answering the
conference held in July, 2018, gathering doubt of planners’ roles in smart cities
planners across Canada. It was an through incorporating the data into analysis
appropriate place to recruit the participants. for a more refined hypothesis. All interviews
The CIP official website provides contact were recorded as voice memos with
Planning, Out-of-the-Way to Be “Smart”? 3
permission of participants and transcribed aspirations of improving lives of residents.
verbatim. Transcripts were entered into the The smart city takes advantage of sensors
MAXQDA 12 program for analysis. (e.g., cellphones), new data technologies
(e.g., big data analytics, cloud computing),
2.2 Data Analysis and data themselves, to improve critical
infrastructures and services including urban
The basic principles of grounded theory planning, management and governance.
guided overall analysis (Strauss & Corbin, As aforementioned, smart cities were
1998). Content analysis was applied to argued as a concept sharing a strong
literature, documents, and interview similarity with urban cybernetics debated in
transcripts at a micro scale, where we 1970s (Goodspeed, 2015). There were also
ensured that no important ideas were beliefs that smart cities were new to the
overlooked. Grounded theory required the planning field. Usage of the adjective ‘smart’
process of coding, constant comparison, and suggested a transformation brought by new
theoretical saturation (Bryman, Bell & technologies to the urban context (Nam &
Teevan, 2012). Coding was breaking down Pardo, 2011). Compared to the 1970s, the
data into interrelated components and technologies of smart cities were vast and
assigning them with codes, which was indicated that many municipal processes
iteratively developed through constant could be automated. However, smart cities
comparison between new data and existing certainly suffered from wicked problems as
data within a particular category. The urban cybernetics did. Urban complexity
iteration ended until reaching theoretical would thwart scientific attempts to solve
saturation that meant no further gains when planning problems that were wicked since
continuing the coding and comparison they had no definitive description, involve
(Bryman, Bell & Teevan, 2012). With the value judgements and occur in unique
most relevant categories being integrated, contexts (Rittel & Webber, 1973). Most of
we developed a hypothesis of the role of problems, like climate change, targeted by
planers in smart cities. smart city initiatives were actually as wicked
as planning problems. Moreover, there were
3. Results & Discussion more challenges when pursuing smart city
The comprehensive literature review and goals, such as technocracy and opacity,
analysis of smart city cases provided basis digital divides, and the changing role of
for the hypothesis illustrating planners’ public participation.
roles in smart cities. Analyzing interview
transcripts verified the preliminary results 3.2 Why Planners Less Involved
and develop the final hypothesis.
With review of PSS and smart city
constructs, we inferred that planners’
3.1 Constructs of PSS and Smart Cities limited involvement in smart cities was due
Three fundamenta of PSS were identified: to their lack of knowledge about smart cities
an integrative system, decision supports, and new technologies. Besides, since PSS
planning-related components. PSS is an had been critiqued for decades, planners
integrative system that includes analysis knew the defects of applying scientific
models, geographic information system methods to planning problems. They were
(GIS), visualization and communication likely to show less interests in smart cities.
tools, supporting planning decision- In addition, planners could realize the
makings through a user interface and challenges of implementing smart initiatives
knowledge database. There were multiple and doubt about the feasibility of this
ways to illustrate smart cities, but generally, movement.
they were applications of information and We decided guiding questions for in-
communication technologies (ICTs) and depth interviews to include inquiries of
4 Planning, Out-of-the-Way to Be “Smart”?
planners’ background, the computer-based Notably, divergence of different
tools they used in work, their knowledge planning domains might be a significant
and experience of smart cities, and their factor that influence planners’ involvement.
opinions on how smart cities might impact The participants who had a role in smart
their work. We interviewed 20 planners initiatives were building and transportation
from 17 planning sectors across Canada. planners. They were more likely to engage in
Most of them had been working in the field engineering and technological projects.
for over 10 years. The areas they focused Nevertheless, policy planners may never
vary from transportation to preservation, have chance to use fancy technologies in
and from building to policy-making. their work. Knowledge about smart cities
The results shown that only two have never been necessary for doing their
planners had a role in smart initiatives. One work over the past decades and even now.
was a lead planner for carbon-neutral Therefore, involvement of planners in smart
buildings and the other worked on cities could largely depend on their work
automatic transportation monitoring. domains.
Another two policy planners indirectly
involved in the initiatives by reviewing the 3.3 The Role of Planners in Smart Cities
master plans. Half of planners could not
think of any smart initiative happening in It was not surprised that nearly all planners
their cities, and over 70% of them do not agreed on that planners should have an
involve in any smart city technologies. essential role in smart cities. They were very
Planners had insufficient knowledge about open to talk the advantages of smart city
smart cities, which would be the first reason technologies to assist in public engagement.
for limited involvement of planners. However, when it came to changes of their
Surprisingly, planners were also not work, like collecting data through internet of
knowledgeable about PSS or computer- things devices or engaging in smart city
based planning in general. The computer- software building, planners were getting
based tools they used including routine cautious and just slightly agreed on the
supports (e.g., Microsoft Office), design potential changes of their work. They
supports (e.g., InDesign), and GIS (e.g., strongly rejected the hypothesis that the role
ArcGIS), whereas no sophisticated decision of planners would change to that of an
supports like PSS. This indicated that they administrator, overseeing data-driven or
were unfamiliar with the history of urban crowdsourced solutions. It inferred that
cybernetics and the critique of wicked planners saw their current planning work so
problems. Therefore, planners would not important and they might afraid of being
link smart cities to early attempts. The changed by smart city technologies. Even
defects of scientific methods did not account though, most of planners still supported the
for the limited involvement. idea that planning schools provided training
When talking about how smart cities programs to help them use smart city
could impact their work, planners strongly technologies. The contradictory enclosed in
believe human-centric approaches could planners’ responses indicated that they were
never be changed. They, indeed, were trying to find a middle ground between a
concerned with problems in communicating radical trend of smart cities and a
with the public (e.g., technocracy) and conservative mode of urban planning.
issues of inequality (e.g., digital divides). A The hypothesis of planners’ roles in
few planners also mentioned the dangerous smart cities can be made based on the
of trending neoliberal. They saw flaws in information presented above. First and
smart cities. The challenges of realizing foremost, planners still have unique values
smart initiatives could be concerns stopping in terms of dealing with wicked or political
them from a deep involvement. problems in planning or smart cities. They
will continue the work on engaging the
Planning, Out-of-the-Way to Be “Smart”? 5
public, communicating with stakeholders, 43(3), 444-463.
and synthesizing analysis results for doi:10.1177/0265813515614665
decision-makings. However, planners will
expand their skill set to embrace smart city Harris, B., & Batty, M. (1993). Locational
technologies. Planners may apply the Models, Geographic Information and
technologies, such as artificial intelligence, Planning Support Systems. Journal of
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mechanism constructed, planners will more
focus on conforming ethical principles and Harrison, C., Eckman, B., Hamilton, R.,
managing polarizing effects of technologies Hartswick, P., Kalagnanam, J.,
appropriately. Paraszczak, J., & Williams, P. (2010).
Foundations for Smarter Cities. IBM
4. Conclusion Journal of Research and
This study investigates the reasons for Development, 54(4), 1-16.
limited involvement of planners in smart doi:10.1147/jrd.2010.2048257
city initiatives and contributes to the
knowledge of the potential role of planners Infrastructure Canada. (June 2018). Smart
in the age of smart city. Future studies can Cities Challenge - Spotlight on
use the knowledge gained to further develop Finalists. Retrieved from
theories on the how smart cities interact http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/alt-
with urban planning and impact planners’ format/pdf/cities-villes/spotlight-
roles. The findings also inform that the vedette-eng.pdf
historical links between planning and
technologies hide important inference for Lee Jr, D. B. (1973). Requiem for large-scale
studying interrelationships between urban models. Journal of the American
planning and smart cities. Furthermore, the Institute of planners, 39(3), 163-178.
characteristics of new technologies used in
smart cities should be further studied for Lewis, S. (2015). Qualitative inquiry and
predicting the impacts of smart cities on the research design: Choosing among five
planning field. It is worth noting that approaches. Health promotion
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cities is also a significant direction to
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Conceptualizing Smart City with
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