IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirb/v47y2020i8p1343-1360.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Avoiding the planning support system pitfalls? What smart governance can learn from the planning support system implementation gap

Author

Listed:
  • Huaxiong Jiang
  • Stan Geertman
  • Patrick Witte

Abstract

The implementation of smart governance in government policies and practices is criticised for its dominant focus on technology investments, which leads to a rather technocratic and corporate way of ‘smartly’ governing cities and less consideration of actual user needs. To help prevent a mismatch between the demand for and the supply of technology, this paper explores what smart governance can learn from efforts in debates on planning support systems to close the ‘PSS implementation gap’. This gap refers to a long-standing discrepancy between the availability of planning support systems (supply) and the time-bound support needs of planning practice (demand). By exploring both the academic field of smart governance and the debates on the planning support system implementation gap, this paper contributes to the further development of smart governance by learning from the experiences in the planning support system debates. Two particular lessons are distilled: (1) for technology to be of added value to practice, it should be attuned to the wishes and capabilities of the intended users and to the specifics of the tasks to be accomplished, given the particularities of the context in which the technology is applied; and (2) closing the planning support system implementation gap reveals that knowledge on the context specificities is of utmost importance and will also be of importance to the smart governance developments. In conclusion, smart governance can and should become more aware of the role of contextual factors in collaboration with users and urban issues. This is expected to shift the emphasis from today’s technology-focused, supply-driven smart governance development, to a socio-technical, application-pulled and demand-driven smart governance development.

Suggested Citation

  • Huaxiong Jiang & Stan Geertman & Patrick Witte, 2020. "Avoiding the planning support system pitfalls? What smart governance can learn from the planning support system implementation gap," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(8), pages 1343-1360, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:47:y:2020:i:8:p:1343-1360
    DOI: 10.1177/2399808320934824
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2399808320934824
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2399808320934824?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Huaxiong Jiang & Stan Geertman & Patrick Witte, 2020. "A Sociotechnical Framework for Smart Urban Governance: Urban Technological Innovation and Urban Governance in the Realm of Smart Cities," International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR), IGI Global, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, January.
    2. Karin Pfeffer & Hebe Verrest, 2016. "Perspectives on the Role of Geo-Technologies for Addressing Contemporary Urban Issues: Implications for IDS," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 28(2), pages 154-166, April.
    3. Anastasia Stratigea & Chrysaida-Aliki Papadopoulou & Maria Panagiotopoulou, 2015. "Tools and Technologies for Planning the Development of Smart Cities," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 43-62, April.
    4. Robert G. Hollands, 2015. "Critical interventions into the corporate smart city," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(1), pages 61-77.
    5. Brian Deal & Haozhi Pan & Varkki Pallathucheril & Gale Fulton, 2017. "Urban Resilience and Planning Support Systems: The Need for Sentience," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 29-45, January.
    6. Robert G. Hollands, 2008. "Will the real smart city please stand up?," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 303-320, December.
    7. Albert Meijer, 2016. "Smart City Governance: A Local Emergent Perspective," Public Administration and Information Technology, in: J. Ramon Gil-Garcia & Theresa A. Pardo & Taewoo Nam (ed.), Smarter as the New Urban Agenda, edition 1, pages 73-85, Springer.
    8. Robert Goodspeed, 2015. "Smart cities: moving beyond urban cybernetics to tackle wicked problems," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(1), pages 79-92.
    9. Geertman, Stan, 2017. "PSS: Beyond the implementation gap," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 70-76.
    10. te Brömmelstroet, Marco, 2017. "PSS are more user-friendly, but are they also increasingly useful?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 96-107.
    11. Ola Söderström & Till Paasche & Francisco Klauser, 2014. "Smart cities as corporate storytelling," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 307-320, June.
    12. Pelzer, Peter, 2017. "Usefulness of planning support systems: A conceptual framework and an empirical illustration," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 84-95.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ani MATEI & Elena Alexandra DOBRE, 2021. "Factori cheie si provocari privind guvernanta inteligenta si rolul autoritatilor publice in dezvoltarea ecosistemelor de inovare urbana in cadrul modelului Cvadruplu Helix," Smart Cities International Conference (SCIC) Proceedings, Smart-EDU Hub, Faculty of Public Administration, National University of Political Studies & Public Administration, vol. 9, pages 259-276, November.
    2. Anassaya Chawviang & Supaporn Kiattisin & Montree Thirasakthana & Theeraya Mayakul, 2023. "A Smart Co-Operative Management Framework Based on an EA Concept for Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-22, April.
    3. Ying Li & Yani Lai & Yanliu Lin, 2024. "The Role of Diversified Geo-Information Technologies in Urban Governance: A Literature Review," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-27, September.
    4. Anassaya Chawviang & Supaporn Kiattisin, 2022. "Sustainable Development: Smart Co-Operative Management Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-25, March.
    5. Si Chen & Yoonshin Kwak & Le Zhang & Grant Mosey & Brian Deal, 2021. "Tightly Coupling Input Output Economics with Spatio-Temporal Land Use in a Dynamic Planning Support System Framework," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huaxiong Jiang & Stan Geertman & Patrick Witte, 2021. "Smartening urban governance: An evidence‐based perspective," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 744-758, June.
    2. Trencher, Gregory, 2019. "Towards the smart city 2.0: Empirical evidence of using smartness as a tool for tackling social challenges," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 117-128.
    3. Yanliu Lin & Kasper Benneker, 2022. "Assessing collaborative planning and the added value of planning support apps in The Netherlands," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 49(2), pages 391-410, February.
    4. Johannes Stübinger & Lucas Schneider, 2020. "Understanding Smart City—A Data-Driven Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-23, October.
    5. Lill Sarv & Ralf-Martin Soe, 2021. "Transition towards Smart City: The Case of Tallinn," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-18, April.
    6. Seema Mundoli & Hita Unnikrishnan & Harini Nagendra, 2017. "The “Sustainable” in smart cities: ignoring the importance of urban ecosystems," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 44(2), pages 103-120, June.
    7. Federico Caprotti, 2019. "Spaces of visibility in the smart city: Flagship urban spaces and the smart urban imaginary," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(12), pages 2465-2479, September.
    8. van den Buuse, Daniel & Kolk, Ans, 2019. "An exploration of smart city approaches by international ICT firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 220-234.
    9. Solis, Miriam & Bashar, Samira Binte, 2022. "Social equity implications of advanced water metering infrastructure," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    10. Kummitha, Rama Krishna Reddy, 2018. "Entrepreneurial urbanism and technological panacea: Why Smart City planning needs to go beyond corporate visioning?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 330-339.
    11. Kummitha, Rama Krishna Reddy, 2019. "Smart cities and entrepreneurship: An agenda for future research," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    12. Jun Zhang & Shuyang Li & Yichuan Wang, 2023. "Shaping a Smart Transportation System for Sustainable Value Co-Creation," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 365-380, February.
    13. Schiavone, Francesco & Paolone, Francesco & Mancini, Daniela, 2019. "Business model innovation for urban smartization," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 210-219.
    14. Marchesani, Filippo & Masciarelli, Francesca & Bikfalvi, Andrea, 2023. "Smart city as a hub for talent and innovative companies: Exploring the (dis) advantages of digital technology implementation in cities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    15. Alan-Miguel Valdez & Matthew Cook & Stephen Potter, 2018. "Roadmaps to utopia: Tales of the smart city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(15), pages 3385-3403, November.
    16. Stephen Leitheiser & Alexander Follmann, 2020. "The social innovation–(re)politicisation nexus: Unlocking the political in actually existing smart city campaigns? The case of SmartCity Cologne, Germany," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(4), pages 894-915, March.
    17. Adrian Buttazzoni & Marta Veenhof & Leia Minaker, 2020. "Smart City and High-Tech Urban Interventions Targeting Human Health: An Equity-Focused Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-23, March.
    18. Ezra Ho, 2017. "Smart subjects for a Smart Nation? Governing (smart)mentalities in Singapore," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(13), pages 3101-3118, October.
    19. Lyons, Glenn, 2018. "Getting smart about urban mobility – Aligning the paradigms of smart and sustainable," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 4-14.
    20. Mora, Luca & Deakin, Mark & Reid, Alasdair, 2019. "Combining co-citation clustering and text-based analysis to reveal the main development paths of smart cities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 56-69.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:47:y:2020:i:8:p:1343-1360. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.