IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/cjutxx/v19y2012i3p107-136.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Citizen Apps to Solve Complex Urban Problems

Author

Listed:
  • Kevin Desouza
  • Akshay Bhagwatwar

Abstract

Tackling complex urban problems requires us to examine and leverage diverse sources of information. Today, cities capture large amounts of information in real-time. Data are captured on transportation patterns, electricity and water consumption, citizen use of government services (e.g., parking meters), and even on weather events. Through open data initiatives, government agencies are making information available to citizens. In turn, citizens are building applications that exploit this information to solve local urban problems. Citizens are also building platforms where they can share information regarding government services. Information that was previously unavailable is now being used to gauge quality of services, choose services, and report illegal and unethical behaviors (e.g., requesting bribes). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the range of citizen applications (“citizen apps”) targeting urban issues and to address their effects on urban planning, decision-making, problem solving, and governance. We examine citizen apps that address a wide range of urban issues from those that solve public transportation challenges to those that improve the management of public utilities and services and even public safety.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Desouza & Akshay Bhagwatwar, 2012. "Citizen Apps to Solve Complex Urban Problems," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 107-136.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:cjutxx:v:19:y:2012:i:3:p:107-136
    DOI: 10.1080/10630732.2012.673056
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10630732.2012.673056
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10630732.2012.673056?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Falco, Enzo & Kleinhans, Reinout, 2018. "Beyond technology: Identifying local government challenges for using digital platforms for citizen engagement," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 17-20.
    2. Nick Taylor Buck & Aidan While, 2017. "Competitive urbanism and the limits to smart city innovation: The UK Future Cities initiative," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(2), pages 501-519, February.
    3. Seyedeh-Samira SHAFIEE-MASULEH & Seyed Reza SHAFIEE MASOULEH, 2018. "Assessing Citizens’ Demands for Improving the Urban Environment," Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies (CJUES), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(01), pages 1-20, March.
    4. Hanifa Shah, 2023. "Beyond Smart: How ICT Is Enabling Sustainable Cities of the Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-22, August.
    5. Carvajal Bermúdez, Juan Carlos & König, Reinhard, 2021. "The role of technologies and citizen organizations in decentralized forms of participation. A case study about residential streets in Vienna," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. Simon Bell & Francesca Benatti & Neil R. Edwards & Robin Laney & David R. Morse & Lara Piccolo & Oliver Zanetti, 2018. "Smart Cities and M3: Rapid Research, Meaningful Metrics and Co-Design," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 27-53, February.
    7. Kevin C. Desouza & Akshay Bhagwatwar, 2014. "Technology-Enabled Participatory Platforms for Civic Engagement: The Case of U.S. Cities," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 25-50, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:cjutxx:v:19:y:2012:i:3:p:107-136. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/cjut20 .

    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.