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The Metaverse as a Virtual Form of Smart Cities: Opportunities and Challenges for Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability in Urban Futures

Author

Listed:
  • Zaheer Allam

    (IAE Paris - Sorbonne Business School)

  • Ayyoob Sharifi

    (Hiroshima University)

  • Simon Elias Bibri

    (NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

  • David Sydney Jones

    (Griffith University [Brisbane])

  • John Krogstie

    (NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

Abstract

Data infrastructures, economic processes, and governance models of digital platforms are increasingly pervading urban sectors and spheres of urban life. This phenomenon is known as platformization, which has in turn given rise to the phenomena of platform society, where platforms have permeated the core of urban societies. A recent manifestation of platformization is the Metaverse, a global platform project launched by Meta (formerly Facebook) as a globally operating platform company. The Metaverse represents an idea of a hypothetical "parallel virtual world" that incarnate ways of living and working in virtual cities as an alternative to smart cities of the future. Indeed, with emerging innovative technologies—such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, the IoT, and Digital Twins—providing rich datasets and advanced computational understandings of human behavior, the Metaverse has the potential to redefine city designing activities and service provisioning towards increasing urban efficiencies, accountabilities, and quality performance. However, there still remain ethical, human, social, and cultural concerns as to the Metaverse's influence upon the quality of human social interactions and its prospective scope in reconstructing the quality of urban life. This paper undertakes an upper-level literature review of the area of the Metaverse from a broader perspective. Further, it maps the emerging products and services of the Metaverse, and explores their potential contributions to smart cities with respect to their virtual incarnation, with a particular focus on the environmental, economic, and social goals of sustainability. This study may help urban policy makers to better understand the opportunities and implications of the Metaverse upon tech-mediated practices and applied urban agendas, as well as assess the positives and negatives of this techno-urban vision. This paper also offers thoughts regarding the argument that the Metaverse has disruptive and substantive effects on forms of reconstructing reality in an increasingly platformized urban society. This will hopefully stimulate prospective research and further critical perspectives on the topic.

Suggested Citation

  • Zaheer Allam & Ayyoob Sharifi & Simon Elias Bibri & David Sydney Jones & John Krogstie, 2022. "The Metaverse as a Virtual Form of Smart Cities: Opportunities and Challenges for Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability in Urban Futures," Post-Print hal-03997438, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03997438
    DOI: 10.3390/smartcities5030040
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Eun Joung Kim & Jung Yoon Kim, 2023. "Exploring the Online News Trends of the Metaverse in South Korea: A Data-Mining-Driven Semantic Network Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-19, November.
    2. Stefano Mottura, 2024. "Does Anyone Care about the Opinion of People on Participating in a “Social” Metaverse? A Review and a Draft Proposal for a Surveying Tool," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-27, July.
    3. Robertas Damaševičius, 2023. "From E-commerce to V-commerce: Understanding the Impact of Virtual Reality and Metaverse on Economic Activities," Journal of Information Economics, Anser Press, vol. 1(3), pages 55-79, October.
    4. Zaheer Allam & Simon Elias Bibri & Didier Chabaud & Carlos Moreno, 2022. "The Theoretical, Practical, and Technological Foundations of the 15-Minute City Model: Proximity and Its Environmental, Social and Economic Benefits for Sustainability," Post-Print hal-03997394, HAL.
    5. Saveria Olga Murielle Boulanger, 2024. "Smart City and Energy: A Bibliometric Review of the Smart City and Smart Energy Concept from the Perspective of the Bioclimatic Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-21, May.
    6. Khalid K. Naji & Murat Gunduz & Fahid Al-Henzab, 2024. "Evaluating the Digital Transformation Potential in Pre-Construction for Sustainable Practices Using Structural Equation Modeling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-33, August.
    7. Zhong, Ziqi & Zhao, Elena Yifei, 2024. "Collaborative driving mode of sustainable marketing and supply chain management supported by metaverse technology," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121160, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Ștefan Vlăduțescu & Georgiana Camelia Stănescu, 2023. "Environmental Sustainability of Metaverse: Perspectives from Romanian Developers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-20, July.
    9. Lnenicka, Martin & Rizun, Nina & Alexopoulos, Charalampos & Janssen, Marijn, 2024. "Government in the metaverse: Requirements and suitability for providing digital public services," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    10. Nikola Vangelov, 2023. "Ambient Advertising in Metaverse Smart Cities," Smart Cities and Regional Development (SCRD) Journal, Smart-EDU Hub, Faculty of Public Administration, National University of Political Studies & Public Administration, vol. 7(1), pages 43-55, March.
    11. Shaohui Zou & Xiangbo Fan & Lei Wang & Yuanzheng Cui, 2024. "High-speed rail new towns and their impacts on urban sustainable development: a spatial analysis based on satellite remote sensing data," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    12. Oana Marin & Tudor Cioara & Liana Toderean & Dan Mitrea & Ionut Anghel, 2023. "Review of Blockchain Tokens Creation and Valuation," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-27, November.
    13. Pietro De Giovanni, 2023. "Sustainability of the Metaverse: A Transition to Industry 5.0," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-29, March.
    14. Luis Alberto Laurens-Arredondo & Lilibeth Laurens, 2023. "Metaversity: Beyond Emerging Educational Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-18, November.
    15. Kumar, Aman & Shankar, Amit & Nayal, Preeti, 2024. "Metaverse is not my cup of tea! An investigation into how personality traits shape metaverse usage intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    16. Kumar, Satish & Sureka, Riya & Lucey, Brian M. & Dowling, Michael & Vigne, Samuel & Lim, Weng Marc, 2024. "MetaMoney: Exploring the intersection of financial systems and virtual worlds," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    17. Mr. Vivek Dubey, 2022. "Metaverse and Banking Industry – 2023 The Year of Metaverse Adoption," Technium, Technium Science, vol. 4(1), pages 62-73.
    18. Daniel G. Costa & João Carlos N. Bittencourt & Franklin Oliveira & João Paulo Just Peixoto & Thiago C. Jesus, 2024. "Achieving Sustainable Smart Cities through Geospatial Data-Driven Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-30, January.
    19. Park, Gain & Park, YounJung & Lee, Seyoung, 2024. "Compliance-gaining in metaverse: A moderated parallel mediation model testing the interaction between legitimization of paltry favors technique and victim identification," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    20. Florian Maier & Markus Weinberger, 2024. "Metaverse Meets Smart Cities—Applications, Benefits, and Challenges," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-21, April.
    21. Amirzadeh, Melika & Sharifi, Ayyoob, 2024. "The evolutionary path of place making: From late twentieth century to post-pandemic cities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    22. Irina S. Antonova & Evgeny A. Pchelintsev, 2023. "Econometric Modeling of Creative Industries Concentration Process in the Siberian and the Urals Single-Industry Towns," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-21, August.

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