Smart cities: reviewing the debate about their ethical implications.

Area of Science:

• Urban Studies
• Technology Ethics
• Sociology

Background:

• The definition of smart cities remains contested, leading to fragmented ethical discussions.
• Existing ethical debates lack a stable framework to address diverse smart city implementations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a stable, four-dimensional framework for analyzing ethical concerns in smart cities.
• To provide a transversal and resilient approach to ethical implications, irrespective of specific smart city definitions.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of smart city definitions and labels.
• Identification and clustering of ethical concerns within four key dimensions.

Main Results:

• Identified four core dimensions: network infrastructure, post-political governance, social inclusion, and sustainability.
• Network infrastructure raises concerns about control, surveillance, and data privacy.
• Post-political governance highlights tensions in decision-making and public-private roles.
• Social inclusion addresses citizen participation, inequality, and discrimination.
• Sustainability focuses on environmental protection and strategic future use.

Conclusions:

• The four-dimensional framework offers a stable reference for discussing smart city ethics.
• This approach allows for a comprehensive review of ethical implications across different smart city types.
• The framework provides resilience against ongoing definitional debates in smart city research.