Reframing participatory approaches to the smart city as opportunities for trust-building
This paper presents a theoretical framework and typology that reframes public participation in smart cities as a relational process for building trust rather than a direct outcome. By synthesizing sociological research on trust with public participation literature, it categorizes resident involvement into three distinct roles: co-accessors, co-collectors, and co-designers. Each role is analyzed through case studies to demonstrate how it alters the interactional context between residents, smart city experts, and institutions.
Why it matters — It shifts the understanding of smart city public engagement from a transactional exercise to a relational one, showing exactly what institutions must risk—such as data scrutiny or shared control—for genuine trust or productive mistrust to develop.
Caveat: The framework is conceptual and relies on a synthesis of existing literature and illustrative case studies rather than new empirical testing.