Coproduction and cocreation in smart city initiatives: An exploratory study

Citizens’ participation represents an essential condition for successful smart city initiatives. However, citizens’ participation in public initiatives can take many different forms, from simple consultation to the active involvement in their design, implementation and evaluation. When they are actively involved in public initiatives, a shift can be determined from initiatives designed and implemented FOR the citizens, to initiatives designed and implemented with a substantial contribution FROM the citizens, which is what coproduction in the public sector amounts to. With reference to the result of a survey of the relevant academic literature, this exploratory study considers how the concepts of coproduction (and the related concept of codesign) and cocreation are used in the smart city literature. The study highlights a relatively scarce use and a poor conceptualization of these concepts in the smart city literature and identifies some critical aspects that still need a conceptual clarification.