Governing African smart cities: The role of digital citizenship in municipal e-participation

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dc.article.end-page26
dc.article.start-page1
dc.contributor.authorMuzenda, Archimedes
dc.contributor.authorChikukwa, Maryjane
dc.date.accessioned2024-02-22T11:10:16Z
dc.date.available2024-02-22T11:10:16Z
dc.date.issued2023-09
dc.departmentSouth African Institute of International Affairs
dc.description.abstractThe rapid urbanisation, combined with the proliferation of information and communication technology (ICT), has driven cities across Africa to adopt smart city strategies to manage urban development. As the adoption of smart city strategies increases across varied contexts, a call for a citizen-centric approach to smart cities has emerged – an effort to address the needs of citizens in smart city projects. While citizen-centric approaches are being adopted in smart governance, the role of citizens in a digital era are thinly explored in relation to their impact on the participation of citizens in smart cities across Africa. Drawing upon case studies from three cities, Cape Town, Nairobi and Rabat, this paper explores the role played by the emerging digital citizenship in smart governance, with a focus on e-participation. Using a three-dimensional framework of e-enabling, e-engaging and e-empowering, the paper identifies two factors that impact negatively on citizens’ participation through e-participation platforms. First is the citizens’ poor sense of belonging in terms of digital access and participation rights. Second, the paper identifies low political efficacy among citizens, coupled with high corruption levels among municipal officials; citizens have a poor perception of the utility of participating through e-participation platforms. The paper argues that it is crucial to consider the spatial characteristics of a city, the social-cultural factors and the political climate of a city to predict the role of citizens in smart governance – citizens’ sense of belonging and their political efficacy.
dc.description.librarianMM2024
dc.description.sponsorshipHanns Seidel Stiftung
dc.facultyFaculty of Commerce, Law and Management
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37687
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
dc.relation.ispartofseriesTayarisha Working Paper Series | No: 2023/013
dc.rights©2023 Tayarisha African Centre of Excellence in Digital Governance
dc.schoolWits School of Governance
dc.subjectAfrican Governance
dc.subjectDigital Age
dc.subjectSmart cities
dc.subjectSmart governance
dc.subjecte-participation
dc.subjectDigital citizenship
dc.subjectAfrican cities
dc.subject.otherSDG-9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
dc.titleGoverning African smart cities: The role of digital citizenship in municipal e-participation
dc.typeWorking Paper
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