Understanding the framing of urban policy at the intersection of smart city and urban innovation across Latin American cities: a policy content analysis

The concepts of smart city and urban innovation continue to proliferate in Latin American urban policymaking, though their inherent flexibility leads to significant variety in application between cities; such policies in Latin America have been under-explored in the literature, particularly given the distinct urban challenges of the region. A content analysis exercise was undertaken, to establish high-level features of this smart city/urban innovation policy base, using a sample from 13 cities in 8 countries. Policy extracts were assessed across multiple policy dimensions, exploring ways in which the concepts of smart city and urban innovation are framed and related in their application.