Analyzing Citizens’ Participation in Shaping Smart Cities: The Case of the Cities of the Regional Unit of Western Sector of Athens

In recent years, there has been an increase in both the number of researches and the wider debate about “smart cities” and their importance. The practice of smart cities includes different dimensions. One of them concerns the participation of citizens. In fact, this is found as an important condition for the operation of smart cities in a number of studies. However, many researches note that little contribution has been conducted regarding the actual practices of citizens' participation in shaping smart cities, aiming to address their real needs. From this point of view, in this work, the study of the citizens' participation in the formation of the "Smart Cities" of the Regional Unity of the Western sector of Athens, in Greece, is attempted. The research methodology followed is the in-depth interviews that focus on the views of the elected-administrators, in order to highlight the practices they apply. The present work also investigates the smart projects that have been developed or are planned to be developed in the cities under consideration, the ways of selecting these projects over others, the strategies for maintaining and/or strengthening them, as well as the degree of citizen involvement in these, in terms of making decisions. The results of the research show that the contribution of the citizens of the Western sector of Athens is very small in the development of smart services and infrastructure. Ultimately, it seems that the goal in the cities under investigation is not the participation of citizens in their governance and decision-making, but rather what is sought is their acceptance and their participation in the provided public services and projects.