From utopian impulse to urban engagement: the role of Doughnut Economics in shaping residents' participation in smart cities

Smart cities are often framed through techno-utopian narratives, yet their capacity to support sustainable transitions depends on residents' engagement. This article examines how the transformative utopian impulse and support for the principles of Doughnut Economics shape residents' intention to participate in smart city projects. Drawing on a survey of 645 residents in five French cities (Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Lille and Toulouse), we estimate a model using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) combined with Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) to distinguish sufficient from necessary causal relations. PLS-SEM results show that the transformative utopian impulse significantly influences participatory intention, both directly and indirectly through support for Doughnut Economics principles. NCA complements these findings by revealing that both constructs operate as necessary conditions for high levels of participatory intention, with support for Doughnut Economics emerging as the most critical precondition for high levels of participatory intention: while it contributes relatively little as a direct average driver of participation, its absence effectively prevents residents from reaching the highest levels of engagement. This “axiological” threshold effect indicates that commitment to post-growth principles shifts from secondary to indispensable as participation intensifies. The study advances urban governance research by moving beyond the opposition between technology-centric smart city agendas and post-growth urbanism: Doughnut Economics functions as an intermediary normative framework translating utopian aspirations into more concrete forms of urban engagement. For practitioners, the results highlight that participatory mechanisms must be coupled with coherent value frameworks if smart city programmes are to mobilise residents for transformative and sustainability-oriented projects.