Designing adaptive policy packages for inclusive smart cities: Lessons from Singapore's smart nation program

• Investigated the policy goals, objectives, and instruments in Singapore's smart nation program. • Smart nation program focuses on the social and economic dimensions of inclusive development. • Diverse instruments with synergistic and facilitative interactions contributes to adaptive policy design spaces. • Adaptive design spaces manage advanced tech's uncertainties and expand its access and utilisation - key to inclusive smart cities. In the last two decades, cities have embraced advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, information and communications technology-based systems, internet of things, and big data analytics as a key component of the urban environment. These ‘smart cities’ use technological and digital solutions to enhance quality of life, increase access to and utilisation of urban services, and improve resource management. However, adopting advanced technologies is fraught with uncertainty and unpredictability which presents several challenges in designing inclusive smart city policies. In this study, we identify and advance synergies needed for designing policies for inclusive smart cities. We analyse policy design components of Singapore's Smart Nation program – goals, instruments, and their interactions in policy packages. We demonstrate how policymakers pursue policy goals for inclusive development while balancing technological transformation. Results indicate the need for developing adaptive spaces for policy design in smart cities that respond and adjust to the uncertainties associated with adopting advanced technologies while retaining the desired policy objectives for inclusive development. These spaces are shown to have a large variation in policy instruments combined with synergistic and facilitative interactions between them. Our findings further the discussion on adaptive policy design and their role in smart city governance.