Smartly Sustainable: Community Support for the Smart City Concept in the Himalayas India

The current study aims to analyze the perceptions of local communities in targeted Himalayan regions regarding the smart city concept in context to sustainability, thereby drafting their (stakeholders') support towards the development. The study has adopted qualitative methodology, which assists to obtain deeper insights into the phenomenon. Online interviews with the local community were conducted to gather data for the qualitative analysis regarding the research. In this study, four major themes emerged that represented the perceptions of the local community towards the smart city developments about sustainable development. It was identified that there is a sense of mistrust among the local community towards the smart city concept, which generates negative emotions in the mind of the local community towards the ongoing developments and lack of willingness to cooperate with the authorities. This study contributes to the literature by theorizing the smart city development with sustainability and by examining the effects of the concept on support and participation by stakeholders towards smart city development in the Indian Himalayas.