Social challenges in smart cities: a scoping review and framework for policy action

The growing role of advanced technologies in urban life, often in the context of policy initiatives like ‘smart cities,’ is leading to social change that calls for policy attention and scholarly analysis. The academic literature has made progress incorporating social dimensions into the analysis of smart cities, but a more robust understanding is needed about social challenges specifically – including patterns of exclusion, inequality, and marginalization. This study presents the results of a scoping review and thematic analysis of academic literature that codes and categorizes accounts of social challenges related to the proliferation of smart city technologies. The cross-disciplinary sample draws on studies published since 2000, including works that provide theoretical and social context and those that capture emerging socio-political and technological trends. Results reveal a variety of social challenges associated with age, gender, race, income, citizenship status, and other personal characteristics. Results also reveal patterns in how personal attitudes, concerns about privacy, and technology skill impact the effectiveness of smart city programs. At a higher level, governance quality and power dynamics are increasingly recognized by the literature as mediators of smart cities effectiveness, encompassing issues like stakeholder collaboration, policymaking processes, and data ownership and control. This article summarizes these points in a novel framework applicable to future research, and provides practical recommendations to address social challenges in smart cities, including distributional fairness, public participation, and enhanced user capacity. • Smart cities drive major social change through advanced tech integration. • This study analyzes challenges arising from smart city advancements. • Social impacts vary by age, gender, race, income, citizenship, and other factors. • Privacy issues, knowledge application, and governance shape smart city outcomes. • Solutions must address fairness, public participation, and user capacity.