Global smart city discourse in the making: Epistemic governance approach to smart city rhetoric
Leppänen, Jenni (2023)
Leppänen, Jenni
2023
Master's Programme in Global Society
Yhteiskuntatieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-07-10
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202306276943
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202306276943
Tiivistelmä
During the past few decades smart cities have started to become established all around the globe. They have risen in all places from Helsinki to Singapore, and from Vienna to Sydney. This study will aim to analyse the existence of the smart cities by exploring the global discourse surrounding them. This will be done through the examination of the tasks and challenges that the ten chosen smart cities have set for themselves. These tasks and challenges are approached as reference points, in other words moral obligations and viewpoints, which the chosen cities need to refer and appeal to in order to present themselves as legitimate and credible smart city actors in the field in which they are active. Drawing on the epistemic governance framework as a theoretical background for this research, this study will explore the global discourse around the chosen cities by focusing on the ground-level rhetoric and the way it acts to underline the credibility and legitimacy of the analysed smart cities.
The empirical data used in this study consists of the websites of the ten chosen smart cities. These websites will be approached as ‘virtual documents’ that are analysed qualitatively. By applying the method of critical discourse analysis, as designed by Norman Fairclough, to these documents, this study will aim to analyse the tasks and challenges set by the chosen cities for themselves and thus examine the limits set for them by the global discourse. Through this method, what was found was that particularly the tasks but also the challenges were widely shared among the examined smart cities. These results could be argued to show that while there is no definite definition for what smart cities are or what they should do, the surrounding global discourse around them could be claimed to be notably unified. The ten chosen smart cities seemed to appeal and refer to notably similar reference points in their quest to come across as legitimate and credible smart cities.
Based on these results one could make the argument that instead of the readymade models diffusing, as is argued by the world polity theorists, it is the global discourse that is diffusing and setting the rules for how smart cities should bring themselves across as legitimate and credible. Furthermore, throughout this process the cities keep a close eye on one another while at the same time trying to maintain the image and the experience of unique and locally focused smart city projects. Moreover, it is argued here that all these ways of discussing smart cities are part of the global discourse that determines how smart cities can be construed and discussed. Overall, this study sets out to bring forward a different viewpoint in relation to the diffusion theory, by exploring the global discourse around smart cities, and by analysing the way smart cities rely on certain reference points in order to bring themselves forward as credible and legitimate actors.
The empirical data used in this study consists of the websites of the ten chosen smart cities. These websites will be approached as ‘virtual documents’ that are analysed qualitatively. By applying the method of critical discourse analysis, as designed by Norman Fairclough, to these documents, this study will aim to analyse the tasks and challenges set by the chosen cities for themselves and thus examine the limits set for them by the global discourse. Through this method, what was found was that particularly the tasks but also the challenges were widely shared among the examined smart cities. These results could be argued to show that while there is no definite definition for what smart cities are or what they should do, the surrounding global discourse around them could be claimed to be notably unified. The ten chosen smart cities seemed to appeal and refer to notably similar reference points in their quest to come across as legitimate and credible smart cities.
Based on these results one could make the argument that instead of the readymade models diffusing, as is argued by the world polity theorists, it is the global discourse that is diffusing and setting the rules for how smart cities should bring themselves across as legitimate and credible. Furthermore, throughout this process the cities keep a close eye on one another while at the same time trying to maintain the image and the experience of unique and locally focused smart city projects. Moreover, it is argued here that all these ways of discussing smart cities are part of the global discourse that determines how smart cities can be construed and discussed. Overall, this study sets out to bring forward a different viewpoint in relation to the diffusion theory, by exploring the global discourse around smart cities, and by analysing the way smart cities rely on certain reference points in order to bring themselves forward as credible and legitimate actors.