Reference no: EM133885594
Question
This study explores the transformation of a city government led by a 311 program, which provides a consolidated channel for non-emergency services and information. The paper first discusses the concept of "smart city" as a foundation for the examination of the 311 non-emergency contact program as a practice of government innovation, and then presents the details of the 311 program as instantiated in the City of Philadelphia. In-depth inter-views with Philadelphia City government officials and managers responsible for creating and operating the City's
311 non-emergency contact program (Philly311) offers practical insights into the contributions the program is making a more efficient, effective, transparent, and collaborative city government.
The phrase "smart city" is used more and more regularly by elected officials, civil society, the private sector, and academia. Nevertheless, there is no agreed-upon description of what "smart" implies in the con-text of a single city. Some conceptual studies (Allwinkle & Cruickshank,2011; Boulton, Brunn, & Devriendt, 2011; Chourabi et al., 2012;Hollands, 2008; Nam & Pardo, 2011a,b) understand a city's smartness as an aggregation of improvements in infrastructures, public services, and a variety of urban resources and assets. Smart city strategies-e.g.integrating critical infrastructures and services, consolidating systems, and interconnecting networks-are emerging as responses to complex problems such as crime, health concerns, pollution, deteriorating infra-structure, and traffic congestion, that cities are currently facing due to dense congregations of people in spatially limited areas (Washburnet al., 2010). The desirable status of being "smart" is an outcome sought by the public and city officials alike. In this sense, increasing attention is being paid to city governments who are successful in transforming their cities through "smart city" initiatives. Discussions and research of smart cities increasingly highlight the characteristics of city governments that make their city smarter (Chourabi et al., 2012; Nam and Pardo, 2011a,b).
Adopting the view of a smart city as one that has a smarter govern-ment, this study raises two research inquiries:
1) What does being smarter mean in the contexts of a city and a city government?; and
2) How does a smart city initiative make a city and a city government smarter? To answer these questions, the paper employs a case study
What is/are the research question?
What is the research design strategy? Is it a single or multiple case study? Is it exploratory, explanatory, or descriptive? How did the authors design it?
How did the authors conduct the interview? What are the major interview questions and techniques they used?
What are the major findings?
Did the authors use an inductive approach to generate new research questions based on interviewees' answers? How did they do that? The changing face of a city government: