Paper short abstract:

This paper critiques the existing approach to smart sustainable cities and aims to present alternative ethical and conceptual perspectives from the view points of quality of government and capability approach.

Paper long abstract:

The debate on quality of government is often conducted at the national level. However, the issues of governance can be much more readily relevant to the quality of life and well-being of citizens at spatial and social contexts within cities.

There is very limited literature on applying quality of government dimensions at the city level. Devolution focuses on formal institutions of elected local government or an elected mayor but the interface between formal and informal institutions provides a rich tapestry of a range of institutional arrangements from neighbourhoods and voluntary group formation to city-wide issues. However, as P Arjun Appadurai argued there can be many citizens without the city- meaning the idea of citizenship in terms of right to vote may exist but such individuals and groups may lack the agency to participate in and influence local level decisions that affect their quality of life directly.

This paper based on current research under the British academy research programme aims to explore both conceptual dimensions and some emerging evidence to highlight the need for changing some aspects of the existing discourse on sustainable cities. Speculative land markets, complexity of housing markets, opacity of local finances, limited degrees of mobility and choice in relation to social services all contribute to factors that tantamount to burdens of inflexibility. Social innovations do offer some hope but at present their reach and influence appears limited. The paper explores some of these issues and identifies some issues for a future research agenda.