The influence of context in the implementation of a smart city project: the case of Cidade Inteligente Búzios

Abstract The growth of urban population is widely acknowledged to be a central trend that poses challenges for the administration of cities worldwide. In this context, several advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been developed to gradually transform urban centers into smart cities. In this article, we seek to contribute to filling a knowledge gap in the literature on smart city - namely the lack of empirical data in works on this subject - by investigating a project aimed at turning the municipality of Búzios in Brazil into a smart city, named Cidade Inteligente Búzios (CIB). Our objective is, thus, to describe and understand the controversial influence of the context in the implementation of the project, which was considered a success for some actors and irrelevant for others, a situation that defies the very concept of success in the implementation of smart cities.

摘要 城市人口增长被普遍视为全球城市治理所面临的核心趋势与挑战。在此背景下，信息与通信技术（Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs）领域取得多项进展，推动城市中心逐步转型为智慧城市（smart city）。本文旨在填补智慧城市研究领域的一处知识空白——当前该主题的相关研究普遍缺乏实证数据——通过调研巴西布齐奥斯（Búzios）市打造智慧城市的项目“布齐奥斯智慧城市（Cidade Inteligente Búzios, CIB）”。本文的研究目标为描述并剖析项目实施过程中，实施语境所产生的颇具争议的影响：该项目被部分相关利益主体视为成功实践，却被另一部分主体认为毫无价值，这种情况有悖于智慧城市项目实施的传统成功理念。