Abstract
Most often we refer to the smart city technologies as ways to increase quality urban life. But, is this the main interest? We can assume the idea that smart city is really the need of the future urbanistic, but there are still few questions about the place it occupies and the citizen in this technologically integrated system, in addition to the fact that he will be the final beneficiary: 1. Can technology now meet all human needs? 2. How will this digital cohabitation work? The author followed in several sociological surveys on national urban population samples, conducted in 2018 and 2021, the measurement of indicators related to the use of smart city technologies and governance in Romania aiming to identify how smart government ideologies are correlated with the satisfaction of individuals and their prioritization in terms of urban quality of life. One of the conclusions of the studies shows that when we talk about smart cities, we focus too much on technology. However, rebuilding cities means from a sociological perspective bringing people together and restoring trust and participation in common life. This can be the final goal, and we should see how we put technology at the service of this goal.
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Notes
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The Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy – IRES, “One year of COVID-19 in Romania. The impact of the pandemic on the Romanians quality”, 2021, February 12–15. Representative sample for the adult population in urban Romania: 1.115 individuals. Maximum tolerated error ± 2,9%. Available at: https://ires.ro/uploads/articole/ires_1-an-de-covid-19_impact-calitatea-vietii_sondaj-de-opinie_c.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3EQ-JfJHAOUh0lO3DYxvv3Y4hBjDCmIs7sqvNTpyxgE7Ov6VsnV72nC88
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Dancu, V.S. (2021). Smart City, the Citizen Response and the Social and Human Need: Some Sociological Worries. In: Lazaroiu, G.C., Roscia, M., Dancu, V.S. (eds) Holistic Approach for Decision Making Towards Designing Smart Cities. Future City, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85566-6_14
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