CULTURAL INNOVATION THROUGH CO-CREATION IN SMART CITIES

Smart cities nowadays represent a collection of best practices for urban development; they aim to enhance quality of life of the residents and other city-users by integrating digital innovations into the routine urban experiences [1]. The diverse range of services provided by the smart cities make the everyday lives of the citizens easier, trying not to leave smart city actors behind when developing new solutions [2]. Co-creation initiatives are essential for ensuring that smart city innovations are not only technologically advanced but also inclusive, sustainable, and citizen-centric [3]. The presence of cultural dimension in the urban environments is essential as it contributes to the place-making, raising the sense of belonging of the residents and other city-users [4]. The purpose of this study is to collect and analyze the scientific literature on the best practices from the smart city cultural co-creation activities, lessons learned, and possible paths for replication. The present study adopts a scoping literature review in order to outline the main trends in the cultural co-creation initiatives in the smart city. The present methodology includes the analysis of more than 300 articles retrieved in the Scopus database from the period of 2014–2024. The authors consider this method well-suited for exploring the present topic, as scoping review uncover the main trends in the existing scientific literature [5]; this approach also provides a comprehensive overview to the key practices in the field, gaps in the literature, and opportunities for future exploration. The authors expect that this research will shed light on the following dynamics of the cultural co-creation activities in smart cities: successful frameworks for involving smart city actors in these initiatives; the role of digital technologies for the facilitation of communication and collaboration; best practices of multi-stakeholder collaboration; challenges identified; lessons learned; and conditions for the replication of best practices. This research contributes to the academic field by providing a comprehensive overview of co-creation practices in smart cities in cultural domain. Future studies could build on the findings of this research to investigate the impacts of specific co-creation models or the long-term effects of co-created services on urban cultural prosperity. The findings of this study could also support the development of policies and governance structures that foster cultural co-creation in smart cities. However, the study is not without the limitations. The literature included in the review overlooks cultural co-creation practices in smaller cities and developing regions that can limit the generalizability of findings to urban environments with different cultural, economic, or infrastructural contexts. Future research could address this gap by exploring specific co-creation practices in diverse urban settings. The originality and value of this study lie in the exploration of cultural co-creation activities in smart cities through a scoping literature review. While smart cities are a continuously evolving topic in academic literature, the specific focus on the dynamics and evolution of the cultural co-creation initiatives, where citizens, businesses, and governments collaborate in designing and implementing urban solutions should be made.