Michelle Cullen

Information and communication technologies are increasingly being infused into city systems and services as part of a growing trend to make cities ‘smart’. Through the design and implementation of these efforts, large information technology (IT) providers are interacting with local government policy and planning processes via: (a) strategy—project objectives, priorities and approaches; (b) engagement—which actors are involved, the roles they play and the interactions between and among them; and (c) representation—how the local government portrays the project through narrative and brand. In the discussion below, I argue that as smart projects multiply, interactions around this proliferation will pave the way for IT providers to more broadly inform urban governance processes. For in effect, IT providers are not just selling smart technologies. Rather, they are propagating a set of assertions about the role, structure, function and relationships of local government. These assertions ar...

© 2000 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/THE WORLD BANK 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20433 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First printing May 2000 The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed ...

Social capital sits alongside human, financial, and physical capital. The World Bank defines it succinctly as “the norms and networks that enable collective action”. 1 Social capital is seen by social scientists as something that cannot be directly observed or measured but ...

Page 1. Michelle Cullen Harvey Whiteford June 2001 The Interrelations of Social Capital with Health and Mental Health DISCUSSION PAPER Page 2. © Commonwealth of Australia 2001 ISBN 0 642 50330 3 ... II. SOCIAL CAPITAL: DEFINITIONS AND FRAMEWORK . . . . . ...