Institutional logics of the smart city and the emergence of new configurations of local governance
(2026) In Cities 171.- Abstract
- The smart city is a prominent urban development discourse that has been applied to urban policies and programs around the world. To date, there are limited empirical insights on how smart city policies and programs are leading to institutional change in urban local governance. Recent scholarship has mobilized the notion of institutional logics to unpack how the broader smart city discourse shapes local governance landscapes. We contribute to this scholarship by exploring how institutional logics of the smart city come together in context-specific configurations. To do so, we draw upon empirical findings from an in-depth qualitative case study of Kochi, one of the first 20 cities to win funding from India's Smart Cities Mission. The study... (More)
- The smart city is a prominent urban development discourse that has been applied to urban policies and programs around the world. To date, there are limited empirical insights on how smart city policies and programs are leading to institutional change in urban local governance. Recent scholarship has mobilized the notion of institutional logics to unpack how the broader smart city discourse shapes local governance landscapes. We contribute to this scholarship by exploring how institutional logics of the smart city come together in context-specific configurations. To do so, we draw upon empirical findings from an in-depth qualitative case study of Kochi, one of the first 20 cities to win funding from India's Smart Cities Mission. The study findings show how institutional logics of the smart city shape the structure and functioning of the new organisation – the smart city special purpose vehicle (SPV) - set up to implement smart city projects. A hybridisation of corporate and technocratic logics shapes the governance structure of the SPV as a corporate organisation with a company board staffed by licenced professions hired from the private sector. Tensions among collaboration, innovation, and bureaucratic logics shape and limit the functioning of the SPV as various smart city experiments face resistance from bureaucratic logics of the state government actors involved. A hybridisation of branding and market logics connects the city to global smart city trends and enhances the reputation of Kochi through marketing and boosterism. The study provides new insights on how smart city policies and programmes are resulting in institutional changes at the local level. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/13e8b631-ccb3-4992-be64-1aba5f2ee79e
- author
- Prakash, Devika and Karvonen, Andrew LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Smart cities, Institutional logics, Organisations, Local governance, Digitalisation, India
- in
- Cities
- volume
- 171
- article number
- 106727
- pages
- 9 pages
- publisher
- Elsevier
- ISSN
- 0264-2751
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.cities.2025.106727
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 13e8b631-ccb3-4992-be64-1aba5f2ee79e
- date added to LUP
- 2025-12-17 08:06:15
- date last changed
- 2025-12-19 09:53:56
@article{13e8b631-ccb3-4992-be64-1aba5f2ee79e,
abstract = {{The smart city is a prominent urban development discourse that has been applied to urban policies and programs around the world. To date, there are limited empirical insights on how smart city policies and programs are leading to institutional change in urban local governance. Recent scholarship has mobilized the notion of institutional logics to unpack how the broader smart city discourse shapes local governance landscapes. We contribute to this scholarship by exploring how institutional logics of the smart city come together in context-specific configurations. To do so, we draw upon empirical findings from an in-depth qualitative case study of Kochi, one of the first 20 cities to win funding from India's Smart Cities Mission. The study findings show how institutional logics of the smart city shape the structure and functioning of the new organisation – the smart city special purpose vehicle (SPV) - set up to implement smart city projects. A hybridisation of corporate and technocratic logics shapes the governance structure of the SPV as a corporate organisation with a company board staffed by licenced professions hired from the private sector. Tensions among collaboration, innovation, and bureaucratic logics shape and limit the functioning of the SPV as various smart city experiments face resistance from bureaucratic logics of the state government actors involved. A hybridisation of branding and market logics connects the city to global smart city trends and enhances the reputation of Kochi through marketing and boosterism. The study provides new insights on how smart city policies and programmes are resulting in institutional changes at the local level.}},
author = {{Prakash, Devika and Karvonen, Andrew}},
issn = {{0264-2751}},
keywords = {{Smart cities; Institutional logics; Organisations; Local governance; Digitalisation; India}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Cities}},
title = {{Institutional logics of the smart city and the emergence of new configurations of local governance}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2025.106727}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.cities.2025.106727}},
volume = {{171}},
year = {{2026}},
}