Smart networked cities?

This paper aims to critically assess the lack of a global inter-urban perspective in the smart city policy framework from a conceptual standpoint. We argue here that the smart city policy agenda should be informed by and address the structure of transnational urban networks as this can affect the efficiency of such local policies. The significance of this global network structure is essential as cities do not exist in a vacuum. On the contrary, urban development is heavily based on urban interdependencies found at a global scale. After critically analyzing smart city characteristics and the world city network literature, we identify the need for global urban interdependencies to be addressed in a smart city policy framework. While this paper approaches this issue from a theoretical standpoint, some policy examples are also provided. © 2012 Copyright ICCR Foundation.