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In recent years many initiatives have been developed under the Smart City label in a bid to provide a response to challenges facing cities today. The concept has evolved from a sector-based approach to a more comprehensive view that places governance and stakeholders' involvement at the core of strategies. However, Smart City implementation requires lowering the scale from the strategy to the project level. Therefore, the ability of Smart City initiatives to provide an integrated and systematic answer to urban challenges is constantly being called into question. Stakeholder involvement in both the projects and the city strategy is key to developing a governance framework that allows an integrated and comprehensive understanding. This can only be done if Smart City strategies take the stakeholders' opinion into account and seek a compromise between their views and the implementation of the strategy. Multiple attempts have been made to analyse Smart Cities, but tools are needed to understand their complexity and reflect the stakeholders' role in developing Smart City initiatives and their capacity to face urban challenges. This paper pursues two objectives: (A) to develop a conceptual model capable of displaying an overview of (a) the stakeholders taking part in the initiative in relation to (b) the projects developed and (c) the challenges they face; and (B) to use this model to synthesise the opinion of different stakeholders involved in Smart City initiatives and compare their attitudes to the key projects implemented in a corresponding SC strategy. The methodology combines project analysis with surveys and interviews with different groups of key stakeholders (governments, private companies, universities and research centres, and civil society) through text analysis. The conceptual model is developed through discussions with different European stakeholders and is applied to the case of the Vienna Smart City strategy.

In recent years many initiatives have been developed under the Smart City label in a bid to provide a response to challenges facing cities today. The concept has evolved from a sector-based approach to a more comprehensive view that places governance and stakeholders' involvement at the core of strategies. However, Smart City implementation requires lowering the scale from the strategy to the project level. Therefore, the ability of Smart City initiatives to provide an integrated and systematic answer to urban challenges is constantly being called into question. Stakeholder involvement in both the projects and the city strategy is key to developing a governance framework that allows an integrated and comprehensive understanding. This can only be done if Smart City strategies take the stakeholders' opinion into account and seek a compromise between their views and the implementation of the strategy. Multiple attempts have been made to analyse Smart Cities, but tools are needed to understand their complexity and reflect the stakeholders' role in developing Smart City initiatives and their capacity to face urban challenges. This paper pursues two objectives: (A) to develop a conceptual model capable of displaying an overview of (a) the stakeholders taking part in the initiative in relation to (b) the projects developed and (c) the challenges they face; and (B) to use this model to synthesise the opinion of different stakeholders involved in Smart City initiatives and compare their attitudes to the key projects implemented in a corresponding SC strategy. The methodology combines project analysis with surveys and interviews with different groups of key stakeholders (governments, private companies, universities and research centres, and civil society) through text analysis. The conceptual model is developed through discussions with different European stakeholders and is applied to the case of the Vienna Smart City strategy.

Due to different reasons cities are increasingly challenged to improve their competitiveness. Different strategic efforts are discussed in planning sciences, new approaches and instruments are elaborated and applied, steering the positioning of cities in a competitive urban world. As one specific consequence city rankings have experienced a remarkable boom. However, there is some evidence that public attention of city rankings is mainly concentrated simply on the ranks themselves totally neglecting its meaning as an instrument for strategic planning. In order to elaborate this potential meaning of rankings the paper gives an overview of different types and introduces an own approach called ‘Smart City ranking’. Based on this ranking approach and corresponding experiences of different cities reacting on its dissemination in the second part the paper shows how this approach can be used as an effective instrument detecting strengths and weaknesses and improving a city’s competitiveness through relevant strategic efforts., Per diferents motius, les ciutats es troben cada vegada en major mesura front el repte de millorar la seva competitivitat. Diferents esforços estratègics són discutits en les ciències del planejament, nous enfocaments i instruments són elaborats i posats en pràctica, guiant el posicionament de les ciutats en un competitiu món urbà. Una conseqüència específica d’això és que la categorització de ciutats ha experimentat un augment notable. No obstant, hi ha certs indicis de que l’atenció pública respecte de la categorització de ciutats es centra principalment en les últimes posicions, oblidant completament la seva significança com instrument de planificació estratègica. Amb la finalitat de desenvolupar aquesta potencial significança de les categoritzacions, l’article fa un repàs de diferents tipus i presenta una aproximació pròpia anomenada “Smart City Ranking”. Basat en aquest enfocament a la categorització i les corresponents experiències de la reacció de diferents ciutats respecte a la seva difusió, en una segona part l’article mostra com aquesta aproximació pot ser utilitzada com instrument eficaç, reconeixent fortaleses i debilitats i millorant la competitivitat de les ciutats a través d’esforços estratègics adequats., Por diferentes motivos, las ciudades se encuentran cada vez en mayor medida ante el reto de mejorar su competitividad. Distintos esfuerzos estratégicos son discutidos en las ciencias del planeamiento, nuevos enfoques e instrumentos son elaborados y puestos en práctica, guiando el posicionamiento de las ciudades en un mundo urbano competitivo. Una consecuencia específica de ello es que la categorización de ciudades ha experimentado un auge notable. Sin embargo, hay ciertos indicios de que la atención sobre la jerarquización de ciudades se centra principalmente en las últimas posiciones, olvidando completamente su significancia como instrumento de planificación estratégica. Con el fin de desarrollar esta potencial significancia este artículo hace un repaso de distintos tipos y presenta una aproximación propia llamada “Smart City Ranking”. Basado en este enfoque a la categorización y las correspondientes experiencias de la reacción de diferentes ciudades en cuanto a su difusión, en una segunda parte el artículo muestra como esta aproximación puede ser utilizada como un instrumento eficaz, reconociendo fortalezas y debilidades y mejorando la competitividad de las ciudades a través de esfuerzos estratégicos adecuados., Peer Reviewed

In a globalizing economy territories –most of all large cities and urban regions– find themselves in competition with other cities and regions. Very obviously, cities which are ranked highest are challenged to become a metropolis competing with other metropolises on –at least- the European level. This means, high ranking cities should attract not only general economic functions on the interregional and national level but more specific functions like decision centres of multinational firms, international strategic and controlling institutions (private or public) in the political, economic and cultural sphere (Krätke, 1995). Besides others, specific challenges of governance emerge for strategic efforts on the urban-regional level in order to secure and increase the competitiveness of such territories. From a theoretical point, absolute advantages provided through strategic efforts on the urban-regional level, are predominantly responsible for the strengthening of its competitiveness. (Camagni, 2002; 2008) Anyhow, in this paper we concentrate on two topics: First, we discuss selected metropolitan functions and relevant impacts on spatial development. Second, we concentrate on specific strategic efforts which aim on the attraction and strengthening of metropolitan functions and competitiveness. Dealing with these topics empirically, we describe the process of metropolisation of Barcelona and Vienna and try to assess relevant strategic efforts in a comparative way., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Because of radical economic and technological changes cities are facing growing competition for investors, tourists, qualified labour or international events over the last decades (see Begg 1999). As a consequence city rankings have experienced a remarkable boom: On the one hand the comparison of cities can support investors in their choice of location, on the other hand it can be an important guide for the cities to judge their strengths and weaknesses and to define their goals and strategies for future development and better positioning in the urban system. However, there is some evidence that the discussion of city rankings is mainly concentrated on the final ranks totally neglecting (1) the methods and indicators used (see Schönert 2003) resp. (2) its purpose and effectiveness for strategic planning aiming at the strengthening of the position to be gained. In front of this development, this paper concentrates first on the question what are the basic characteristics of national and international city rankings. Correspondingly, a selected number of city rankings are analyzed in order to identify different types of such rankings. Thereby, the number and features of the indicators used in these rankings as well as their methods of sequencing is described systematically. The sample of indicators and the complexity of the ranking approach itself constitute the base for a quality assessment of city rankings discussed within this paper. In particular, an own ranking approach ("European Smart Cities") is described. In the second part, the paper concentrates on the question how cities cope with the results and what are typical reactions of local governments and stakeholders. For providing insight into the way cities respond, it is described how they try to make use of their results to city rankings respectively how they reflect on the strengths and weaknesses revealed in the study. In this context different urban strategies for steering development and processes of learni, Peer Reviewed