SMART CITIES, HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

This paper intends to analyze the main technological aspects of the smart city as a solution to the problem of social exclusion that has been observed with the implementation of the New Information and Communication Technologies (NICT). To this end, it is questioned: How can the social dimension of sustainability – understood as access to basic Human Rights – be implemented by smart cities, especially to foster the right to democratic participation? Aiming at this, the research treats, as specific objectives, the conceptualization of the smart city and the analysis of new technologies that provide its operation; characterize the new data-driven urbanism and, study the Human Right to social participation. It is concluded that the new forms of social participation, such as e-democracy and e-participation, aim at the reaffirmation of democratic principles discredited by a disengaged citizenship. To this end, it was observed that the smart city is capable of promoting citizen engagement, since NICT provide low cost and the capacity to be defended as a free and egalitarian social sphere above individual interests. Methodology: Bibliographic review technique, dialectical procedure method and qualitative approach.