A Study Of Government Roles In The Construction Of Smart Cities

The rapid development of information technology in the Internet of things and big data has laid solid foundations and provided technological support for the construction of smart cities.Smart cities nowadays are designed to strengthen the infrastructure of communications network and the apps to provide smart services.The construction of smart cities,which is getting increasing popularity in practice,has become a key strategy to foster the development of cities with the quick development of the Internet of things,cloud computing and 4G technologies.In general,various countries and areas have different goals,focuses and operation modes which exist not only between developed countries and developing countries but among developing countries.As a result,government agencies play different roles in different countries in the construction of smart cities.The dissertation aims to make an analysis of the functions of government agencies based on the evidence from the metropolitan city of Shanghai in order to put forward scientific and practical suggestions.The dissertation begins with a brief introduction of the background as well as the theoretic and practical significance of the construction of smart cities as the reason to choose this topic.Meanwhile,the dissertation conducts a literature review of the construction of smart cities covering the concepts,ideas,significance,problems,evaluation system and tactics of smart cities both in theory and practice.This dissertation argues that the research into smart cities nowadays are insufficient in that there is a lack of theoretical analysis in the researches and new theories inducted in this area that can be generalized,from which this dissertation is to begin.The introduction of research methods,both qualitative and quantitative methods,follows.Qualitative methods include literature analysis,QCA and single case study while quantitative methods include descriptive statistics.The structure of the dissertation is followed with the introduction of the evolution of smart cities,the analysis framework of the dissertation and the introduction of the five key functions of government agencies in the construction of smart cities in five chapters respectively,which contains some comparative cases at micro level and suggestions for Shanghai based on the research.The last part is conclusion of the dissertation of both innovations and weaknesses including the concept of smart cities,the two-dimensional analysis of government functions in the construction of smart cities and the in-depth analysis of government functions from the perspective of the relationship between state,market and society.The second part of this dissertation is a key part which focuses on the government function theory thus the leading role and the functions of the government deducted at the last.Based on it,the paper sets up five core functions of government agencies are inducted including overall planning,financing,participating in the operation of smart cities,coordinating different forces and providing public services and regulations,which can be put in categories of development and regulation.This paper argues that the functions of initial overall planning,financing and some functions of coordination of resources belong to the dimension of development while some functions of coordination of resources,participating in the operation of smart cities,and the provision of regulation both in the construction of smart cities and public services belong to the dimension of regulation.Government agencies are undertaking an increasing role in regulations instead of development across the world,which also applies to Shanghai.The following part will discuss the five government functions in depth.The third chapter discusses the first function of government agencies in the construction of smart cities,that is the function of overall planning.This part examines how Shanghai municipal government and its agencies conduct this function.In the meanwhile,this chapter also examines the practice of overall planning in developed countries and conducts a comparison,from which Shanghai can draw a good lesson.The fourth part of the paper discusses the second function of government agencies in the construction of smart cities,that is to coordinate and integrate resources both with the government and in society.As we all know,the construction of smart cities is a huge and systematic program which calls for the resources from the whole society.As heterogeneity of the Chinese society is becoming more and more prominent,coordination in governance is needed to integrate resources from different social forces.The role of coordination and integration belong to government agencies in the construction of smart cities.Shanghai municipal government coordinates human resources,finance resources and materials within the government by the Shanghai Smart City Construction Leading Small Group to enhance its capacity in the construction of smart cities on the one hand.On the other hand,Shanghai municipal government makes continuous efforts to coordinate resources both within the government and the whole society through contracts in different forms to give full play to social forces.Based on the former part,this paper puts forward some suggestions aimed at the problems of the roles of Shanghai municipal government in coordination and integration of resources in order to help to make contributions to and provide references for the improvement of current mode of coordination and integration of resources by the government in Shanghai.The fifth chapter examines the third function of government agencies in the construction of smart cities,that is financing from various channels,which lays solid economic foundations for the construction of smart cities.Based on evidence from Shanghai,this paper analyzes various ways the Shanghai municipal government employs and their preconditions.The practice and experience of other cities are also discussed.In the end,prospects for Shanghai to make innovations in financing channels are put forward.The sixth chapter discusses the fourth function of government agencies in the construction of smart cities,that is to participate in the operation of smart cities in various manners.Government agencies may monopoly the operation of some areas,such as the R&D of core electronics,sophisticated general chip and basic software products.Besides,government agencies may establish public private partnership with enterprises and social organizations.For example,some programs such as the development,construction,application and operation of infrastructure and others can be out contracted to enterprises and social organizations.Thus,different models of operation is formulated and evidence from Shanghai is provided,which provides a whole picture of the role government agencies undertake in the construction of smart cities.At last,this paper formulates some prospects are described,which are aimed at the problems which occurred in the operation of smart cities and hopes to make a difference.The seventh chapter of the dissertation focuses on regulation,the last function of the government in the construction of smart cities,which includes the functions of provision of public services and regulation.The former four functions of government agencies ought to serve the last function in nature,which is also the goal of the construction of smart cities.The provision of public services is a part of regulation.Meanwhile,Shanghai municipal government conducts overall regulations on the construction,operation and the provision of public services to ensure that the construction of smart cities are on the right track.Government agencies are undertaking an increasing role in regulations instead of development across the world in many areas including in the construction of smart cities,which calls for the further attention from practitioners and the academia alike.The last part of the dissertation is its conclusion that sums up the paper briefly.The main conclusions,arguments,innovations,problems and areas to be furthered in the future as well as prospects for future researches are included.From the perspective of methodology,methods of comparative case study and quantitative methods are to be employed in the research of smart cities.