Implementing effective governance is essential for cities to become 'smart', considering the complexity of urban challenges and the involvement of diverse stakeholders. Smart urban governance, enabled by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), fosters close collaboration between citizens and local governments. Intelligence should be seen as a continuum on which local government officials, citizens, and other stakeholders could think about and implement initiatives that try to make a city a better place to live and work. This new governance model is centered on communication, interaction, collaboration, and participation in decision-making, strengthening direct democracy, increasing citizen engagement, and promoting transparency and openness in government relations.

Maria Alexandra Cunha, a researcher at the São Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV EAESP), in collaboration with Erico Przeybilovicz, investigated the new modes of governance in smart cities, publishing an article in Government Information Quarterly. The research was based on two longitudinal qualitative case studies: "Curitiba Collaborates" in Curitiba and "Pátio Digital" in São Paulo.

These cases were selected considering the urban history of cities and the different modes of governance perceived, both characterized by the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and collaboration between government and social actors. Data were collected through interviews, observations, documents of initiatives, laws and regulations, as well as news and academic papers on the cases. The research analyzed the structure of the actors involved, groups formed, interactions and relevant choices to determine the socio-technical interaction networks and their results.

Findings

The research highlighted that platform governance and smart urban governance, characterized as socio-technical systems, are transforming traditional governance models in cities. The results point to the dynamic configuration of new modes of governance in smart city initiatives, which vary over time and between different projects. The case studies of "Curitiba Collaborates" and "Digital Patio" showed that participatory and collaborative governance, driven by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), encouraged the development of smart city projects in partnership with society.

Two emerging modes of governance have been identified: "Smart Governance for Data-Driven Innovation" and "Networked Governance for Co-creation of Smart Solutions", which differ in objectives, roles of government and citizens, and the nature of interactions. The interaction between technological artifacts, government entities, social actors, and existing modes of governance has been recognized as a dynamic and fundamental process for the emergence of smart urban governance in the digital age.

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