Governments around the world are developing smart city projects, with the aim to realize diverse goals of increased efficiency, sustainability, citizen engagement, and improved delivery of services. The processes through which these projects are conceptualized vary dramatically, with potential implications for how citizens are involved or engaged. This research examines the 20 finalists in the Canadian Smart Cities Challenge, a Canadian federal government contest held from 2017 to 2019 to disburse funding in support of smart city projects. We analyzed each of the finalist proposals, coding all instances of citizen engagement used to develop the proposal. A significant majority of the proposals used traditional types of citizen engagement, notably citizen meetings, round tables, and workshops, to develop their smart city plans. We also noted the use of transactional forms of citizen engagement, such as apps, and the use of social media. Despite the general rhetoric of innovation in the development of smart cities, this research finds that citizens are most commonly engaged in traditional ways. This research provides cues for governments that are developing smart city projects, placing an emphasis on the importance of the process of smart city development, and not simply the product.

中文翻译：

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加拿大智慧城市：我们是否正在建立新的公民与地方政府互动关系？

世界各国政府正在开发智慧城市项目，以实现提高效率，可持续性，公民参与度和改善服务质量的各种目标。这些项目的概念化过程差异很大，对公民的参与或参与方式有潜在的影响。这项研究调查了2017年至2019年举行的加拿大联邦政府竞赛``加拿大智慧城市挑战赛''中的20名决赛选手，该竞赛旨在分配资金以支持智慧城市项目。我们分析了每个决赛入围者的提案，并对用于制定提案的所有公民参与实例进行了编码。绝大多数提案使用传统类型的公民参与方式，特别是公民会议，圆桌会议和讲习班，来制定其智慧城市计划。我们还注意到使用了公民参与的交易形式，例如应用程序，以及使用了社交媒体。尽管在智慧城市发展中普遍采用创新的言论，但这项研究发现，公民最常采用传统方式。这项研究为正在开发智慧城市项目的政府提供了线索，着重强调了智慧城市发展过程的重要性，而不仅仅是产品。