Smart cities continue to be conceived and implemented around the world as literature documenting these trends grows at a similar pace. Practices focused on narrow techno-economic objectives have met with sharp criticism as scholars have called for human-centred smart cities that explicitly address social issues and the needs of residents. Yet, literature has made few attempts to systematically compare a representative sample of smart city practices and discussions using objective methods that combine quantitative and qualitative approaches. This study thus focuses on Sweden and Japan as two nations particularly active in the implementation and discussion of smart cities. To compare the state of discussions and practices in each country, we examine a sample of almost 2,000 academic studies published since 2010. Using co-occurrence network analysis (a type of content analysis), we objectively identify the thematic foci of discourse and practices in each country. We then explore the themes characterising each country’s network with qualitative descriptions from the sampled literature. Our analysis reveals unique trends in both countries related to the conceptual framing of smart cities, participation of local government and citizens, and differing interpretations of vulnerability to hazards. Overall, combined findings from both countries reveal that technology-focused discussions are dominating over social topics, such as human capital, stakeholder participation, governance, social equity and so forth. The absence of socially oriented research is more pronounced, however, in Japan. These findings provide important cues for future smart city research, policy and practice.

随着记录这些趋势的文献以类似的速度增长，世界各地继续构想和实施智慧城市。由于学者们呼吁建立以人为本的智慧城市，明确解决社会问题和居民的需求，因此专注于狭隘的技术经济目标的做法遭到了尖锐的批评。然而，文献很少尝试使用结合定量和定性方法的客观方法系统地比较智慧城市实践和讨论的代表性样本。因此，本研究重点关注瑞典和日本这两个在智慧城市的实施和讨论方面特别活跃的国家。为了比较每个国家的讨论和实践状况，我们检查了自 2010 年以来发表的近 2,000 份学术研究样本。使用共现网络分析（一种内容分析），我们客观地确定了每个国家的话语和实践的主题焦点。然后，我们通过抽样文献中的定性描述来探索表征每个国家/地区网络的主题。我们的分析揭示了两国在智慧城市概念框架、地方政府和公民参与以及对灾害脆弱性的不同解释方面的独特趋势。总体而言，两国的综合调查结果表明，以技术为重点的讨论正在主导社会话题，例如人力资本、利益相关者参与、治理、社会公平等。然而，在日本，缺乏面向社会的研究更为明显。这些发现为未来的智慧城市研究提供了重要线索，