From Smart City to Wise City

The term smart emerged in the USA in the 1990s as part of the Smart Growth citizens' movement. At the same time, the term Smart City was coined by firms such as Cisco, IBM, Siemens and Ericsson to promote urban development that was increasingly dependent on information and communication technologies (ICT) and globalization.

From a definitional point of view, the notion of Smart City remains ambiguous and is far from being conceptually stabilized to the point where it can be considered a catch-all concept. However, it is increasingly attracting the attention of urban planners, decision-makers, local authorities, academics and institutions. All authors agree that the Smart City is part of a transformative dynamic revolving around urban public players. Today, becoming a Smart City is probably the most widely shared urban ambition in the world.

At first glance, a Smart City is digital because it focuses on ICT to manage flows (energy, information, traffic), networks and urban infrastructures.

On second reading, the Smart City is more inclusive because it focuses on human capital and citizen participation, with the aim of saving resources while maintaining quality of life.

In a third reading, the Smart City is an extension of the sustainable city, drawing on both technology and social components to generate a city with a high quality of life. While the Smart City refers to the city, the latter concept applies to any local authority wishing to embark on an "intelligent" process. Moreover, the digital transition is having such a technological, organizational and cultural impact on society, that it is also raising new political issues of its own. As a result, the term "smart" is increasingly being replaced by "intelligent" or even "wise" to indicate the shift from the all-technological to the more sustainable and socially inclusive. The term wise evokes the potential of digital technology for territorial development, in a period of transition (digital and ecological) towards a new mode of civilization and development that is more sustainable, frugal and inclusive. A Wise City is therefore a city capable of achieving its goals of improving quality of life by using as few resources as possible, creating localized synergies without weakening its ecosystem. It relies as much on ICT as on collective intelligence, citizen empowerment and inclusion. The Wise City is an emerging paradigm in the wake of the Smart Growth movement that emerged in the United States in the early 1990s, referring to policies for managing the growth of urban and suburban housing and a set of design principles, or even a project for living and living. Smart Growth also aims to provide an alternative to urban sprawl.

The aim of this...