Building a Workforce for Smart City Governance: Challenges and Opportunities for the Planning and Administrative Professions

The growth of smart cities and collateral movements offer new and exciting possibilities for the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for service delivery, civic engagement, and governance. The exponential growth of ICTs and their use in governance both formally and informally highlights the need for urban planners and public administrators who are trained on how to use ICTs to achieve the public interest, maximize the positive impacts of ICTs, and minimize the negative impacts of ICTs. This presents a challenge for professional education to provide a supporting infrastructure that trains urban planners and public administrators for smart city governance in the 21st century. This paper reviews those challenges and suggests changes in content and delivery options that can be implemented in urban planning and public affairs programs.