Smart cities have been studied for many years, but smart homes and the citizens' actual living in these smart homes are less researched. We argue that for digital government research, and for governments to be successful in smart city development in practice, it is necessary not only to understand living on a societal level, but also living aspects in the narrow context of homes. Citizens populate the smart city and are the ones who are supposed to use the services provided by the government. In this article we explore and analyze digital and analogue services in smart homes developed in a new city district. We have conducted observational studies in 53 apartments during an urban living expo which we analyze by applying a set of socio-technical design principles. The research question that guides the analysis is: “What tensions between values in digital and analogue services for a smart living can be revealed by a socio-technical perspective?”. We identify five tensions between: 1) being in control and being controlled, 2) intended and undesirable use of personal data, 3) digital and analogue smartness, 4) smart home visions and practices, and 5) environmental and social sustainability. By revealing these tensions, we contribute to an understanding of the complexity of smart living. We also contribute by highlighting the importance of applying a perspective that captures both technology and citizen and user issues (i.e., social aspects) when developing services in the smart home context.

Implementation of smart meters is revolutionizing traditional energy grids, promoting energy efficiency, and enabling two-way communication between energy suppliers and consumers. This paper presents a scoping review of smart meters investigating functional and non-functional expectations, benefits, drawbacks, and factors influencing implementation of smart meters. The study aims at providing an overview of existing research in this area and identify gaps and limitations in literature, especially in between smart meter literature and how consumers perceive smart meters. Through a scoping review process, 16 articles were selected for analysis. The findings highlight the importance of real-time information, remote monitoring, accuracy, privacy, and security in smart meter functionality. The benefits encompass improved customer awareness, energy efficiency, and grid stability, while the drawbacks include privacy concerns and limitations in current standards. Factors influencing adoption include cost-benefit analysis, regulatory policies, consumer awareness, and technical considerations. The study reveals research gaps related to long-term performance, social and psychological factors, diverse consumer segments, privacy and data security, economic viability, regional contexts, and stakeholder dynamics. Addressing these gaps will contribute to maximizing benefits of smart meters, informing policymakers, utility companies, and researchers for effective strategies in energy management and sustainability. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research and underscores the need to understand consumers’ perspectives on smart meters.

Smart meters are often understood as central devices in the smart, flexible and sustainable electric grid, enabling consumers to adapt their electricity use to current supply. In this study we are interested in how different actors in a Swedish context understand the smart meters and fit them into their locally situated practices and contexts, and we analyze the smart meters with the concept of boundary objects as an analytical lens with the purpose of describing and explaining tensions between actors in intended and actual use of smart meters. The case study builds on empirical material from policy documents, web pages and user forums, and include the Swedish government, authorities, grid operators and electricity suppliers as well as consumers. The main conclusions are that consumers were not included in the design and roll-out of the smart meters, resulting in that the available information requires consumers to be active and resourceful experts.

This research in progress paper explores smart meters and demand side management (DSM) challenges and how this is perceived by suppliers of smart grids. It builds on semi-structured interviews and a literature review showing that smart meters are a highly important, relevant, and interesting research topic. We identify a need to include knowledge on how to develop smart meter technology further as well as how to increase both supplier and energy user engagement and involvement in development of smart meters technology. Our research shows that there exist gaps between: policies, goals and expectations on one side and implementation and use of smart meters on the other side. Based on initial results we conclude that there is a need to explore DSM and smart meter technology further and to learn from a social-technical IS perspective to overcome a one-sided perspective, or even deterministic view, on technology.

This reflection note is part of the special section focused on smart cities. The note puts contemporary smart city research into a societal context and elaborates on the role of a Scandinavian perspective in this domain. The authors reflect upon how Information Systems Research can contribute to smart city research and what additional value a Scandinavian perspective can bring. The note is focused on two topics: 1) participation and involvement, and 2) privacy and security.

Many of today's city planning projects aim to realize smart city ambitions. In order to plan and build a smart city district, where ICT is integrated in critical infrastructure and used to control and govern city functions in innovative ways, new ways of working in city planning are needed. The purpose of this article is to develop a framework that takes into account stakeholders and smartness dimensions in city planning. We have studied a city district development in Sweden where a new planning approach was implemented. The developed framework was used to analyze the complexity of this city planning process. By defining which smartness dimension each stakeholder primarily focus on and analyzing the consequences of this, the framework pinpoints each stakeholder's contribution and/or hindrance to the process and outcome. A recommendation from this study is that new stakeholder groups are important to involve in smart city planning, but this also adds complexity that must be acknowledged when setting up this kind of projects. The developed framework can be useful when organizing and staffing city planning processes as well as when evaluating project outcomes.

Cities are facing many challenges; challenges linked to world-wide trends like urbanisation, climate changes and globalisation. In parallel to these trends, we have seen a rapid digitalisation in and of different parts of society. Cities and local governments have been appointed an important role in overcoming these world-wide challenges, and subsequently, in policy practices digitalisation is perceived as an important dimension in delivering better and sustainable services to its citizens. As a result, the smart city has emerged as a concept and approach to contemporary urban planning and development. There is still no common understanding of the concept and what components and dimensions it covers. However, in all definitions digitalisation constitutes one dimension, but the role and function of it is still not clear.

In this study I have examined how different stakeholders talk about digitalisation in policy and planning practices of urban development. The aim has been to identify and analyse different repertoires of discourses on digitalisation to advance our knowledge on how goals related to the smart city and digitalisation are put into practice. The results are based on a qualitative and interpretative case study with a social constructionist approach. An analytical framework based on discourse analysis, stakeholder theory and (new) institutional theory has been constructed to analyse the case.

Main results show that repertoires on digitalisation are limited in both policy and planning of urban development. In these practices, digitalisation is primarily seen as a means or as a communication infrastructure in relation to two city services/functions; i.e. services related to governance and to environment. Results also show that practices of urban planning and development are institutionalised, where different stakeholders’ salience and stakes in urban development and in digitalisation differ, but it is clear that digitalisation is a secondary issue. Implications of these results are that the taken-for-granted discourses in policy and planning practices of urban development limit both practice and research when developing a smart city.

Städer står inför många utmaningar kopplat till världsomspännande trender såsom urbanisering, klimatförändringar, och globalisering. Parallellt med dessa trender har vi sett en snabb digitalisering i och av olika delar av samhället. I detta sammanhang har städer och kommuner blivit tilldelade en viktig roll i hanteringen av dessa utmaningar. På policynivå ses digitalisering som en viktig dimension för att leverera hållbar och bättre service till medborgarna. Som ett led i detta har smarta städer vuxit fram som både begrepp och metod för stadsplanering och stadsutveckling. Det finns dock ingen gemensam tolkning av begreppet. Däremot finns digitalisering med som en dimension i definitionerna, men vilken roll och funktion den har är fortfarande oklart.

I denna studie har jag undersökt hur olika intressenter talar om digitalisering i olika policy- och planeringspraktiker kopplat till stadsutveckling. Syftet har varit att identifiera och analysera repertoarer av digitaliseringsdiskurser för att bidra med kunskap om hur mål kopplade till smarta städer och digitalisering omsätts i praktiken. Resultaten är baserade på en kvalitativ och tolkande fallstudie med en socialkonstruktionistisk ansats. Ett analytiskt ramverk baserat på diskursanalys, intressentanalys, och nyinstitutionell teori har tagits fram för att analysera fallet.

Resultaten visar att digitaliseringsrepertoarer är begränsade både i policy och i planering av stadsutveckling. I dessa praktiker ses digitalisering främst som ett verktyg eller en kommunikationsinfrastruktur i relation till två samhällsfunktioner, nämligen funktioner kopplade till styrning och administration, och funktioner kopplade till miljö. Resultaten visar också att praktiker kopplade till stadsplanering och stadsutveckling är institutionaliserade, praktiker där olika intressenter har olika makt, legitimitet och angelägenhet gällande stadsutveckling och digitalisering. Det är dock tydligt att digitalisering är en sekundär fråga. Implikationerna av dessa resultat är att de förgivettagna diskurserna begränsar både praktiken och forskningen i utvecklingen av smart städer.

ICT potentially plays an important part in achieving sustainable urban development. Subsequntly, ICT could be expected to have a central role in the general discourse of urban development, and in specific development projects, both as a means in the planning process itself and as an end product, i.e. smart city solutions. By exploring a case study of a local urban development project (Urb@n) in Sweden, we explore different characteristics given to ICT and how they can be understood as different discourses of sustainable development. By studying how ICT is spoken of in the planning phase of urban development we can understand how different stakeholders interpret and incorporate (or not) the technology in the design and development of urban areas, and how they collaborate in order to achieve goals. Our findings show that there are discrepancies between how ICT is spoken of on a policy level and in practice. A conclusion is that technology is both taken for granted and black-boxed at the same time. This indicates rather naïve conceptions and understandings among stakeholders of what characterizes ICT and how it can be used for different purposes to support sustainable development.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore if and how a professional identity can be formed in the wake of the foundation of a new public service. In the article, we focus on how different forces, regulative and emergent, interact and contribute to a development of a coherent understanding of a professional identity in a decentralised service. The case of local authority energy and climate consultancy is an illustrative example of a nascent service occupation in Sweden where the individuals holding the job title are geographically dispersed.  

Design/methodology/approach: This paper has a qualitative approach and relies on three different data sources: participatory observations, written documents, and in-depth interviews with energy and climate advisers working in a particular region in Sweden. The study covers the years 2005 to 2010.

Findings: Our findings suggest that identity formation among geographically dispersed individuals in a nascent service occupation is possible. The development of collective understanding of the professional identity is influenced both by regulative and emergent forces, which interact.

Research limitations/implications: This paper is limited to one particular service occupation in Sweden from which generalisations are limited.

Practical implications: The findings may serve as useful input for management in order to understand facilitation of identity building among professionals in decentralised functions.

Originality/value: The value of this study lies in the comprehensive approach to how different pertinent forces interact with each other in order for a cohesive understanding of a work-related identity to develop in newly established service occupations.

Att nya samhällsfunktioner och professioner växer fram som svar på behov i samhället är inte något nytt fenomen i sig, men vad är det som händer när en ny decentraliserad funktion skapas utifrån ett statligt behov? Hur organiseras och samordnas den? Och leder den nya samhällsfunktionen även till att en ny profession växer fram? I professionslitteraturen lyfts olika förklaringsmodeller till professioner ochprofessionalisering fram, allt från strukturfunktionalistiska förklaringar till monopolistiska och kulturella. Samtidigt när det handlar om utveckling av en ny funktion kan olika aspekter av organisationer och organisering bidra till ökad förståelse av vilken betydelse det har för att även en profession ska kunna ta form.

I den här studien är det ett statligt behov som legat till grund för att en ny samhällsfunktion har kommit att utvecklas. Som ett led i genomförandet av politiska mål skapades förutsättningar för kommuner att ansöka om bidrag för att tillhandhålla en ny funktion: kommunal energi- och klimatrådgivning. Den nya funktionens främsta uppgift var att förmedla anpassad kunskap om energieffektivisering, energianvändning och klimatpåverkan till allmänhet, företag och organisationer. Fokus i studien har varit på hur organiseringen kring den nya funktionen sett ut, vilken roll IT har i detta och vilka konsekvenser organiseringen haft för samordning och för skapandet av en profession. Dessa områden hanteras i tre artiklar. Den första artikeln undersöker om och hur en professionell identitet kan formas som ett led i utvecklingen av en ny samhällsfunktion. Fokus ligger på hur reglerande och framväxande krafter samspelar och kompletterar varandra i formandet av en enhetlig tolkning av en professionell identitet. Den andra artikeln utforskar hur kunskap och praktik kan strömlinjeformas i en decentraliserad verksamhet, där styrningen karaktäriseras av olika intressenters inblandning. Den tredje artikeln undersöker hur samverkan utifrån samordnade insatser kring kunskap och kunskapsdelning kan växa fram och på så sätt skapa livskraftiga nätverk.

Organiseringen kring den nya samhällsfunktionen visar på både ett decentraliserat och ett centraliserat ansvar, där kommunerna har det operativa ansvaret och statens energimyndighet har ett övergripande administrativt och samordnande ansvar. Samordning sker på olika nivåer och på olika sätt. Bland annat har en regional samordning i nätverk vuxit fram. Den regionala samordningen har visat sig vara viktig för att en gemensam tolkning av uppdrag och utförande ska kunna ta form, men även för att tillit och identitet utvecklas inom gruppen. Den nationella samordningen rör bland annat utbildning och informationsinsatser och i detta sammanhang har IT haft en central roll. Sammantaget har olika aspekter av organisering kring en ny samhällsfunktion, såsom uppdragsreglering, planering och uppföljning, och inte minst samordning, bidragit till att en professionell identitet börjat växa fram.

The establishment of new public services and the evolvement of new professions as a consequence of identified needs in society is hardly something new, but what happens when a new decentralized service is created on the basis of governmental needs? How is it organized and how is it coordinated? Does the creation of a new service also lead to the development of a new profession? In profession literature different explanations of professions and professionalization are emphasized, e.g. functional, structural, monopolistic, and cultural. However, as it also concerns development of a new service, different aspects of organizations and organizing could contribute to increasing knowledge about its implications for the development of a profession

The current study concerns the development of a new service in response to a governmental need. As a step in carrying out political goals, conditions were set for local authorities to apply for funding in order to carry out a new service: local authority energy and climate consultancy. The primary task of the new service was to convey coordinated knowledge about energy efficiency, energy consumption and climate effects to the general public, businesses and organizations. Focus in this study has been on the organization of the service, what role IT has, and what the implications of this organizing are to coordination and the creation of a profession. These areas are covered in three articles. The first article explores if and how a professional identity is forming in the wake of the new service. Focus lies on how regulative and emergent forces interact and supplement each other in the formation of a coherent understanding of a professional identity. The second article explores how knowledge and practice could be aligned in a decentralized service, where control is characterized by the involvement of several stakeholders. The third article explores how networking could emerge from coordination of knowledge and knowledge exchange, and thus create viable networks.

Hence, the organization of the new public service shows both a decentralized and a centralized responsibility, where local authorities have the operative responsibility and the energy agency has an administrative and coordinative responsibility. Coordination is achieved on different levels and in different ways. For instance, a regional networking structure for coordination has emerged, and that regional coordination has itself shown to be important for a coherent understanding of the mission to  develop, but also for developing trust and identity within the group. The national coordination concerns training and information, and in this context IT plays an important role. Altogether, different aspects of organizing the new public service, i.e. regulations, planning and evaluation, and above all coordination, have contributed to the formation of a professional identity.