Neither Bottom Up, Nor Top Down: Time for Hybrid Smart Cities

This keynote addresses the need to move beyond traditional top-down and bottom-up approaches in smart city development, advocating for a hybrid model that integrates both. By balancing technological innovations with community-driven initiatives, hybrid smartness creates more equitable and sustainable urban environments. Drawing from the evolution of smart city discourse, this talk highlights how hybrid smartness can solve urban challenges more effectively by intertwining top-down infrastructure with bottom-up citizen engagement. The keynote will explore how this socio-technical integration can reshape cities to be inclusive and responsive to both human and environmental needs.