Chapter 3: Conceptualising city digital twins (CDTs)

The theoretical perspectives introduced in the previous chapter are helpful to support the argument that the conceptualisation, design and implementation of CDTs must explicitly incorporate the expected improved social outcomes to be delivered and the existing locally relevant socio-technical systems. However, they provide little guidance on what exactly this socio-technical perspective may imply for CDTs as technical artefacts. To address this issue, this chapter endeavours to link smart city governance to technology development.

Despite the associated benefits, it cannot be assumed that quadruple helix systems exist, and function well, in any given city (Zuzul, 2019). First, it is not immediately obvious that in any given place each of the different types of societal actors specified in the quadruple helix model are readily available. Second, the functioning of quadruple helix systems is dependent on collaborative relationships which must be actively constructed, maintained and shaped by locally relevant stakeholders (Vallance et al., 2020). This interest in participation and collaboration as key enabling mechanisms of (urban) governance has been a prominent feature of public policy and administration scholarship for decades. Herein, scholars argue that participation and collaboration are not only beneficial but also necessary to counteract the negative impacts of fragmentation and deal with contemporary complex problems (see Innes and Booher, 2010; Newman et al., 2004; Weber and Khademian, 2008 and also Section 2.2 of this book).