Introduction: Being smarter for productivity, livability, and sustainability

This chapter provides an introduction to the book, in which several cases of technological innovation and social innovation initiatives are discussed. It outlines the book’s organization and calls for a comprehensive understanding of the drivers, actors, and outcomes of smart city initiatives. As such, Chapter 2 develops a framework to examine city experiences in 11 countries/cities across Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the United Kingdom. The case studies provided in Chapters 3–1434567891011121314 constitute the ground for evaluation of exogenous and endogenous factors of smart city implementation and associated outcomes in Chapter 15. The last chapter highlights future directions for smart cities and outlines the role that preexisting information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructures play in the resilience of cities, most recently, in response to the social-distancing requirements of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).