Stakeholders' Views on ICT and Sustainable Development in an Urban Development Project

ICT potentially plays an important part in achieving sustainable urban development. Subsequently, 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.