Critical review of citizens’ participation in achieving smart sustainable cities: the case of Saudi Arabia

The concept of citizens’ participation (CP) has been widely adopted by
scholars, professionals and governments around the world. Many frameworks have been developed that include CP as a core domain. Although government agencies admit the usefulness of adopting CP, there is little written about the application of CP in the context of smart cities. The aim of this study is to critically review the literature focussed on engaging, empowering and enabling citizens to participate in achieving smart cities in relation to decision-making, digital communication and socio-cultural pillars, and to develop a conceptual framework that helps in demonstrating the interconnection of the identified fields. The data were retrieved from online search engines. Google trends, annual publications, CP in relation to other domains, authors’ affiliations and active authors were reviewed. Since 1985, there has been a considerable number of articles published annually relating to CP, yet there has been a fluctuation in the number of annual publications. Authors have contributed significantly to the topic of smart cities. However, there is little in the literature that contributes to achieving smart sustainable cities through CP. Moreover, recent publications have increased dramatically compared to past years. Universities are the top contributors in terms of authors’ affiliations. Subject to validation by empirical evidence, the citizens’ participation framework developed can be adopted to achieve smart, sustainable urbanisation in Saudi Arabia. The framework focuses on the empowerment of CP in making decisions, the application of ICT to facilitate CP and effective stakeholder communication between citizens and government.