{"id":11899,"date":"2026-04-21T12:57:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.proefschriftmaken.nl\/portfolio\/jialong-zhu\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T12:57:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:57:45","slug":"jialong-zhu","status":"publish","type":"us_portfolio","link":"https:\/\/www.proefschriftmaken.nl\/en\/portfolio\/jialong-zhu\/","title":{"rendered":"Jialong Zhu"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":true},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":true},"author":7,"featured_media":11900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"us_portfolio_category":[45],"class_list":["post-11899","us_portfolio","type-us_portfolio","status-publish","post-password-required","hentry","us_portfolio_category-new-template"],"acf":{"naam_van_het_proefschift":"Smarter or More Inclusive? Inclusive Digital Transition in Smart Cities: Case studies in Chinese and European cities","samenvatting":"Aanvankelijk werd de slimme stad beschouwd als een wondermiddel voor het aanpakken van stedelijke problemen vanwege de voordelen die zij bood. Ondanks de voortdurende ontwikkeling blijft de sociale dimensie echter kampen met uitdagingen, zoals toenemende sociale ongelijkheid en uitsluiting door technocratische benaderingen en de digitale kloof. Er vindt daarom een verschuiving plaats van technologiegedreven naar mensgerichte slimme steden. Inclusiviteit is een centrale uitdaging geworden. Dit proefschrift onderzoekt de centrale vraag: Hoe leiden verschillende slimme steden, gevormd door contextuele factoren, tot een inclusieve transitie van de slimme stad?\n\nDe vraag is onderverdeeld in vier deelvragen:\nRQ1. Wat zijn de verschillende typen slimme steden in China?\nRQ2. Hoe dragen hulpbronnen en contextuele factoren bij aan verschillende trajecten naar meerdimensionele slimme steden in China?\nRQ3. Hoe nemen Chinese burgers slimme steden en hun effecten waar?\nRQ4. Wat zijn de kenmerken van 'best practices' voor digitaal inclusiebeleid in termen van toegankelijkheid, burgerschap en privacy?\n\nHoofdstuk 2 classificeert 49 Chinese steden in vijf typen: kennistechnocratisch, holistisch, groen, uitrustingstechnocratisch en opkomend. Hoofdstuk 3 identificeert drie trajecten naar meerdimensionele slimme steden: het technocratische traject, het traject aangedreven door menselijk kapitaal en kennis, en het hoogverstedelijkte welvaartstraject. Er is geen 'one-size-fits-all' oplossing; steden bereiken resultaten op basis van hun eigen context en investeringen.\n\nHoofdstuk 4 gebruikt de Q-methodologie om burgerperspectieven in kaart te brengen, vari\u00ebrend van sceptisch tot optimistisch. Er is consensus over het vertrouwen in databeheer door de overheid en de effici\u00ebntievoordelen van slimme steden, maar ook twijfel over de rol van technologie bij het bestrijden van corruptie. Hoofdstuk 5 onderzoekt de steden Linz, Tallinn en Helsinki. Hun strategie\u00ebn voor digitale inclusie omvatten het cre\u00ebren van een toegankelijke digitale omgeving, het bieden van ondersteuning op gemeenschapsniveau en het verbeteren van digitale vaardigheden.\n\nConcluderend stelt dit proefschrift dat inclusie geen inherent kenmerk is van een slimme stad, maar bewust moet worden ingebed via drie dimensies: institutionele inclusie (inclusie als kerncomponent vanaf het begin), procedurele inclusie (participatiekaders voor burgers) en distributieve inclusie (gelijke toegang tot digitale diensten).","summary":"Initially, the smart city was viewed as a panacea for addressing urban problems due to the benefits it offered, including convenient and efficient urban management and services, improved urban environments, and enhanced transportation, among others. Despite the continuous evolution of the smart city, its social dimension still faces numerous challenges and issues. In particular, there is increasing criticism that smart cities exacerbate social inequality and exclusion due to issues such as technocratic and top-down development approaches, as well as the digital divide. Therefore, there is a shift from a focus on the technology-driven smart city to advocating for a people-centric smart city. Inclusion has become a key challenge in the current development of smart cities. However, as a global strategy, smart cities show diverse characteristics and development pathways as contextual factors and needs vary. In this context, promoting the inclusive transition of smart cities remains underexplored, particularly in terms of focusing on the people-centric principle and marginalized populations. Therefore, this article-based thesis aims to fill this research gap by addressing the main research question: How do different smart cities, shaped by contextual factors, lead to an inclusive smart city transition?\n\nTo systematically answer this main research question, we further divide it into four sub-research questions: \nRQ1. What are the different types of smart cities in China?\nRQ2. How do distinctive resource inputs, dynamic throughputs, and contextual factors contribute to the formation of varied pathways leading to multi-dimensional smart cities in China?\nRQ3. How do Chinese citizens perceive smart cities and their impacts, and what are their priorities and consensus?\nRQ4. What are the characteristic features of the best practices of the design and implementation of digital inclusion policy in cities in terms of accessibility, active citizenship, and information security and privacy?\n\nThese four sub-research questions are not isolated from the main research question. However, they focus on different aspects, including the diversity of smart city types and development pathways, citizen perception, and targeted policy for promoting digital inclusion. Exploring these four specific aspects helps to fully understand the research objectives and collectively answer the main research question. These sub-questions have been answered individually in Chapters 2-5, each employing different research methods, including Principal Component Analysis, K-means Clustering Analysis, Content Analysis, Qualitative Comparative Analysis, and Q-methodology. This thesis uses both primary and secondary data, including policy documents, Q-surveys, and interview data, covering 49 Chinese cities and 3 European cities (Linz, Tallinn, and Helsinki).\n\nThe study presented in Chapter 2 (Article 1) systematically compares the characteristics of 49 smart cities in China in terms of resource inputs, throughputs, and outputs. Subsequently, this study classifies these 49 cases based on their characteristics across different dimensions using a mixed-methods approach (Principal Component Analysis and K-means Clustering Analysis). A typology of five types of smart cities in China is then developed: knowledge-technocratic smart cities, holistic smart cities, green smart cities, equipment-technocratic smart cities, and emerging smart cities. The study reveals that different types of smart cities show distinct characteristics and priorities in terms of inputs, throughput, and outputs. Furthermore, the study identifies that different types of smart cities in China encourage varying degrees of citizen participation. This study also further positions Chinese smart cities within the global smart city context and compares their characteristics with those of smart cities in other countries. \n\nChapter 3 (Article 2) is a longitudinal study building upon Chapter 2. Chapter 2 finds that the diversity of smart cities is related to their contextual factors. However, how these contextual factors, together with investments and management, influence the underlying logic of smart city development remains unknown. Therefore, Chapter 3 aims to reveal different underlying configurations for smart city development. This study proposes a configuration framework consisting of six conditions considered conducive to developing multi-dimensional smart cities: 'Human resource-rich and entrepreneurial cities', 'ICT-enabled cities', 'Strong-knowledge management cities', 'Active-participating citizen cities', 'High-income cities', and 'Highly urbanized cities'. Subsequently, the study conducts a qualitative comparative analysis of 49 Chinese case studies, identifying three configurations\/paths leading to multi-dimensional smart cities: the \"Technocratic path\", the \"Human capital and knowledge dual-driven path\", and the \"High-urbanized affluent path\". The research findings reveal the complex relationship between these conditions and the development of multi-dimensional smart cities. There is no one-size-fits-all path for multi-dimensional smart cities. Regardless of a city's economic condition or size, there are specific paths to achieve multi-dimensional smart cities as long as it makes smart investments.\n\nChapter 4 focuses on Article 3, which employs Q-methodology to explore citizens' perceptions of smart cities. The study first develops a Q-framework for exploring citizen perspectives, encompassing six dimensions of smart cities: visions, privacy issues, good governance, citizen participation, technology acceptance, and inclusiveness. Subsequently, based on this framework, Q-analysis identifies four distinct perspectives among Chinese citizen participants regarding smart cities. Perspective 1 holds a generally skeptical view of smart cities, while Perspective 2 tends to be optimistic. Perspective 3 favors government-led smart cities, and Perspective 4 embraces fatalism. Although these four perspectives differ in their views on the smart city and its social impact, they also share some consensus on certain issues and priorities. These consensuses include trust in data management and protection in government-led smart cities, recognition of the role of smart cities in bringing greater efficiency and convenience to urban life, doubting the role of smart cities in reducing government corruption and increasing transparency, and there is a lack of emphasis on citizen participation in the current situation of smart city development in China. This study deepens the understanding of the inclusion of smart cities and supplements citizen perspectives on smart cities.\n\nChapter 5 (Article 4) shifts the focus to smart cities in Europe to explore lessons and insights on promoting inclusion in smart cities. This chapter uses a comparative case study approach to investigate how three European cities (Linz in Austria, Tallinn in Estonia, and Helsinki in Finland) have adopted digital inclusion policies. Although these three cases adopted different approaches, they share some commonalities in targeted policy actions. The research findings suggest that the first strategy is to create an accessible digital environment, focusing on considering the diverse needs of different populations. Additionally, providing multi-channel access and community-based support is necessary. Thirdly, offering various training and education programs to improve people's digital literacy and skills, and ensuring inclusive mechanisms for citizen participation. Furthermore, the findings indicate that these strategies are closely related to the barriers and needs faced by cases. This suggests that digital inclusion strategies are more effective when they are flexible and contextual.\n\nBy summarizing the research findings from the aforementioned chapters, Chapter 6 answers the main research question and highlights the thesis's theoretical and policy contributions. This chapter enlightens the understanding of how to promote the inclusive transition of smart cities by linking knowledge of the various types and pathways to smart cities with lessons learned from inclusive digital policies. Inclusive smart city transition is a process shaped by complex factors, including infrastructure, resource investment, governance structures, and local context. Therefore, it follows diverse and context-based paths, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. However, inclusion is not an inherent characteristic of any type of smart city. Drawing on insights from all the articles, this thesis proposes strategies for systematically incorporating inclusion into the smart city transition framework from three dimensions: institutional inclusion, procedural inclusion, and distributive inclusion. The institutional inclusion emphasizes that inclusion should be considered a key component of the smart city framework from the outset, rather than being a principle considered after the fact. Procedural inclusion refers to providing participatory frameworks and feedback mechanisms that support citizens, communities, and marginalized groups in actively participating in the design, implementation, and decision-making processes of smart cities. The distributive inclusion involves enabling people to access and complete digital services and tasks, as well as providing inclusive and accessible digital services and environments for diverse groups of people. This dimension of inclusion aims to prevent some people from being digitally excluded due to disparities in economic and geographical\/spatial conditions, as well as differences in individual digital competence.","auteur":"Jialong Zhu","auteur_slug":"jialong-zhu","publicatiedatum":"29 mei 2026","taal":"EN","url_flipbook":"https:\/\/ebook.proefschriftmaken.nl\/ebook\/jialongzhu?iframe=true","url_download_pdf":"https:\/\/ebook.proefschriftmaken.nl\/download\/0baa8166-e6eb-474b-a33d-35d96ca6146f\/optimized","url_epub":"","ordernummer":"18853","isbn":"978-94-6534-347-1","doi_nummer":"","naam_universiteit":"Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam","afbeeldingen":11901,"naam_student:":"","binnenwerk":"","universiteit":"Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam","cover":"","afwerking":"","cover_afwerking":"","design":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proefschriftmaken.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/us_portfolio\/11899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proefschriftmaken.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/us_portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proefschriftmaken.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/us_portfolio"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proefschriftmaken.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proefschriftmaken.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.proefschriftmaken.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/us_portfolio\/11899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11902,"href":"https:\/\/www.proefschriftmaken.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/us_portfolio\/11899\/revisions\/11902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proefschriftmaken.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proefschriftmaken.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"us_portfolio_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proefschriftmaken.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/us_portfolio_category?post=11899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}