Submit a Manuscript to the Journal
International Journal of Urban Sciences
For a Special Issue on
People-centred smart cities: Exploring the intersection between everyday urbanism and digitalization
Manuscript deadline
Special Issue Editor(s)
John Vaide,
Linnaeus University
Johan.vaide@lnu.se
Juhyun Lee,
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Juhyun.Lee@xjtlu.edu.cn
Sophie Sturup,
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Sophie.Sturup@xjtlu.edu.cn
Kon Kim,
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Kon.Kim@xjtlu.edu.cn
People-centred smart cities: Exploring the intersection between everyday urbanism and digitalization
This Special Issue invites papers that examine the intersection of everyday urbanism and digitalization, potentially offering insights into its implications for people-centred smart cities and future urban transformations.
This call comes in the wake of ongoing debates[1] on whether and how digital technology enhances the quality of everyday urban life. The relationship between the two is inherently recursive, and understanding this dynamic is becoming increasingly complex, influenced by varying contexts (e.g., norms, policies, governance). This complexity warrants a comprehensive exploration of how digitalization reconfigures everyday practices and experiences in diverse urban settings – and in turn, how urban life influences the design, use, and impacts of digital technologies.
In this context, this Special Issue raises critical inquiries such as: How are digital platforms, devices, and smart urban systems transforming the ways people navigate, inhabit and make sense of cities? What are the implications for the built form, both physical and digital? How do digital platforms paradoxically alter human interactions and wellbeing? How do our everyday behaviors shape the digital, and how does it shape these practices in return? Who gets to exist and thrive, and what forms of life are enabled or marginalized in the process? Have we created new ways of thinking and doing that compel us to reconsider what it means to be human? How can global agenda such as People-Centred Smart Cities adequately account for these ongoing transformations?
Bringing together research from diverse and interdisciplinary contexts, this Special Issue aims to contributes to the global discourse on the transformative role of digital technologies in everyday life, as well as theoretical and policy discussion on how digitalization advances inclusivity and resilience, and sustainable urban futures.
[1] The call is grounded on the research agenda set out in the forthcoming paper of the SI editorial team “Everyday Urbanism and Digitalisation – where are we and who are we becoming (Sturup et al., 2025)”, following an workshop at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in 2024.
Themes:
We invite submissions that engage with the following interdisciplinary themes in diverse contexts, encouraging researchers to explore their work within, but not limited to, these areas:
● Digitalization, Everyday Placemaking, and Identity: Investigating how the increasing digitalization of daily life shapes identity formation and mediate everyday experiences in urban settings.
● Urban Governance, Everyday Data Practices, and Smart Cities: Examining how data usage and socio-technical transitions in urban governance intersect with people's daily lives, influencing management, participation, and agency.
● Sustainable and More Equitable Everyday Urban Futures: Envisioning sustainable urban futures by exploring how socio-digital transitions and people-centered smart city initiatives can bridge social divides and disparities in everyday life.
● Ontologies of the Digital: Theorizing Being, Mediation, and Everyday Urban Life: Observing how the interplay between digital and the everyday experience is reshaping our relationship with the world, redefining our sense of being and what it is to be human.
● Comparing Everyday Urban Life and Digitalization across diverse Urban Contexts: Exploring how the themes above, or others, manifest differently or similarly in various urban settings, highlighting unique intersections and implications.
We welcome both conceptual and empirical papers that contribute to the ongoing discourse. Conceptual papers may engage with theoretical frameworks, models, or new perspectives, while empirical papers are invited to present original research, case studies, or data-driven insights that examine real-world applications and the impacts of digital technologies in urban settings. Both types of submissions should address the key themes outlined in this call and offer novel insights.
Submission Instructions
- Deadline for manuscript submission: 30th of January, 2026
- Select "special issue title” when submitting your paper to submission system.
- The Special Issue will be published on Taylor & Francis Online as soon as the first article is ready, with additional articles added over time (paper version is expected early 2027).
- The review process is expected to take approximately nine months before publication.
- If you are interested in submitting a 500-word abstract prior to the full manuscript submission, please send it to one of the editors.