ABSTRACT
The smart city approach has been top down in its implementation; it is a surveillance model in which the data produced by citizens are neither owned nor used by them, but rather by large tech firms and, in some cases, by public administrations. Waag, a non-profit organization in Amsterdam, challenges the smart city approach by offering its own ‘Smart Citizens’ approach, in which local residents, organizations, and public administrations co-create bottom-up solutions to ensure that the use of technology in the city is guided and owned by the citizens themselves.
