At the end of 2015, a study was conducted on Spanish Smart Cities which was called. Smart Spain Citizens 2015, in which the aim was to find out the position of citizens with respect to technological change that many cities were experiencing. Thanks to the conclusions of this study, it was possible to extract a series of citizen profiles with respect to their opinion of the Digital Transformation process in large cities. From this study, it has been possible to extract 7 differentiated profiles.
Majority citizen profiles in the Spanish Smart City
These are the conclusions of the aforementioned study, in which it frames all citizens in 7 different profiles depending on their position regarding Smart Cities, gender, age or place of residence. They are the following:
- Techno-entrepreneuris a type of citizen interested in advanced business models and his profile is male, young and urbanite. It is the profile that is characterized by betting more strongly on technology.
- Eco-citizenThis other type of citizen places special emphasis on the use of technologies linked to the Smart City. This is a very young profile and from small cities.
- Urban Cocoonerusers mainly focused on obtaining high security from technology, even at the cost of losing privacy due to ICTs. This is a female and older profile, more concerned with health emergencies than other types of emergencies.
- Public DefenderThe citizen who distrusts new technologies and only bets on them if it is to improve administrative services, mainly health services. This is the oldest profile and is considered agnostic with respect to technology.
- Heavy User SanitaryThe main focus is on healthcare and education, and only bets on technology if it is to enhance these two areas. They tend to have a female profile, are older and live in smaller cities.
- Social Technologymale and young profile, with a great interest in technology as long as it is applied to improve social connectivity within cities (social networks, stores, stores, services...).
- Animal PoliticoThe profile of this type of citizen with respect to the Smart City is as follows: female and of a mature age, with a high degree of maturity. The profile of this type of citizen with respect to the Smart City is as follows: female and of a mature age.
This classification shows that new technologies have burst into society with force, giving rise to very different reactions depending on place of origin, age and gender.
What is a Smart City?
The smart cities are a new concept of city that arose from the Digital Transformation, in which the main objective is to to use new technologies with the objective of enhancing:
- A sustainable development of the city and the entire metropolitan area
- An increase in the quality of life for all neighbors and residents of the city
- Manage with greater efficiency of the city's resources
- Encourage the direct and active participation of all citizens
In fact, it is estimated that by 2050, more than 80% of the population will live in smart cities. Therefore, the profile of the citizenry with respect to the Smart City concept will evolve over the years, as technologies become 100% integrated into society and the current generations reach adulthood.