Antonia Terriuolo,  with Margherita Girotto, Anastasiia Chaikovska wrote an excellent  report  on how  smart cities, startups and co-working contribute to gender equality at Ca’Foscari University of Venice. Access the first part here, the second part here and the third part here.

Continue to read below, for the fourth and the final part of the report.

7. Opinion and Suggestions

The following chapter will put the general knowledge stated in previous chapters of this report into the context of specific actions to take to move society toward gender equality and cities towards being Smart ones. To do so, two interviews were done, concerning which, the respective Declarations of Consent, allowing the authors to use the information provided within this report, may be provided upon request.

7.1. Suggestions for Strategy and Concrete Actions

Within the preparation for this report, two interviews were conducted to give further insights into the framework established. The first interview was conducted with Interviewee 2, CEO, and founder of a platform dedicated to female communities. Additionally, the second interview was done with Britta Marek, an employee at the Impact Hub Ruhr in Germany, and facilitator of #Iamremarkable workshops. Both interviews can be found in full length in Annex I (Interviewee 2) and Annex II (Britta Marek) for in-depth information. Moreover, given the topics discussed in this body of work, the strategy and concrete action suggestions are divided into two categories: those related to female founders of startups and those related to Smart Cities.

7.1.1. Suggestions regarding Female Founders

Based on our conducted interviews, different approaches to support female founders were discovered.
Firstly, startup hubs like the Impact Hub Ruhr provide networks for (social) entrepreneurs and innovators to build and improve, their business. Moreover, it provides a space for collaboration, networking, and exchanging information to connect entrepreneurs and innovators with organizations, and different kinds of people that may accelerate the respective business. A specific sub-organization of the Impact Hub Ruhr is the Female Founders Ruhr, which creates awareness and visibility of founders identifying as female in North-Rhine Westphalia. Furthermore, it organizes networking events and workshops, as well as so-called conference camps, to help female founders feel empowered in starting their own business or to continue building their business. Therefore, it is of high importance when looking at females in the startup industry that they are provided with a space where they can meet and develop their businesses in an environment of support and innovation. This is also the main goal of Interviewee 2’s venture, a platform dedicated to women to better manage their professional networks, as well as enhancing the engagement of their respective communities, may that be Women in Marketing, Women in Tech, or others. Moreover, the network is accessible through a mobile app that is available for everyone to download in which women have access to events, participate in them, pay for tickets and memberships, and communicate with each other. Therefore, on another level, it provides a similar space to that of startup hubs, where it provides a space to come together. The innovative approach of the company is that it combines the different channels (i.e., social media, payment, event coordination, etc.) into one place, merging all the tools needed to gain time and visibility, whilst increasing engagement within the community.

Regarding the Impact Hub Ruhr and the startup, the two may be considered as local initiatives, even though the startup plans to go more international in the future, and the Impact Hub supports startups initiatives, for instance, in Ghana. However, it is indisputable that big corporations like Google have a much faster and more poignant impact on a global scale. In this context, Google founded the #Iamremarkable initiative to empower women and, generally, underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements. This is regarding private, as well as professional life.

Consequently, providing a safe space, not only for women but for all marginalized groups to come together and lift each other rather than tearing each other down, is of great importance when wanting to improve the prerequisites for female founders in the startup industry.

7.1.2. Suggestions concerning Smart Cities

As stated previously, the second main topic of this report has been Smart Cities, considering which, challenges in its implementation include “digital inclusion, inclusive delivery of public services, new forms of participation in the decision-making or transparent governance” (Anand & Navío-Marco, 2018, p. 797). Moreover, researchers find that in terms of governance, problems may also arise regarding the specific locality of the Smart City projects. In other words, the economic and spatial nature is different in every city, therefore, leading to different conceptions of what the Smart City will look like (Anan & Navío-Marco, 2018). Consequently, leading to the conclusion that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Even though many cities have put sensors to use when generating large amounts of data, the issue of being able to analyze and process that data remains. Therefore, the literature suggests a bottom-up publish-subscribe data and integration model, and a data representation scheme in the future (Raghavan, Boung Yew, Lee, Tan & Kee, 2019), further highlighting the importance of citizen participation when creating a Smart City. Lastly, this notion is supported by the statement of Anand and Navío-Marco (2018) that: “A city “smartness” is meaningless unless it is rooted on citizens’ participation” (p. 797).

Therefore, the previously explored Berlin Smart City Strategy, as one example, approaches the development of the Smart City concept correctly when focusing on citizen participation, which has been highlighted time and time again in real-life examples, like Safe & The City, as well as the literature and should be the basis of all strategies and concrete actions in the future.

7.2. Evaluation of Positive Impacts of Smart Cities and the SDG 5

It may be surprising for some to find out that Interviewee 2, who works closely with the French government to work, among others, towards the SDG 5, usually encounters people who do not know what the SDGs are in general, but especially do not know what SDG 5 entails. Moreover, she stated that she was not aware of them before being incubated, in 2019, to work on her startup idea either.

Nonetheless, gender equality is of great importance also in the context of Smart Cities, as women have distinctively different traveling needs than men, centering around issues of access, safety and/or comfort, and ease of traveling (Singh, 2020). Moreover, Safe & The City operates in the realm of transportation and uses publicly generated data to provide to women, thus, helping to accommodate their travel needs.

Regarding the startup scene, partnerships of affiliations with the local government, because the startup is working towards one or multiple SDGs, can be very helpful, as it was the case for Interviewee 2. This is because, according to its founder, it provides visibility, as well as credibility to those issues. Moreover, given the participatory nature of Smart Cities, general awareness, and knowledge of the SDGs among the general public will most likely speed up the process to a more sustainable world. Additionally, our interviewed startup makes use of a certain type of technology generating data which is then provided to the government; therefore, it may be considered as, what researchers call “creative ways to generate and collect useful data […] [to] uncover needs and thus opportunities in Smart City management” (Hasija, Shen & Theo, 2021, p. 205). All technology used to further the growth of a Smart City is important and many smart technologies can already be found in different parts of the world in terms of governance, communication, environment, transportation, and energy, waste, and water management applications (Verma, Khanna, Agrawal, Darwish & Hassanien, 2019).

Again, the awareness about issues of marginalized groups is to be focused on and is supported by initiatives like Safe & The City, shedding light on previously overlooked issues that are of great importance when wanting to create a safe environment/city for every citizen.

7.3. Policy Suggestions to Increase Diffusion and Positive Effects of Smart Cities in Context of SDG 5

The issue of policy regarding Smart Cities has been a thoroughly investigated topic in literature. To answer the question of how to increase the diffusion of this innovation the Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDF) by Rogers (1995) must be defined. It focuses on the how, why, and rate of an innovative ideas and technologies and their spreading within a social system. Moreover, it highlights the importance of reshaping products and behaviors to better fit the needs of the current times. Therefore, the innovations themselves need to be changed to stay relevant. Additionally, diffusion is also considered to be the process of communication of the innovation between the different members of the social system (Wani & Ali, 2015). Subsequently, this theory is in line with the previously mentioned point that it is important to increase awareness of certain issues, like gender equality, within the society to generate public participation in terms of innovation, like Smart Cities.

Moreover, within the Western world shared economies have gained increasing importance, where the mobility sector, i.e., travel; provides app-based services as, for example, car- sharing services. Consequently, having changed how people move. This incorporates how women move as well, where research has found that women face higher hurdles and have less access to cost-/time-efficient travel. Subsequently, the broad access to mobility service apps should help to have better access to travel for economically vulnerable groups (Singh, 2020). Of course, such changes in modes of transportation must be considered when adopting policies for rapid changes in our economy.

Since innovations and specifically Smart Cities involve ICTs, new tools for city management and planning are provided. Moreover, it has become especially important regarding policy strategies rooted in learning regions. Additionally, it is found that mobility and access to it is one of the most crucial challenges in research and policy development. Different modes of supply in terms of mobility must be considered. However, since it is a service, the end- customer, and their different lifestyle(-needs) must be kept in mind. In this context, access to digital data and use thereof is especially important today for private, as well as public actors. Using real-time data has been proven to be integral in urban and regional management, land use, and policy on energy and the environment. Moreover, policies need to make use of up-to-date and reliable data to provide the citizens with the best possible solutions for the given area. Here, policymakers and other public agents may make use of Geo-Science and Geo- Imaging, which use interactive tools and data to add to the smart information design to further improve the urban planning tools of the city. In terms of demographics, knowledge on clusters within the city and their mobility patterns, combined with social information of those demographics may provide additional insight to use in urban management and policymaking by trying to answer questions about how, when, and where people interact with certain places within the urban area. Moreover, the use of such data will further the progress towards e- governance influencing smart urban policy (Koutit, Nijkamp & Steenbruggen, 2016), which was already highlighted by Berlin’s Smart City Strategy, which makes use of publicly generated data to improve the governmental offers. These changes in governmental functions should be reflected in governmental policies to provide a seamless transition to e-government in the future. On another note, Safe & The City, as well as Berlin’s Smart City strategy collect data from real people within the society. Since policies should always be adopted with the citizen’s best interest in mind, any policy geared towards making an urban area safer should consider, not only women but all its inhabitants and how to best improve their daily lives. In this context, collected data by companies like Safe & The City and others like the company of Interviewee 2 can be used by the government to gain access to a broad spectrum of data that can further be used to make specific policy changes and/or adaptions.

As always, policy makers must keep in mind specific priorities set for the policies at the local level. Within this context, policy studies literature highlights that the following three areas make up the policy agenda:

• Problem;
• Policy and;
• Politics

Moreover, the agenda is based on the idea that politics act at the local level, which must be put into the context of Smart City development. Therefore, it allows for an inclusive framework of policies, since one policy domain shows direct linkage to another (Clement & Crutzen, 2021). Consequently, the improvement towards a Smart City in one area of policy, for example, women’s safety, will have a direct impact on other policy areas leading to a domino effect of positive policy implementations towards a Safe and Smart City.

Both of our interview partners were asked questions related to the underrepresentation of women in the startup industry, and why they believe that women are a marginalized group to this day. Regarding this, Interviewee 2 put the focus on education and both she and Britta Marek named the upbringing, or change therefore, to be the starting point of changing the narrative of women being the victim of a male-dominated society. Additionally, Interviewee 2 highlighted the importance of representation in different areas of our society to provide positive examples. In this regard, Ms. Marek mentioned the Women’s quota and its necessity in Germany to put pressure on organizations to give women the seat at the table they deserve. Other issues regarding the underrepresentation of women in the startup industry that were mentioned are gender pay gap, gender confidence gap, and the gender funding gap. Especially the latter is considered detrimental since there are fewer female investors. Additionally, female founders generally tend to found businesses of a social nature, which are overlooked by investors who want to focus on more profitable ideas. Furthermore, the issue of gender-sensitive language was raised by Ms. Marek to be able to think and speak of and about women.

All the aforementioned issues are areas that may be considered in policymaking and have importance and accuracy since they come from people who feel this type of discrimination daily. Furthermore, shedding light on the value that is provided by listening to marginalized groups; be it in private conversations, or public data gathering.

8. Summary

Smart Cities highlight important aspects of sustainability, such as the need for responsible resource management using digital technologies, energy efficiency, and citizen engagement. Based on the model developed by Giffinger et al. (2007), Smart Cities comprehend six characteristics – Smart Economy, Smart People, Smart Governance, Smart Mobility, Smart Living.

Steps within the Smart City development model can be described as follows – smart sensors collect data in real-time, then data is analyzed to gain insights into the functioning of city service and operations. Therefore, data analyses’ results are communicated to decision- makers who take actions to improve operations, manage assets and improve the quality of life for their urban residents.

As the United Nations are also stressing the importance of protecting women from violence and emphasizing their participation to create economic empowerment, they include gender equality in the development of Smart Cities. Thus, highlighting the importance of protecting women from violence and emphasizing their participation in economic empowerment.

Practical applications of the model can be also found in the literature published. The Smart City concept has been introduced in such cities as Hamburg, Berlin, and Enschede. Berlin version of Smart Cities focuses on the following aspects: 1) combining multiple information sources; 2) by using an integrated approach the efficiency and use of resources is increases; and finally, 3) Berlin uses active citizen and investor involvement to make the city attractive, feasible in the coming years in the name of the common good with the end goal being an improvement of quality of life (Spil, Effing & Kwast, 2017).

As the main driver of SDG number 5 in terms of Smart City, Safe & The City Ltd. has been chosen for the research. Safe & The City is a personal safety navigation app, designed as a map that points out places that might not be safe or have higher crime rates. It is designed to take you on the safest route because it allows women to notify their close ones if an untoward incident occurs. It also enables authorities to discover and mitigate risks based on crowdsourced incident reports. The algorithm-based platform keeps people updated on incidents while they are occurring, then data collection leads to better management of several aspects of the city. Two products are part of the i3 Intelligence API that facilitates this, called: i3 Risk and i3 React. Moreover, the company now has offices located in London and Berlin, but they plan to expand in all major cities so that became a global data company, being a leader in the field to help enable the design of smarter and safer cities.

In terms of the Smart City concept, it may be considered as an incremental innovation as it doesn’t create new concepts or products but focuses on marginal improvements to what already exists. Moreover, Safe & The City can be recognized as an Open Innovation because it doesn’t just rely on its internal knowledge, sources, and resources for innovation, but gathers information from its users, partners, and authorities. Although, the market structure of Smart City innovations is quite saturated, what differentiates Safe & The City from other market players is that there are a lot of apps bringing you from point A to point B. But none of them consider your safety. Moreover, it is the only app committed to the United Nations’ SDGs. Therefore, Safe & The City has a strong position in the context of the SDGs. Specifically, they state that Safe & The City contributes to Gender Equality, Reduced Inequalities, and Sustainable Cities and Communities. Moreover, Safe & The City is related to I4.0 as it’s a data-driven platform that scans millions of data sources to inform you on whether you’re heading into a dangerous situation or a crime hotspot.

Based on our conducted interviews, different approaches to support female founders were discovered. Startup hubs like the Impact Hub Ruhr provide networks for (social) entrepreneurs and innovators to build and improve, their businesses. For females in the startup industry, these initiatives can be crucial because the space provided can positively contribute to their business development and support their innovations. This is also the main goal of Interviewee 2’s venture, a platform dedicated to women to better manage their professional networks, as well as enhancing the engagement of their respective communities. Moreover, these initiatives can also be beneficial for all marginalized groups to come together and lift each other rather than tearing each other down. It may be inevitably important to improve the prerequisites for female founders in the startup industry.

Considering the main idea behind Smart Cities, general awareness, and knowledge of the SDGs among the public will most likely speed up the process to a more sustainable world. Therefore, this theory is in line with the point that it is important to increase awareness of certain issues, like gender equality, within the society to generate public participation in terms of innovation, like Smart Cities. Furthermore, new tools for city management and planning development have become especially important regarding policy strategies. As a result of the interviews conducted, in the context of the underrepresentation of women in the startup industry, the following issues were mentioned: gender pay gap, gender confidence gap, and the gender funding gap.

Issues discovered in the research may be considered in policymaking and have importance and accuracy since they come from people who feel this type of discrimination daily. This urban development project continues to be at its start and still has some areas to work on. Therefore, concrete progress is still to happen, and additional analyses are required to assess whether or not the excellent outlook can persist. If it does, it will lead to the reduction of inequality, creation of equality in society, and secure, and safe surroundings for all marginalized groups.

End of report. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading!