Abstract
In the concept of a smart city, citizens are turned from passive consumers into active and concerned citizens, producers of ideas, content, applications, activities; and choosers of their society. This concept enhances innovation and creativity, seeking social relevance of new/unfamiliar ideas, opportunities for start-up firms, and propensity to entrepreneurial risk. Municipality of Baakline (MBAA) knows that participatory democracy is a key to both tackling the challenges faced by Baakline city and taking advantage of the evolving exciting opportunities. The “smart city” task is about smart governance, communities’ engagement, learning and adaptation, and investing in the future by reshaping an entire market and ecosystem. MBAA’s approach towards a smart city offers an invitation to reflect and act through pilot projects that are expected to change the mentality of people and integrate this concept in their future plans. The public/private actors are at the heart of MBAA’s successful projects.
It is also the title of MBAA project funded by the European Commission program: SUDEP—“Supporting the Southern Neighbourhood Partnership cities in the implementation of Sustainable Urban Demonstration Energy Projects” (European Commission 2014).
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Notes
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Scalability of the participatory approach: Through all my 18 years of municipal experience, I have realized that the pace of change in the Lebanese society mentality is slow, although convertible with time. This urged me as a Lebanese woman to promote this idea of participatory democracy and fight for the rights of women, youth minorities and handicapped people. Inclusive and democratic approach along with electing RNCs is surely scalable and applicable in every society, whose people are mature and well aware that such a movement will lead them towards new ways of addressing problems, and developing the perspective towards sustainable development. Through this, a win-win situation can be achieved. I hope the RNCs experience still applicable with the new municipal council.
References
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European Commission (2014). Supporting the southern neighbourhood partnership cities in the implementation of sustainable urban demonstration projects (EuropeAid/135429/DH/ACT/Multi). https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/online-services/index.cfm?do=publi.welcome&nbPubliList=15&orderby=pub&orderbyad=Desc&searchtype=RS&aofr=135429. Accessed Oct 20, 2016.
Ghosseini N. (2016). Let’s build our inclusive cities of Chouf Souayjani region and develop the participative democracy—Learning Democracy by practicing it. Working paper, Beirut, Lebanon.
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to acknowledge the European Union for its great help to Lebanon. MBAA has been involved in a number of EU-funded projects that contribute to strengthening its capacity and to improving the quality of life of its citizens with broad democratic participation and with plenty of opportunities. It is a vivid demonstration of why the EU places such great importance in supporting the development of Lebanese local authorities.
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Ghosseini, N. (2017). Baakline: Towards a Smart City—Leading Change into Chouf Souayjani Region. In: Stratigea, A., Kyriakides, E., Nicolaides, C. (eds) Smart Cities in the Mediterranean. Progress in IS. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54558-5_3
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