Bridging the socio-technical lag: a systematic literature review of regulation, collaboration, and inclusive governance in smart city infrastructure

Abstract

The deep convergence of the digital built environment and emerging information technologies (EITs) is reshaping urban forms. Yet, a pronounced socio-technical lag persists between rapid engineering iteration and the relative inertia of public management institutions. A perspective influenced by technological determinism remains prevalent in existing smart city research, often obscuring the inherently complex political and social attributes of urban systems. Following the PRISMA protocol, this study systematically reviews 238 peer-reviewed articles exclusively from the Web of Science Core Collection. Descriptive analysis reveals a structural imbalance within this sample: studies focused on pure technical engineering vastly outnumber formal policy document analyses. Applying an inductive thematic coding process, this research extracts and synthesizes threefold institutional tensions confronting digital urban infrastructure. Regulatively, excessive data harvesting and proprietary protocols trigger algorithmic surveillance and vendor lock-in risks. Operationally, bureaucratic silos and information asymmetry within public-private partnerships (PPPs) obstruct cross-agency collaboration. Normatively, prohibitive technology costs and tokenistic public participation exacerbate digital exclusion and spatial injustice. To address these frictions, this study proposes the Tripartite Socio-Technical Urban Governance (T-STUG) framework. Grounded in institutional and socio-technical systems theory, it illustrates the conceptual interdependencies among agile regulatory frameworks, polycentric collaborative mechanisms, and spatial justice imperatives. Drawing on these empirical findings, the article distills evidence-based policy instruments for urban decision-makers, including regulatory sandboxes, civic data trusts, and targeted equity subsidies. Finally, it urges future public administration scholarship to expand into quasi-natural experiments, Global South contexts, and intersectional justice analysis.