4©L.MORA ET AL the digital revolution began to transform urban areas"into a constellation of computers" (Batty,1997:155).During this period, many commentators seemed to suggest that the new frontier [of information technology]was to provide solutions for overcoming most spatial and social problems [and]cities looked like the ideal arena where this revolution would test and show itself,changing economic devel- opment,services,and above all,community life.(Firmino,2003:3) In this scenario,the information and communication technologies (ICTs)of urban areas are innovations supporting a new science of cities(Batty,2014). The exploration of the relationship between ICTs and urban areas began with Graham and Marvin's Telecommunications and the City (Graham and Marvin,1996). Along with the work produced by Mitchell (1995,1999,2003)and Castells (1996), their research activity allowed this new area of knowledge to take shape and develop in a concrete form.This process of knowledge production resulted in the publication isnany of numerous scientific documents (see Graham and Marvin 1996,1999,2001,2004; Graham 1997,2000,2001,2002,2004a).Many of these publications can be considered 9 the most influential resources in the cognitive structure of"urban ICT studies"(Graham, 2004b:3),a sub-discipline of urban studies in which research is carried out to study "the 8.501m complex and poorly understood set of relationships between telecommunications and the development,planning and management of contemporary cities"(Graham and Marvin,1996:XIII). As an object of scientific enquiry,smart city studies fall in this research domain and first appeared in 1992 within the book entitled The Technopolis Phenomenon:Smart Cities,Fast Systems,Global Networks (Gibson et al.,1992).Over the years,smart cities have become the symbol of ICT-driven urban innovation and development and have attracted the uooef eyueyS] increasing attention of researchers from universities,governments,and businesses. Thanks to their interest,smart-city research has grown sharply.Evidence of this trend can be found by analyzing Google Scholar's data.Following a request to identify the lit- erature produced between 1992 and 2015 in which the term "smart city"is included in the singular or plural form,the scholarly engine developed by Google has sourced 合 25,770 documents.'Data shows that the annual production of publications on smart apeojuM cities has increased by 600 times within 24 years,moving from 16 in 1992 to 9,494 in 20152 The exploratory study reported on in this paper aims to provide an overall and detailed picture of what happened during the first two decades of research on smart cities,and lead to an improved understanding of the origins and progressive evolution of this fast- emerging research area and its intellectual structure.This aim is achieved by answering the following research questions: What are the characteristics of the literature produced during the period 1992 to 2012 in terms of type,influence,and impact? How large was the scientific community researching smart cities? What are the influence and productivity levels of researchers falling within this commu- nity and the organizations to which they belong? What is the interpretation of the smart-city concept that emerges from their research?the digital revolution began to transform urban areas “into a constellation of computers” (Batty, 1997: 155). During this period, many commentators seemed to suggest that the new frontier [of information technology] was to provide solutions for overcoming most spatial and social problems [and] cities looked like the ideal arena where this revolution would test and show itself, changing economic devel￾opment, services, and above all, community life. (Firmino, 2003: 3) In this scenario, the information and communication technologies (ICTs) of urban areas are innovations supporting a new science of cities (Batty, 2014). The exploration of the relationship between ICTs and urban areas began with Graham and Marvin’s Telecommunications and the City (Graham and Marvin, 1996). Along with the work produced by Mitchell (1995, 1999, 2003) and Castells (1996), their research activity allowed this new area of knowledge to take shape and develop in a concrete form. This process of knowledge production resulted in the publication of numerous scientific documents (see Graham and Marvin 1996, 1999, 2001, 2004; Graham 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004a). Many of these publications can be considered the most influential resources in the cognitive structure of “urban ICT studies” (Graham, 2004b: 3), a sub-discipline of urban studies in which research is carried out to study “the complex and poorly understood set of relationships between telecommunications and the development, planning and management of contemporary cities” (Graham and Marvin, 1996: XIII). As an object of scientific enquiry, smart city studies fall in this research domain and first appeared in 1992 within the book entitled The Technopolis Phenomenon: Smart Cities, Fast Systems, Global Networks (Gibson et al., 1992). Over the years, smart cities have become the symbol of ICT-driven urban innovation and development and have attracted the increasing attention of researchers from universities, governments, and businesses. Thanks to their interest, smart-city research has grown sharply. Evidence of this trend can be found by analyzing Google Scholar’s data. Following a request to identify the lit￾erature produced between 1992 and 2015 in which the term “smart city” is included in the singular or plural form, the scholarly engine developed by Google has sourced 25,770 documents.1 Data shows that the annual production of publications on smart cities has increased by 600 times within 24 years, moving from 16 in 1992 to 9,494 in 2015.2 The exploratory study reported on in this paper aims to provide an overall and detailed picture of what happened during the first two decades of research on smart cities, and lead to an improved understanding of the origins and progressive evolution of this fast￾emerging research area and its intellectual structure. This aim is achieved by answering the following research questions: . What are the characteristics of the literature produced during the period 1992 to 2012 in terms of type, influence, and impact? . How large was the scientific community researching smart cities? . What are the influence and productivity levels of researchers falling within this commu￾nity and the organizations to which they belong? . What is the interpretation of the smart-city concept that emerges from their research? 4 L. MORA ET AL. Downloaded by [Shanghai Jiaotong University] at 03:36 25 August 2017