Stephen Goldsmith and Susan Crawford, “The Responsive City: Engaging Communities Through Data-Smart Governance” (Jossey-Bass, 2014)

Without a doubt, the paramount duty of a municipality, of any size, is the delivery services to its constituents. These services range from the seasonal-think snow removal, to the daily-ensuring traffic lights work, to the critical-think trash removal. Cities, particularly those in large urban areas, are tasked with finding ways to respond to issues important to the people for whom they work. New technology and data collection platforms are assisting municipalities to respond to the needs of citizens, and changing the relationships between the government and the governed. In their new book, The Responsive City: Engaging Communities Through Data-Smart Governance (Jossey-Bass 2014), Stephen Goldsmith, Daniel Paul Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and director of Data-Smart City Solutions, and Susan Crawford, John A. Reilly Visiting Professor in Intellectual Property at Harvard Law School and co-Director of the Berkman center, detail how urban centers are using technological solutions to engage citizens and improve services. Examining cities as diverse as Boston, Chennai, Rio de Janeiro, and others, Goldsmith and Crawford explore how engaging citizens and government with technology can increase a city’s social capital and build trust in local government.

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