Die Smart City Bonn in den Augen ihrer Bevölkerung. Eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit der Kommunikation einer Smart-City-Strategie

The aim of this master thesis was to probe the view of Bonn’s citizens on the smart city project of the German city. A literature review helped defining the smart city term and identifying the smart city concept that is mostly used in Germany. This can be summarized as an urban planning concept using information and communication technology to build citizen centric, sustainable cities. According to this, a smart city should include transparent communication and participation of its citizens. The websites and different publications of Bonn were researched to understand its smart city strategy and vision. This revealed inconsistencies. To resolve these inconsistencies, three representatives of the city were inter-viewed. Based on the knowledge gained up to this point, two groups of Bonn’s inhabitants discussed the Smart City Bonn and presented their perception of it. With the help of this methodology, the following results were obtained. Commu-nication and participation of the city are in many cases in line with the current recommendations for a smart city. Bonn has apparently recognized the relevance of these aspects in theory but should also implement them more consistently in practice. Currently the city council publishes contradictory information and does not plan to incorporate the sight of Bonn’s citizens to develop the smart city strat-egy in the first place, as it is recommended in common literature.