DATE / TIME:

2018•06•05    11:00 - 12:00

Location:

Guimarães

Speaker

Maria Alexandra Cunha holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration in addition to a Master’s degree in the field of Information and Communication Technology Management. Prior to her current position as full-time professor at Getulio Vargas Foundation – São Paulo School of Management, she worked for Pontificia Universidade Catolica of Paraná, Brazil.

She has 30 years’ experience as a professor, IT professional, and consultant. She has led academic research and professional projects in IT governance, e-Government, e-Governance and e-Democracy, and on models for administering computerization in governments. More recently, her research interests have been in IT for development and in smart cities. She is the author of several articles, technical reports, research papers, chapters and books, and she is a member of the editorial board of Brazilian academic journals in Business Administration. She coordinated two mandates in the “Information Management” area at ANPAD (Brazilian Academy of Management).

Abstract

There is a consensus that smart cities combine technology, urban management and new forms of relationships to improve the life of their inhabitants. However, despite the great interest of academics, public executives and managers, defining a Smart City in the global South is still a challenge. During this seminar, we will look at the difficulty of establishing a smart city definition in Brazil. Within this vast country there are differing cities, different regions of different sizes, varying economic activities and cultural and natural patrimony, or social indicators, which shape the question of how we can improve “quality of life”. The international comparability of smart city indicators is also challenging. It is, of course, necessary to allow comparisons but also to value the aspects or phenomena that have local relevancy. These aspects are of special interest for the formulation of public policies in the country, in the regions and in the cities. To demonstrate the differences between different realities, I will present some important aspects of the Brazilian context of smart cities.