Developing a Participation Mapping Framework (PMF) for Ethical and Inclusive Smart City Governance

Accelerating digitalization has restructured urban governance, while smart city initiatives often reproduce inequalities and weaken citizen agency. In this research, the Participation Mapping Framework (PMF) has been developed which is a stage-based framework that integrates participation, ethics, and evaluation across the lifecycle of smart cities. The research is based on a theory-driven, systematic review of 27 peer-reviewed and policy sources published between 2020 and 2025, synthesizing worldwide initiatives and civic-technology practices. PMF maps participation through linking six stages of developing smart cities (visioning, planning, design, implementation, operation, and evaluation) to four main dimensions of participation (goals, modes and tools, metrics, and safeguards). The findings identify that enhanced legitimacy and trust can be achieved through early and continuous participation, and integrating ethical safeguards such as transparency, privacy, and algorithmic accountability transform participation into shared governance which enables citizens to act as co-creators of transparent, equitable, and trustworthy smart cities. PMF serves as a diagnostic tool for policymakers to benchmark participatory maturity. It also serves as an analytical lens used by researchers in order to examine the inclusiveness and the quality of the governance.