Can small cities from developing countries be smart cities?: The case of Argentina

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze the smart cities in less developed countries such as Argentina. By means of a cluster analysis, cities are classified based on a national index of smart cities (ICI) and a set of socio-economic indicators. As a result, three groups of cities were obtained: “prosperous, large and smart cities”, “poor, small and potentially smart cities” and “poor, medium size and smart cities”. The three smartest cities (CABA, Córdoba and Bahia Blanca) belong to different clusters. CABA, which is the second smartest city, has the largest budget or economic resources and it is also the biggest city in the country. On the other side, Bahía Blanca that is “the smartest”, it is a small and poor city. International smart cities indexes as Cities in Motion Index (CIMI) do not consider this last type of cities, which are non-global cities even though they are smart.