Smart city development: A systematic literature review on the impact on urban poor

Smart city development offers numerous benefits, such as enhancing efficiency, improving connectivity and promoting innovation to address various urbanization challenges. Nevertheless, there are concerns regarding the inclusivity of smart city development, particularly for marginalized communities. This paper explores the impact of smart city development on the urban poor, a significant demographic in urban areas worldwide. It employs the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method, incorporating insights from 36 related articles to present a comprehensive understanding of smart city implications for this demographic. Through thematic analysis, the positive impacts of smart city development are identified and categorized into four main themes: access to services and information, participation and engagement, economic opportunities and liveability. Meanwhile, the negative impact can be grouped into 6 major themes consisting of exclusion and marginalization, inequalities, displacement, livelihood, resistance and privacy and security. The findings reveal that the negative impact of smart city development is more dominant, with studies mainly carried out in the Global South countries in the Asia and African region. This paper emphasizes the importance of understanding the challenges experienced by the urban poor and offers valuable insights to policymakers in formulating a more inclusive smart city. This study concludes by suggesting a clear direction for future research in the smart city and urban poor discourse.