The paper explores whether distrust can lead to citizens’ involvement in smart city initiatives. Scholars refer to smart cities as a collaborative effort, and while trust between stakeholders is a building block of collaborative processes, it is less discussed in the context of smart cities. This paper claims that trust is not a precondition for citizen involvement in smart city initiatives. In fact, in some instances, the lack of trust may drive citizens to be involved.
The case study considers the activities of residents in Hadar neighborhood in Haifa, a northern Israeli city and a leading smart city in the Middle East. Because of their lack of trust in the municipality, Hadar residents used a digital platform to monitor the municipality`s actions with the ultimate goal of improving their living conditions.
The findings reveal two modes of reaction to the citizens` action: responsiveness and indifference. The initiative started with a low level of trust between citizens, policymakers, and civil servants, leading the residents to establish an independent mechanism to demand the municipality’s attention to their needs. At first, the municipality reacted responsively, and city representatives actively participated on the residents` platform to gain their trust. Following a political decision, the city representatives decreased their involvement, thus expressing indifference to the residents` distrust.
Our study makes a theoretical contribution by highlighting the importance of distrust in citizen involvement and cities` modes of operation. The study also has implications for answering the vital question of how to create and strengthen trust.