The transformation of urban identity brought about by smart city applications: The case of Amsterdam

Increasing urbanization brings with it various urban problems. In recent years, local governments have adopted the "smart city" approach, one of the new city approaches that uses information and communication technologies to solve the problems that arise with urbanization. The main problem is that the studies in the field of smart city approach do not reveal what kind of transformation in urban identity is revealed in the literature. The aim of the study is to reveal this problem and explain how smart city applications bring about a transformation in urban identity. For this purpose, the city of Amsterdam, which is shown as an example with its smart city applications in the world, was chosen as a sample. The area where the research will be conducted is the Municipality of Amsterdam and other organizations working in this field in Amsterdam. The central themes of the research are smart city, urban identity and digital transformation concepts. Although the concept of smart city has a framework fed by different disciplines, it does not yet have its own theoretical knowledge. Therefore, this study, which investigates its relationship with urban identity, is important in terms of contributing to theoretical knowledge. The difference of this thesis study from other studies is not how smart city applications are carried out, but what kind of transformation they bring to the city identity with the solutions they bring. The distinctive feature of the study that reveals its importance is that it contributes to the knowledge in the literature, does not repeat past studies, focuses on the social dimensions of smart city applications, and is one of the first studies on this subject in the field of sociology in Turkey. In this study, where "explanatory case study" was preferred among the qualitative research methods, the data were obtained from the participants determined within the framework of "purposive sampling" within the framework of semi-structured interview technique, and the analysis and interpretation of the data were carried out according to the data analysis steps. As a result of the research, it was determined that smart city applications transformed the urban identity, especially in the context of socio-cultural and physical features.