Disneyfication of places: Organizing smart cities for what- and for whom?

Over the past two decades, cities have increasingly embraced the smart city paradigm as a model for technological innovation, efficiency, and improved urban governance. While this transition promises enhanced services and data-driven decision-making, its broader societal implications remain underexplored. This study examines whether the advancement of smart city initiatives affects the social fabric of urban communities. Building on the concept of the disneyfication of places, we argue that the growing emphasis on technological capabilities and performance-oriented governance may unintentionally weaken the relational infrastructures that sustain civic participation and community ties. To investigate this relationship, we employ a dynamic panel data approach using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) on a longitudinal dataset of 38 Italian cities. Smart city advancement is operationalized through six indicators capturing organizational and relational dimensions of urban transformation, while social capital is measured through indicators of civic participation, volunteering, and associational activity. Preliminary results reveal a negative association between the intensity of smart city initiatives and urban social capital. Cities that advance more rapidly along the smart city paradigm tend to experience stronger declines in civic participation and community engagement. These findings suggest a paradox of contemporary urban development: as cities become technologically smarter, they risk becoming socially thinner. The study contributes to the critical debate on smart cities by highlighting the need to rebalance technological innovation with the preservation of place-based social capital.