Smart cities initiatives in Greece; instruments of Europeanization and multilevel governance?

The concept of smart cities has expanded significantly over the years, combining ICT, digital usages and citizen participation, and navigating a complex system of governance involving local administrations, public agencies, firms, citizens and communities. Smart cities initiatives hold a prominent role in the promotion of the green and digital transitions; at the same time, they act as catalysts for advancing municipal and multilevel governance in Europe and can thus be considered as key instruments of Europeanization. In this context, the EU is providing support to smart cities initiatives through a wide range of funding and networking actions. This paper employs a Europeanization perspective and focuses on the case of Greece – one of the most centralized EU member states– to explore how Greek municipalities articulate and implement smart cities initiatives during the present EU Multiannual Financial Framework (2021-2027). It is argued that, in order to understand and assess change and innovation - or the lack thereof - at the discourse, cognitive and policy levels, it is crucial to determine whether current smart cities initiatives encourage processes of: a) hierarchical or bottom-up learning; and b) ‘thin’ or ‘thick’ learning.