The Role Corporate Social Responsibility Has in the Smart City Project in Spain

The Role Corporate Social Responsibility Has in the Smart City Project in Spain

Mª Asunción López-Arranz
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1978-2.ch019
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Abstract

The object and justification of this chapter is to analyse how Smart Cities will have an impact on workers' social welfare. Another aspect is the opportunity for businesses immersed in Smart Cities to improve working conditions through corporate social responsibility, reverting in this way to the society all that they have to offer. The future of employment in Smart Cities is analysed. Anyway, the realisation of the present work also has allowed to check how finds Spain in the implantation of this model of Cities and as they are involved the spanish companies. In this sense, the investigation after an unproductive analysis and conceptual of the terms business social responsibility and smart quote analyses the implication of the right of the work in the new cities through the repercussion of these in the conditions of work of the workers taken by the companies so much of the small, of the average as of the big company, to finish with conclusions. It analyses the normative activity that Spain has developed specifically in this regard and his plans in the aim 20/20.
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Introduction

The purpose behind the Smart Cities in Spain is to offer better opportunities in different areas through:

  • Networks,

  • People,

  • Employment,

  • Town planning,

  • Housing,

  • Government,

  • Administrations and

  • Renewable energies.

This chapter will focus on the way in which the creation of these Smart Cities can solve current problems in this country such as unemployment. It is also essential to assess the relationship between businesses and smart cities to see if they too can be called smart businesses.

As highlighted in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, half the population live in cities. This means that the population of cities has grown from 750 million in 1950 to 3,600 in 2011. Furthermore, an increase is predicted to the point that, by 2030, it is estimated that 60 percent of the population will reside in cities. In Spain, 80 percent of the population lives in urban areas according to statistics from The Ministry of Development. This remarkable growth means that, in upcoming years, Spanish cities and those worldwide should be ready to offer services in a sustainable manner. Basic necessities, such as running water, transport infrastructure and clean air, should be available. Achieving these will be an extraordinary milestone and a great opportunity for all industrial sectors.

Smart cities play a major role in the new agenda for sustainable development of the 2030 UN Conference, as they will be promoted within the Millennium objectives of the UN framework that has recently been approved (2015). These have recently been redefined as sustainable development objectives. Provision 11 promotes the United Smart Cities Project, whose goal is to have all cities become sustainable, integrated, catastrophe resistant and safe. Europe has joined this objective since 2011 through its regional policy “Cities of Tomorrow” (October 2011). These cities hold the majority of the population and businesses of the EU and they are where all social, political and economic interests are materialised. The European Strategy 2020 for the promotion of smart cities proposes:

  • Investing in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) infrastructures;

  • Developing human capital and new technologies to obtain better sustainability and quality of life and work for its residents and businesses;

  • Increasing efficiency and access to services and reduce poverty, unemployment, social exclusion, pollution and environmental degradation.

With the Digital Venice Declaration (2014), Smart Cities have become a place where economic growth and employment flourish; due to digital technologies that can converge with innovative infrastructures and new services.

For Europe it is essential that, in the strategic process of building, implementing and monitoring smart cities, the presence and role of society is reinforced to improve living and working conditions of their residents and businesses. The aim here is to adopt a development model characterised by its capacity to generate environmental, social, productive and occupational advantages. (Proposal which amends Regulations 1291/2013 and 1316/2013, COM 2015).

Nevertheless, the future of Smart Cities is the subject of fierce debate. A critical eye is cast on how technological developments are being imposed on them in the form of a wide-reaching web that captures residents, their lives, families and livelihoods.

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