Dubai Smart City And Residence Happiness: A Conceptual Study

Abstract

Ever since a few decades ago, the concept of smart city has resuscitated back to the academic field, making scholars examine the factors, timeline, policy, and human behavioral change. Deviating from that available literature, this study conceptually examines the influence of smart city features on human happiness concerning their natural habitat. To achieve this, the authors engage the use of the available public documents, academic journals, and government portals to examine the perceptions of Dubai residence concerning the perceived happiness level (psychology artifact) on the smart city project aimed at making the residence in Dubai, the happiest people on earth. The conceptual findings reveal that although Dubai's residence was known to be happy people, the country's prestige using some of the sophisticated technologies had enhanced and sustained the level of happiness. However, more needs to be achieved as the current smart city features in the study context are skewed only towards technology. Simultaneously, less attention was given to other features of the smart city, namely, environment and social functions. This paper thus reveals that sustaining happiness, in the long run, requires a balance between a smart city's elements.