Our societies and cities are becoming digitalised as new devises and tools are developed to make the cities more effective, and accordingly digital technologies becomes an important factor in urban planning. The smart city has in the last years gained a lot of attention because the smart city has a strong focus on creating cities that are prepared for the digitalisation that comes in the future. However, literature indicates that there is a lack of focus on the citizens in the smart city, and consequently this thesis aims to understand how citizens can gain a stronger focus in the smart city through social sustainability. The goal of this thesis has therefore been to understand how to create a bridge between social sustainability and the smart city to ensure that there is a stronger focus on citizens.

To gain a practical perspective on this thesis, the case of Stigsborg Havnefront (Stigsborg) in Aalborg Municipality is chosen as the municipality has a strong focus on creating smart and social sustainable neighbourhoods. Since, Stigsborg is a neighbourhood development project, this thesis looks at concepts in a perspective of smart neighbourhoods. Accordingly, the main goal of this thesis has been to answer the research question: “How can the aspects of the smart city create social sustainability in neighbourhoods, and how can Aalborg Municipality use smart solutions to integrate social sustainability in the neighbourhoods of Stigsborg?”

The theories that have been used in this thesis are the concept of the smart city, smart neighbourhoods and social sustainability, these concepts have been divided in to two aspects, where the smart city and smart neighbourhoods are looked upon as physical aspect and social sustainability into social aspects of the smart city. These theories are used as a theoretical framework for analysing the case of Stigsborg. The empirical data that is used in this thesis is interviews with urban planners with experience in social sustainability and smart city as well an urban planner from Aalborg Municipality that works with the project of Stigsborg. Document analysis has also been to gather knowledge about the project of Stigsborg.

There is a strong focus on smart and social sustainable neighbourhoods in Stigsborg Havnefront, however these concepts are looked upon separately, therefore contributes this thesis by creating a bridge between the concepts. This thesis identifies how to use smart solutions to increase social sustainability in smart neighbourhoods. The aim is to discover what possibilities there lies in creating Stigsborg into smart and social sustainable neighbourhoods. This thesis has therefore given solutions and examples of how Aalborg Municipality can use smart solutions to increase social sustainability, such as creating digital platforms and to increase participation and communities and create a strong infrastructure that can provide increased liveability.