Digitalization has far-reaching yet under-researched impacts on stateâsociety relations. This article addresses this gap and explores digitalization as a driver of change to social contracts. The conceptual framework explains how it changes (a) the stateâs duty to grant protection, provision, and participation in exchange for legitimacy; (b) the modes of stateâsociety interaction; and (c) the contracting parties with respect to their location and their relative power position. Based on a literature review and recent developments in digitalization, the article then discusses how this plays out in the MENA region. It shows that digital surveillance by authoritarian regimes often dominates over the statesâ duty to protect their citizens. Spaces for political participation increase through social media and online platforms but often fail to translate into âofflineâ mobilization. Digitalization can improve public service provision, but only for digitally-connected citizens. Thus, digitalization tends to enhance the relative power positions of MENA states even if states themselves partly depend on external actors for access to and control over digital technologies. Overall, digitalization is an important, structural driver of change to social contracts but pre-existing stateâsociety relations and governance framework conditions lead to either more inclusive or rather more authoritarian social contracts.
Linda Weigl, Tamara Roth, Alexandre Amard, Liudmila Zavolokina
User-centricity in e-government is a double-edged sword. While it helps governments design digital services tailored to the needs of citizens, it may also increase the burden on users and deepen the digital divide. From an institutional perspective, these fundamental conflicts are inevitable. To better understand the role and effect of user-centricity in e-government, this paper analyses academic literature on user-centricity and public values. The analysis leads to three main insights: First, there is a conflict in citizen representation that may result from the normative dominance of decision-makers. Second, we identify an accountability conflict that can prevent user-centric innovation from thriving in a highly institutionalized environment. Third, we identify a pluralism conflict that emerges from a clash between the reality of a diverse society and the assumed homogeneity of actors. The need to address these conflicts increases with rapid technological innovation, such as distributed ledger technologies, artificial intelligence, and trust infrastructures. These technologies put the user at the center stage and permeate aspects of social life beyond government. In response to these insights, we outline suggestions for further research and practice.
Open access
E-Government and Public Services
Privacy, Security, and Data Protection
Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development
Abstract Web3âs raison dâĂȘtre is decentralization. Quite problematically, however, few industry analysts can articulate what âdecentralizationâ really entails; whether it differs at all from the notion of âdistribution,â and how either construct can be measured with observable data to enable a meaningful analysis of the industryâs core promise. Instead, Web3 is akin to a decentralization theater in which archetypical characters, who resonate with the likes of Hamlet and Godot, enact decentralization based on fictitious narratives. After critically reassessing these narratives about decentralization, this paper offers a fresh perspective to evaluate, less theatrically and hopefully more rigorously, future claims about âbeing decentralized.â I argue that the crucial issue lurking behind the decentralization narrative is the dispersion of authority within blockchain platforms, which consists of two fundamental dimensions, namely the dispersion of information and of decision-making. The value proposition of Web3 will not be taken seriously until the industry can provide reliable indicators of authority dispersion and demonstrate that the latter affects strategic outcomes for blockchain platforms, including innovation, growth, and value creation.
Digital transformation and new technologies have made peopleâs lives easier and led to great results in most areas of business and society. Implementing blockchain technology is one of the best tools for establishing sustainable smart cities and societies. In terms of sustainable governance sophisticated and secure voting systems are necessary to achieve high integrity and transparency and null election fraud, and, in environmental sustainability, e-voting systems eliminate the mass waste of paper and transportation gas emissions; namely, e-voting systems are eco-friendly with high democratic outcomes. Blockchain technology can revolutionize e-voting by increasing the security and transparency of the voting process. Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into blockchain-based e-voting systems further augments their effectiveness. AI algorithms can analyze voting patterns and detect irregularities, supporting the prevention of fraudulent activities and coercion. ML procedures can enhance voter authentication processes, improve accessibility for diverse demographics, and optimize the productivity of blockchain networks during peak voting periods. This study focuses on understanding citizen perceptions of blockchain-based e-voting in a smart city context using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The studyâs results indicate that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are important factors in determining citizensâ intentions to use blockchain-based e-voting. Furthermore, trust in the technology and perceived security were found to influence the usefulness of blockchain-based e-voting positively. This study provides important insights for policymakers and technologists seeking to promote the adoption of blockchain-based e-voting systems in smart cities. The findings of the research supported the research model with positive results. In conclusion, our research model encourages the adoption of a blockchain-based e-voting system to enhance the future voting environment.
Andrea Peña-Calvin, Javier Arroyo, Andrew B. Schwartz, Samer Hassan
Blockchain technology enables a new form of online community: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), where members typically vote on proposals using tokens. Enthusiasts claim DAOs provide new opportunities for openness, horizontality, and democratization. However, this phenomenon is still under research, especially given the lack of quantitative studies. This paper presents the first census-like quantitative analysis of the whole ecosystem of DAOs, including 30K DAO communities on the main DAO platforms. This enables us to provide insights into the allegedly "democratic'' nature of DAOs, building metrics concerning their lifespan, participation, and power concentration. Most DAOs have a short lifespan and low participation. There is also a positive correlation between community size and voting power concentration. Like other online communities, DAOs seem to follow the iron law: becoming increasingly oligarchic as they grow. Still, a significant amount of DAOs of varying sizes defy this idea by being egalitarian by design.
Experiments in alternative forms of urban digitalisation include blockchain-based applications as enablers of civic action in local communities, inspired by different visions than blockchain-based speculative cryptocurrencies. This article investigates how blockchain technology can be oriented towards locally embedded applications. It explores the case of a blockchain-based wallet app that aims to support social collaborative economies and civic participation in urban communities by tokenising social and economic assets. Building on studies on the embeddedness of urban digital platforms with a local character, this article studies how the app under consideration is shaped by, and adapted to, the needs and resources of local socio-economic contexts. Two pilot experimentations on the app are considered, concerning systems for rewarding civic participation and urban sharing economies. The empirical analysis concerns the methodology for introducing the app into local socio-economic contexts, the way in which local actors interpret its properties, and the resulting iterative co-design of its functionalities. The article defines and discusses the extent to which the civic blockchain is rendered context-based by this methodology, and highlights similarities and differences with other urban digital platforms. The empirical evidence drawn from this research contributes to the debate on how community members, researchers and digital experts together can realise alternative forms of urban digitalization.
Cohen's Smart City Generational model has been the basis of understanding for the evolution of the Smart Cities movement. However, how does this model align with practitionersâ conceptualization of the term? Our research focuses on Infrastructure Canada's Smart City Challenge (SCC). Through 14 primary interviews and 20 finalist applications, this research reveals that practitioners overwhelmingly understand Smart City building as a government-driven, data-centric endeavor (Smart City 2.0), as opposed to being about vendor transactions (Smart City 1.0), resident engagement (Smart City 3.0), or community co-creation (Smart City 4.0), where the specific technology is of secondary importance to project objectives. We conclude that, rather than moving through distinct generations, the smart cities movement should be understood as a gradual process of municipal public administration modernization as local governments are becoming increasingly savvy and experienced about contracting with technology firms to address urban problems.
Open access
Smart Cities and Technologies
Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development
The current internet economy is characterised by a historically unprecedented bundling of private sector power over infrastructures. This situation is harmful for overcoming problems where collective action is needed, such as for governing digital commons. Organisations that run on collectively owned decentralised infrastructure are able to overcome this centralisation of power. These common decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) could help in fostering digitally enabled collective action. However, currently we have no clear view of how a DAO designed for commons governance would operate and be governed. By creating a conceptual prototype of a DAO governing a common, we provide a clear path of how common DAOs should mature and which tools are needed to create them. In this research, we created a governance framework for common DAOs by combining 16 works on technology for commons governance. The framework reveals that common DAO governance consists of three areas: 1) Governance structure, 2) Enabling technology, and 3) Community governance. We provide governance mechanisms that together describe an implementation of Ostromâs common governance principles in a DAO. This work is a synthesis of previous research on technology for collective action. The proposed framework aids in standardising DAO governance for the common good and may contribute to a large scale roll-out of commons DAOs.
This article explores how the concept of a âDecentralised Digital Identityâ applies to media users or a professional publishing company. We investigate how these types of identities can be used to develop trust and extract new value in the publishing and media industries. The work is based on the research undertaken by the Cogency project in 2022, which assessed how Web3 can be used to help build ongoing trust and develop new sources of revenue for publishers and content producers.
Manal Mansour, May Salama, Hala Helmi, Mona F. M. Mursi
Blockchain technology is referred to as a very secure decentralized, distributed ledger that records the history of any digital asset. It is being used in numerous governmental and private sector organizations across numerous nations. Surveying the current state of blockchain applications and difficulties in e-government services is the goal of this review. Held to the account are use cases for current facilities that use blockchain. Finally, it examines the research gap in blockchain deployment and makes suggestions for future work for additional research.
Sujeet Kumar Sharma, Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Santosh K. Misra, Nripendra P. Rana
This study identifies the critical challenges for blockchain adoption in government, and more specifically in the delivery of public services in the state governments of India. A literature review and focus-group with stakeholders was conducted to identify critical cfhallenges. Each challenge was ranked based on the opinions of stakeholders using conjoint analysis. Regarding government adoption of Blockchain, this study points to ecological shifts as a more significant challenge than technology. This study provides theoretical implications for researchers and valuable insights for practitioners.
The Republic and Canton of Jura has decided to adopt and integrate the CERTUS digital seal and the KSI blockchain as the central technological components of their e-government portal and of their digital government transformation program. However, this project is taking place in turbulent times. While blockchain suffers from a bad reputation for ecological reasons and while the Swiss Confederation has rejected the selected blockchain solution, this article seeks to answer how to grasp the paradoxes of blockchain technologies acceptance by state citizens in an extreme management situation. Through an action research that aims to solve practical problems and create scientific knowledge, this study highlights the paradox of trust and considers blockchain technologies to enhance trust between citizens in politically stable countries. Furthermore, it investigates the paradox of transparency of blockchain technologies in an extreme management situation and proposes communicating in two levels of abstraction to limit tensions in turbulent times.
Nils C. Bandelow, Johanna Hornung, Ilana Schröder
Over the past decade, technological changes have had a strong influence on society and science worldwide. Information and communications technology, big data, and artificial intelligence are only some digital innovations that have been transforming the research and practice of public policy. The impact of such technologies has recently become even more noticeable, for instance, through the prominence of machine learning chatbots. This raises several questions such as how to adapt institutions and regulatory processes to digital transformation, how such innovations can be used to enhance the design and implementation of policies, and how public policy and administration scholars should understand and make use of technologically driven futures. This third jubilee issue of Review of Policy Research (RPR) comprises six original articles which present a range of theoretical and empirical contributions to answering such questions. In the opening article, Kim et al. (2023) address the rising popularity of policy labs and examine to what extent they enhance the understanding and addressing of critical policy problems. To this end, they reviewed over 130 data-based policy labs across the world and their contribution to policy capacity. Most policy innovation labs are located in Europe and North America, initiated by governments or universities, and use various data types with a dominance of administrative data. Following the policy capacity framework by Wu et al. (2018), the authors differentiate between analytical, operational, and political policy capacity at the individual, organizational, and systemic level. The findings show that data-based policy labs enhance analytical and operational policy capacity at different levels but that they have only limited effects on providing political-based policy capacity. The article concludes with a future research agenda and suggestions for strategies to improve political capacity within policy innovation labs. These include promoting individuals' policy acumen as well as strengthening the environment for collaboratively learning about policy processes and political values on the organizational and systemic levels. Torfs et al. (2023) contribute to this issue with an application of the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET, Baumgartner et al., 2009, 2018) to analyze how institutional shifts impact digital policy change. Following an evolutionary perspective, the authors explored two decades of Belgian federal digital policy and its periods of policy stability (equilibrium) and change (punctuation). To this end, they analyze explanatory factors for negative and positive feedback mechanisms and the role of policy entrepreneurs. The methodological approach combines a distributional application of the PET with an explaining-outcome congruence case study, using documents, interviews, data on media coverage, regulation, and budgets. The authors illustrate that digital policy in Belgium is characterized by longer periods of stability and two periods of punctuation. It is shown that institutional shifts did impact Belgian digital policy. However, their explanatory power is limited as they lead to both positive and negative feedback mechanisms. More decisive factors in explaining digital policy (in)stability are attention allocation, policy entrepreneurs, and the political system. Torres and Fowler (2023) contribute to research on policy entrepreneurship with a study on the strategies bureaucrats used to change decision-making processes in the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). More specifically, the authors investigate how individuals drove organizational re-thinking on public participation and initiated the adoption of participatory technology assessment (pTA) within the space agency. The analysis of public documents and interviews reveals three main entrepreneurial strategies that helped shift the status quo and support citizen interaction in program design. The paper shows that the entrepreneurs reached out to and connected audiences across organizations in small-scale meetings where they presented a positive, solution-oriented reinterpretation of the program. In this discourse, they took a mediating position to have control over the narrative and decision-making process. Therefore, policy entrepreneurs, program-related group formation, and framing played an important role in the initiation of policy change within NASA. Di Giulio and Vecchi (2023) present further evidence for the influence of policy entrepreneurs and group formation on policy change with a case study on the public sector digitalization in Italy. After failed attempts to adopt digital technologies in the Italian public sector, the digital transformation agenda launched in 2016 was the first one to effectively induce policy change, despite the political instability at that time. Following theory-building process tracing (Beach & Pedersen, 2013), Di Giulio and Vecchi operationalize mechanisms that may explain this success, with a specific focus on related institutionalization processes. For this, they empirically investigate Italian innovation policymaking from 1993 to 2021. The results show that the Italian government used several strategies to increase organizational capacity and coordination as part of the 2016 digital agenda. This included engaging and appointing new professionals, restructuring the roles of governing bodies, and establishing new governmental agencies for digital transformation. This helped to build a community of policy entrepreneurs accountable for public sector digitalization which further created a bandwagon effect among implementers. Mukherjee et al. (2023) analyze how regulatory actors and processes surrounding digital innovation influence the creation of collectively shared and institutionally supported ideas of technological futures. Building on the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasanoff, 2015), the authors conducted 33 interviews with regulators of two emerging technologies in the USA, namely the genome editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV). The in-depth interviews were used to understand how involved actors envision technology-driven futures and the social structures that enable them. In both cases, experts related ideas on technologically driven futures to questions on institutional authority, technological novelty, and risk management. However, the CRISPR and CAV stakeholders' narratives also differed along these aspects. For instance, the authors found that interviewees' imagined futures reproduce their respective regulatory environments, including power relations and intraorganizational boundaries. Mukherjee et al. argue that such differences across regulatory sectors, including institutional arrangements, norms, and practices, influence the imaginary formation around technologies and how they shape the future. Zeng et al. (2023) present another study on digitalized administration processes with an analysis of platform governance in China. The authors elaborate on the advantages of platform-based organizational processes and reflect, however, that the concept of Government as a Platform (GaaP) has been less promising. Zeng et al. argue that the platform-enabled government (PEG) concept which aims to accommodate institutional boundaries is better suited to improve collaborative governance than the GaaP with its focus on eliminating boundaries. The authors test the implementation and impact of 123 PEG cases in China across three policy areas, namely, administrative review, law enforcement, and contact tracing. The results support that PEG is an effective form of holistic governance as it enables to integrate functions of multiple departments in one workflow while respecting institutional boundaries. For instance, PEG facilitates cross-boundary exchange while enabling officials to retain intellectual property rights. The study indicates that PEG is supported by decentralized political systems and middle-tier platforms.
Le Anh Nguyen Long, Shenja van der Graaf, Athanasios Votsis
Borrowing from insights produced in urban planning, media and governance studies thereby leveraging the Ostrom-nian ideas of institutions and polycentricity, this paper examines how to govern commons in the smart city. It offers a reflection upon whether Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) could be a key notion for the commons discourse which centers around stakeholders, self-organization, and a rights-based framework. By decentralizing ledgers and enabling the interoperability of the various interfaces, DLTs make records more accessible, exchanges more transparent, and reduce costs while increasing efficiency, and permit automation, therefore commoning interactions both offline and online are facilitated. We argue that the use of DLTs to preserve the spatiotemporal integrity of key urban spaces is a common value question that needs to be elucidated or renegotiated in order to provide any useful guidance to DLTs integrity-preserving potential. In doing so, we draw attention to DLT-based urban commons and urban governance, and point to inherent incompatibilities that may lead to radical and not-so-smooth changes in urban institutions, while providing a way of thinking which can move the smart city closer towards a values-centered process and away from a preoccupation with technology and efficiency.
Abstract This paper critically evaluates the political economy of Web3 and offers a neo-institutional model to explain qualitative observations of contemporary digital social movements. By starting to develop a sociological model of Web3 rooted in micro-organizational practices, including trust mediation and social coproduction, this paper re-evaluates assumptions of scarcity, economic value, and social belonging. It concludes by introducing a novel research program to study digital polycentric governance that focuses on community self-governance of digital common pool resources (DCPRs) and looks forward to empirical research using on-chain datasets from decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).
The term âWeb3â refers to the practices of participating in digital infrastructures through the ability to read, write and coordinate digital assets. Web3 is hailed as an alternative to the failings of big tech, offering a participatory mode of digital self-organizing and shared ownership of digital infrastructure through software-encoded governance rules and participatory practices. Yet, very few analytical frameworks have been presented in academic literature by which to approach Web3. This piece draws on the theoretical lens of infrastructure studies to offer an analytical framework to approach the emergent field of Web3 as an exploration in âhow to infrastructureâ through prefigurative self-infrastructuring. Drawing on qualitative examples from digital ethnographic methods, I demonstrate how the origins of Web3 reveal the intentions of its creators as a political tool of prefiguration, yet its practices reveal the inherent tension of expressing these ideals in coherent technical and institutional infrastructure. Thus, I argue that one of the fundamental challenges Web3 is negotiating through technical and governance experiments is âhow to self-infrastructure?â.
Abstract4 Corruption has had a detrimental impact on the South African economy. The use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in combatting corruption is undervalued in e-government contexts, while insufficient empirical data exists to gauge the effectiveness of distributed digital technology in combatting malfeasance. This study explores perceptions on the use of ICT in the procurement corruption investigation sector. Legal and factual perspectives of ICTs, and specifically on Digital Ledger Technology (DLT)9s usefulness in combatting public sector procurement corruption in South Africa was found to be limited. This empirical study found that most respondents in the corruption investigation field had encounters with it in the Public Procurement field of the Supply Chain Management (SCM) function. Human interference in the ICT system appears to be the main contributing factor in corrupting the system. Monitoring of user activity logs is recommended as well as strict regulations to prevent ghost users from corrupting ICT systems.
Ali Shahaab, Imtiaz Khan, Ross Maude, Chaminda Hewage · 5 authors
Despite the increasing interest and exploration of the use of blockchain technology in public service organisations (PSOs), academic understanding of its transformative impact on the operational excellence of PSOs remains limited. This study adopts an action design science research methodology to develop a proof of concept (POC) blockchain based application for Companies House, a government agency that is registering companies across UK. The application addresses the operational challenges of Companies House as well as issues citizens face when accessing its services. We draw from the public value framework proposed by Twizeyimana and Andersson (2019) and demonstrate the significance of the emerging blockchain technology in relation to their democratic practices based on six dimensions. We further discuss the related challenges and barriers for its implementation and evaluate the POC with the stakeholders of Companies House. We also present an illustrative case study, where we explored the appropriateness of the POC in relation to the draft legislation, âRegistration of Overseas Entities and Beneficial Ownersâ (ROEBO) bill which proposes the introduction of a register of the beneficial owners of overseas legal entities that own real estate in the UK. Our research is one of the few studies that will provide in-depth empirical insights about the relationship between blockchain and operational excellence of PSOs.
Rimvydas LauĆŸikas, Tadas ĆœiĆŸiĆ«nas, Vladislav V. Fomin
The conflict between heritage protection and urban infrastructure development rationales creates a context for inclusion, participation and dialogue of different heritage-related communities. However, developed in the pre-computer age of administrative practice, are often incapable, partially or completely, to accommodate the ânew-eraâ community oriented participatory practices. In this article, authors discuss the mutual effects of IT in the process of democratization of urban heritage preservation. The authors create and argue the conceptual model of distributed ledger technologies (DLT) in participatory UHP. The model demonstrates how technologies can become catalysts for democratization in situations when the regulatory and administrative change (on its own) is too inert. The article hypothesizes that novel technological developments which aim at or have the potential for increasing community involvement and democratization of administrative practice, exert their effects directly through technology-based participatory practices.
Shafaq Khan, Mohammed Shael, Munir Majdalawieh, Nishara Nizamuddin · 5 authors
Blockchain technology is an innovative technology with the potential of transforming cities by augmenting the building of resilient societies and enabling the emergence of more transparent and accountable governments. To understand the capabilities of blockchain, as well as its impact on the public sector, this study conducted a review of blockchain technology and its implementations by various governments around the globe. E-government evolution is analyzed, based on empirical evidence from a Dubai government entity in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has utilized blockchain technology for developing end-user services, relevant to the public sector. Benefits achieved and challenges to overcome in such blockchain-based pilot deployments are discussed. The findings of this study offer new insights for practitioners involved in bringing in innovations for the benefit of society, using blockchain technology. Furthermore, it provides insights into policy actions to be developed to address the future challenges and to improve already existing e-government policies. The results of this research will benefit all blockchain-based pilot deployments by providing guidance and knowledge on this immature yet developing technology.
Abstract Emerging technologies permeate and potentially disrupt a wide spectrum of our social, economic, and political relations. Various state institutions, including education, law enforcement, and healthcare, increasingly rely on technical components, such as automated decision-making systems, e-government systems, and other digital tools to provide cheap, efficient public services, and supposedly fair, transparent, disinterested, and accountable public administration. The increased interest in various blockchain-based solutions from central bank digital currencies, via tokenized educational credentials, and distributed ledger-based land registries to self-sovereign identities is the latest, still mostly unwritten chapter in a long history of standardized, objectified, automated, technocratic, and technologized public administration. The rapid, (often) unplanned, and uncontrolled technologization of public services (as happened in the hasty adoption of distance-learning and teleconferencing systems during Corona Virus Disease (COVID) lockdowns) raises complex questions about the use of novel technological components, which may or may not be ultimately adequate for the task for which they are used. The question whether we can trust the technical infrastructures the public sector uses when providing public services is a central concern in an age where trust in government is declining: If the governmentâs artificial intelligence system that detects welfare fraud fails, the publicâs confidence in the government is ultimately hit. In this paper, we provide a critical assessment of how the use of potentially untrustworthy (private) technological systems including blockchain-based systems in the public sector may affect trust in government. We then propose several policy options to protect the trust in government even if some of their technological components prove fundamentally untrustworthy.
Tamara Roth, Alexander Stohr, Julia Amend, Gilbert Fridgen · 5 authors
Digital technologies play an important role for the delivery of many public services. However, selecting and adopting the ârightâ digital technologies is often challenging, especially for federally structured governments. Universal factors for successful adoption are hard to establish, and the particularities of federalism, such as the separation of competencies, complicate technology selection. Nevertheless, blockchain technology seems to flourish in these environments. Through a single-case study on the blockchain project of Germanyâs Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, we unpack one essential factor for this success: the fit between (cross-)organizational task structure and technological properties. This fit earns the Federal Officeâs project considerable credit and traction with stakeholders and partner authorities â not least because it supports the argument that the digitalization of federal systems is possible without âdigital centralizationâ and redistribution of competencies. Our task-technology fit analysis contributes to a better understanding of the adoption of blockchain in the public sector. It also provides the foundation for an extended task-technology fit theory for federally structured, cross-organizational contexts.
Bokolo Anthony, Sobah Abbas Petersen, Markus Helfert
Abstract Cities are actively deploying modern digital technologies to foster digitalization due to the emergence of data-driven innovations. Through modern digital technologies, municipalities aim to enhance services performance. Despite prior studies that focused on digital transformation in smart cities, there have been few studies aimed at managing service transformation and complexities needed to support cities in getting smarter. Also, as the deployment of information technology (IT) continues to grow within urban environment, there has been little research conducted that develops data-driven approach for digital services within urban environment. Additionally, cities are exploring methods of providing seamless mobility services based on collaboration among several enterprises and stakeholders in urban environment while achieving seamless data-driven services. Therefore, this study explores the adoption of Enterprise Architecture (EA) for digital transformations to achieve seamless urban mobility services. Qualitative data was collected using case study by interview from an organization that employs distributed ledger technology (DLT) to deploy digital services in smart cities. Findings from the interview sessions were modelled in ArchiMate language to illustrate the application of digital payment solution via DLT toward digitization of urban mobility services. The findings reveal that EA supports digital transformation of cities and manages data integration and alignment. Besides, findings from this study propose an EA approach to support urban planners and developers in understanding the actions required to implement digital transformation of their city services in becoming smarter.