The doctoral thesis Smart Urban Governance: Governing Cities in the “Smart” Era by Huaxiong Jiang develops a rigorous critique of technologically deterministic smart city paradigms while simultaneously proposing an alternative sociotechnical framework capable of reconciling digital innovation with the social, political and spatial complexities of urban life. Rather than accepting the dominant neoliberal and technocratic interpretation of smart cities—where urban efficiency is pursued primarily through surveillance systems, big data analytics and corporate-led technological infrastructures—the thesis argues that genuinely intelligent urban governance must emerge from the dynamic interaction between urban issues, institutional arrangements and technological innovation. Central to the dissertation is the assertion that contemporary smart governance models excessively privilege data-driven managerialism while neglecting contextual realities such as inequality, democratic participation, cultural specificity and spatial justice. Drawing upon extensive literature reviews, empirical case studies, international surveys and planning-support-system research, Jiang conceptualises smart urban governance as a deeply contextual sociotechnical process in which ICT functions not as an autonomous governing force but as an enabling instrument embedded within governance structures and civic practices. Particularly illuminating are the comparative analyses of Amsterdam Smart City, Hangzhou’s City Brain initiative and the Smart Ulaanbaatar Programme, which collectively demonstrate that technological intelligence acquires radically different meanings depending upon governance culture, institutional capacity and societal priorities. The thesis further contributes to planning theory by integrating decades of planning-support-system scholarship into smart governance debates, thereby exposing the persistent “implementation gap” between technological potential and practical usability. Jiang persuasively argues that effective digital governance depends less upon computational sophistication than upon contextual usability, participatory legitimacy and alignment with local governance needs. Consequently, the dissertation advances a sophisticated reconceptualisation of urban smartness grounded not in technological spectacle but in human-centred governance, collaborative rationality and adaptive sociotechnical interaction. Ultimately, the thesis establishes that future urban intelligence will depend upon cities’ capacities to integrate ICT with democratic governance, contextual sensitivity and socially embedded planning practices capable of enhancing collective wellbeing rather than merely optimising administrative efficiency.