The concept of the smart city has emerged as a new urban governance model in response to contemporary urban challenges such as rapid urbanization, climate change, and accelerating technological developments. Urban governance is directly influenced not only by global opportunities and constraints but also by shifting national and international policies within this context. The development of the smart city concept is often regarded as a continuation of the “sustainable city” discourse that became prevalent in the late 1990s and particularly in the early 2000s. Smart cities, which employ technological innovations as tools to enhance quality of life and ensure sustainability, encompass multiple dimensions, including governance, mobility, environment, energy, economy, quality of life, security, and citizen participation.

This study first briefly addresses the theoretical evolution of the smart city concept and global smart city approaches, and then aims to examine Istanbul’s journey toward becoming a smart city through the perceptions and experiences of different stakeholder groups. To investigate smart city perceptions and experiences in Istanbul, a qualitative research design was adopted, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with two distinct participant groups during the data collection process. Interviews were carried out with a total of 18 participants: (1) professionals specializing in smart city policies, technologies, and city branding, and (2) municipal employees of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality who are directly involved in the implementation of smart city initiatives and the Istanbul city brand. The collected data were analyzed using content analysis, thematic coding was performed, and the responses of the two stakeholder groups were evaluated through comparative analysis.

The analysis results indicate that while both groups share certain common understandings of the smart city concept, they display notable differences in their conceptualizations. Professionals tend to approach the concept from a more global and strategic perspective, emphasizing dimensions such as long-term planning, international benchmarks, and policy innovation. Practitioners, by contrast, ground their views more strongly in the local context and focus on factors such as institutional constraints, operational challenges, and citizen feedback based on their direct experiences. Although both groups refer to core principles such as sustainability, technological integration, and citizen-centered service delivery, they differ in how these principles are prioritized and interpreted. When questions were posed to both groups specifically regarding Istanbul, participants from both groups stated that smart city applications should be used—and are being used—to address transportation and environmental sustainability challenges in the city; however, significant differences emerged between the two stakeholder groups in their overall assessments of the success level of existing implementations.

These findings demonstrate that strategic and operational positioning directly shapes perceptions of smart cities. For Istanbul to succeed in its smart city transformation, focusing solely on technological advancements is insufficient; rather, it is critically important to develop an inclusive governance approach that incorporates the knowledge, experiences, and priorities of diverse stakeholder groups into decision-making and policy formulation processes. This issue is also directly related to the holistic perspective required by the discipline of spatial planning. In smart city transformation processes, ensuring social, economic, and institutional alignment alongside technical solutions is essential, and place-specific spatial decisions must be designed in harmony with objectives related to quality of life, accessibility, and environmental sustainability. Bringing together local knowledge and professional vision can help bridge gaps between planning and implementation, contributing to policies that are more feasible and inclusive. In this way, smart city policies can evolve beyond a narrow focus on technological innovation toward a participatory and sustainable transformation process that encompasses all components of urban space.