Smart city concept in Poland and Ukraine: implementation instruments, problems and successes of cities

Abstract. The article addresses the issue of the smart city concept in reference to two neighbouring countries – Poland and Ukraine. The paper also analyses different research trends and directions in the scope of the smart city concept, as well as the process and conditions of implementation of the concept in countries selected for detailed analysis. The detailed analysis covered the implementation of the smart city concept in two cities in Poland and Ukraine, belonging to neighbouring administrative units of the second order – Lublin and Lviv. It was determined that both in Poland and Ukraine, the smart city concept is only at the initial stage of implementation. It is caused by a number of different conditions, primarily including socio-economic transformation of the countries and inconsequence in reforming different spheres of socio-economic life in Ukraine. Local initiatives (analysed in detail based on the example of the cities of Lublin and Lviv) were determined to be of key importance in the implementation process