Are Urban Futures Converging? How Smart, Sustainable, Livable, and X-Minute City Paradigms Intersect in Urban Research

Abstract

This study investigates the conceptual and practical interlinkages among four major urban paradigms—smart cities, sustainable cities, livable cities, and X-minute cities—using bibliometric co-occurrence and citation analyses. A total of 1439 peer-reviewed publications indexed in Scopus (1979–2024) were examined to map the thematic overlaps and emerging clusters among these city concepts. The findings reveal that smart cities constitute the most interconnected paradigm, appearing in 980 publications and functioning as a technological bridge to sustainability, livability, and proximity-based planning. The smart–sustainable city nexus, evidenced by 530 shared publications, dominates the literature. By contrast, livable cities and X-minute cities represent emerging, human-centered niches with significant growth potential. The findings offer a conceptual framework for integrated urban planning and policy, demonstrating how these paradigms collectively address the complexities of contemporary urbanization. Rather than adopting singular models, urban leaders are encouraged to formulate hybrid planning agendas that reflect local needs while aligning with global urban sustainability objectives. This study calls for a comprehensive understanding of urban development paradigms.