How do London and Milan frame their smart and sustainable agenda?

Cities around the world have been facing many challenges due to climate change and increasing urbanisation. A winning strategy to tackle them seems to be Smart Cities plans. They use new technologies to make the city more liveable and sustainable for their citizens. This paper treats the main concepts in this area, like smartness, sustainability, their relationship and uses public management theories to frame cities’ initiatives in terms of smart cities. In fact, the purpose is to prove the explanatory power of New Public Management and Post- New Public Management in regard to Smart Cities strategies. Data will be collected through interviews and people involved will be either based in London or Milan to have a general picture of both case studies. Results will present the main arguments around four themes which are: the smart city strategy, the role of the public sector, the role of the private sector and citizens. In the discussion, a theoretical reflection will be proposed in which hypothesis will be tested, comparing Milan and London. This process will determine whether NPM or post-NPM has an higher explanatory power in regard to Smart Cities strategies.