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The article studies the urban digitalization and smart city development in the context of Nordic society. The exploration focuses on city officials' views concerning the two largest cities in Finland, Helsinki and Espoo. Both cities are investing heavily on urban digitalization, and they are also building specific smart city districts. The central contexts for the study are the Nordic welfare state model and Finnish cities’ role in society as crucial service providers. The article follows especially conceptualizations connected to urban data which have been highlighted in recent critical smart city research and are also at the heart of the studied cities’ digitalization programmes.