Challenges of Urban Living Labs towards the Future of Local Innovation

Aksel Ersoy,Ellen Van Bueren

doi:10.17645/up.v5i4.3226

Abstract

Finding new approaches to overcome complex urban problems such as climate change has always been of interest to policymakers and academics. The changing dynamics of urban development result in the diversification of new practices during which experimentation is used to inform urban practice. Amongst these approaches, urban living labs (ULLs) have become a popular form of urban experimental innovation in many countries in the last decade. These ULLs respond to the increased complexity of future challenges calling for local solutions that acknowledge the local conditions—political, technical, and social. Even though a great deal of attention has been given to this form of urban innovation, there has been little consideration of the learning and innovation processes within ULLs. Based on a comparative case study of three innovation projects in a ULL in the city of Amsterdam, we analyse and discuss the claims of ULLs regarding innovation and the different orders of learning they foster. We argue that in the processes of experimentation within ULLs, combining mechanisms of learning and innovation is key to promoting the development of particular local solutions. However, since the learning processes are especially concerned within a particular ULL learning setting, there is a mismatch between the expectations of policymakers, industry, citizens, and knowledge institutes, as well as how the lessons learned can be useful for other contexts.

Highlights

There is a growing recognition that cities face complex environmental problems and require multiple and interdisciplinary approaches to overcome their unprecedented challenges
Since living labs explicitly focus on the production of formalized knowledge, to be of use to others, in other places, besides the usability for the partners within the living lab, we have focused on the employability of lessons in other projects, and less on the learning within the project
The three living labs within the Buiksloterham area in Amsterdam all aimed to promote the sustainable development of the area or particular places within that area by developing innovations in both processes and technologies: The Living Lab status is necessary for establishing the overall character of the neighbourhood as a place where new technologies and management approaches can be applied and learned from

Summary

Introduction

There is a growing recognition that cities face complex environmental problems and require multiple and interdisciplinary approaches to overcome their unprecedented challenges. Urban Planning, 2020, Volume 5, Issue 4, Pages 89–100 They aim to overcome important and persistent barriers to implementation and adoption (Franz, Tausz, & Thiel, 2015), such as the lack of user commitment and the mismatch between policies and innovations and the specific, local physical and institutional environment (Araos et al, 2016; van Bueren & De Jong, 2007). They provide a co-creative environment, in which multiple stakeholders test, develop, and create solutions to the contemporary challenges of cities. New forms of expertise and knowledge are needed to contribute to the societal and environmental problems faced by cities today (Ersoy, 2017; Jasanoff, 2004; Nowotny, Scott, Gibbons, & Scott, 2001)

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