Citylab X: Towards a lens on the urban living lab as driver of systemic innovation

Abstract

Diverse European municipalities are using the urban living lab (ULL) approach to conceive and conduct innovation experiments that might enable the mobilisation of sustainable new energy solutions and policies for local and regional energy transitions. These municipality-enabled labs differ from social labs that originate from the direct concerns of citizens and communities. In both such lab contexts, designers of services or technology solutions are involved, but in different ways. The municipality-enabled ULLs are rarely facilitated and co-designed by systemic designers with an eye on their systemic or transitional impact. Citylab X is one of these labs, currently active in a larger city in the Netherlands. We followed this lab as a case study for one year to unpack specific challenges and opportunities in the realm of stakeholder co-creation. Based on the literature on systemic innovation labs and a newly developed lab process model, we reveal particular lessons for this type of government-enabled living lab. Thus, we propose a paradigmatic case study of a ULL for energy transition that further adapts a systemic design process model and delivers rich material for theory development. We conclude with dilemmas the different stakeholders encounter, which serve as valuable pointers for reflection that similar starting or ongoing lab initiatives can use.