Lab Process Research Articles

P-1627. The Impact of Microbiology Diagnosis Process Optimization on Clinical Outcomes and Health Economics in Hospitalized Bloodstream Infection Patients in China

Abstract Background Bloodstream infection (BSI) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Early identification of bacteria is essential for antimicrobial stewardship and the key to improve outcomes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of an optimized microbiology lab process on turnaround times, antibiotics use and economics in adult hospitalized BSI patients.Figure 1:Gram stain, ID and AST reporting times between pre- and post-optimization groups. Methods Since Oct-2021, the microbiology laboratory in Xuchang Central Hospital, Henan, China had implemented a series of improvements, including the utility of BacT/Alert Virtuo blood culture (BC) system, the new resin anaerobic/aerobic BC bottles, VITEK MS (bioMérieux), and an optimized sample reception process. Patients with positive BC results in ICU, general surgery, respiratory, hematology and emergency wards from Oct-2020 to Sep-2021 and Oct-2021 to Sep-2022 were grouped into the pre-optimization (pre-op) and the post-optimization (post-op) groups, respectively.Table 1:The impact of optimized microbiology lab process Results A total of 134 patients were included in the pre-op group, 79 patients were included in the post-op group. There were no differences in baseline characteristics. Compared to pre-op group, the Gram stain reporting time of post-op group decreased significantly (37.27 vs 45.88h, p=0.001). The use of VITEK MS allowed a faster ID report, which significantly reduced the ID reporting time (48.18 vs 70.14h, p< 0.001) compared to pre-op group (Figure 1). These faster reports resulted in rapid targeted antibiotics use. The time from blood sample collection to targeted antibiotic therapy within 48h of each report (Gram stain, ID and AST) was much shorter in post-op group (Table 1). In post-op group, although the decreases of total antibiotics days and length of hospital stay didn’t show significance, the total antibiotics fee was significantly reduced (5902.80 vs 9791.85 RMB, p=0.022). Such fee saving possibly contributed in the saving of total hospitalization cost in post-op group (53816.67 vs 66991.58, P=0.243). Conclusion Optimization of the microbiology lab process resulted in significant decreases in reporting time and ensured faster targeted antibiotic therapy in hospitalized BSI patients. Such improvements might potentially bring positive impact on antimicrobial stewardship, clinical outcomes and health economics. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

The effectiveness of collaborative governance in managing land-use and land-ownership conflicts.

In many developing countries, land conflicts have been recognized as one of the primary triggers for anti-social behavior phenomena. In this regard, collaborative governance (CG) has been trusted as one of the viable mechanisms to manage conflicts (Emerson et al., 2011). However, some cases reveal that it seems considered too vague and less effective to manage the current conflict. This research aims to explore how collaborative governance can be optimized to be more effective in facilitating conflict resolution regarding land use and land ownership clashes. It applies a living lab methodology to sustain data collaborative mechanisms intended to gain an understanding of anti-social behavior and collaborative insight. This framework is also expected to fill the gap between the current collaborative perspective and the failure of existing mechanisms. The result of this study confirms that the existing mechanism lacks social value, and thus it may influence the degree of effectiveness in some ways. In the end, the living lab process has managed to successfully optimize two prominent aspects regarding the institutional environment as well as the collaborative structure to increase its effectiveness. This finding contributes to fulfilling the argument of Dekker et al. (2019) and Ruijer (2021) about the living lab’s role in facilitating the interaction within antisocial cases.

Dismantling the Settler-Colonial Punitive School System: Speculative Future-Making with a Rural High School Community Amid Uncertainty and Political Backlash

Background/Context: In the United States, American Indian youth face multiple forms of marginalization in a settler-colonial school system. In particular, exclusionary school discipline practices (e.g., out-of-school suspensions, expulsions) have been used as tools of exclusion, through which Indigenous bodies are erased from the learning spaces while reinforcing and perpetuating white settler-colonial privilege. To combat settler-colonial violence deployed through disciplinary policies and practices, the Indigenous Learning Lab intervention was implemented in a rural Midwestern high school from 2019 to 2024. The Indigenous Learning Lab is a community-driven participatory design process aimed at systemic transformation. Despite the co-development of locally meaningful solutions through the Learning Lab methodology to tackle racialized school discipline, the disruptions caused by the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and racial unrest required situated adaptations in response to the constantly shifting local sociocultural and political contexts. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This article examines how Indigenous youth, families, and educators as well as non-Indigenous professionals engaged in collective speculative future-making during the implementation of transformative solutions by navigating uncertainties and political tensions induced by the dual pandemic in order to restructure the present oppressive learning environment, with the political goal of disrupting the settler-colonial punitive school system. To understand the role of future-forward speculations in transforming a punitive school system within the complex, politicized settler-colonial context, we utilize three dimensions of speculation—historical, sociocultural, and sociopolitical—as our guiding theoretical framework. Research Design: To examine collective speculative future-making led by a rural high school community, this instrumental case study employs an abductive approach to analyze video-recorded implementation team meetings, individual or focus group interviews, field notes, and artifacts collected throughout the 2021–2022 academic year. During this period, the school community began implementing the new behavioral support system designed by local stakeholders (e.g., Indigenous students, educators, families, and community members) through the Learning Lab process to address racialized school discipline. Conclusions/Recommendations: The Northwoods High School community engaged in collective speculative future-making to dismantle the oppressive, settler-colonial school system. Through historical, sociocultural, and sociopolitical speculations, the school community critically interrogated often-taken-for-granted present systems, policies, tools, practices, and identities and collectively reimagined possible futures by developing alternative and liberatory stories and sociopolitical relations. By participating in a collective struggle toward possible futures, the local school community can engage in speculative dreaming to refine and consolidate a new school system centered on joy, dignity, and prosperity for students from nondominant communities.

Virtual Social Labs – Requirements and Challenges for Effective Team Collaboration

In response to the challenges posed by the complex field of food safety, the FOODSAFETY4EU project established four social labs conducting multi-actor co-creation processes. These labs served as platforms for developing and piloting innovative ideas aimed at addressing these challenges. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the lab process, typically held in-person, had to be converted to the virtual space. This means that all workshops, meetings, and collaboration processes and pilot activities solely took place online. This resulted in the novel situation of teams collaborating virtually throughout the entire social lab processes. Virtual collaborations were already on the rise before the pandemic, evidenced by an increase in virtual meetings and workshops. This study examines the requirements and challenges for effective team collaboration in virtual social lab processes. It investigates virtual collaboration, team dynamics, and the use of online tools. Findings reveal advantages such as increased participation, but also drawbacks including technical issues and role accountability. Despite challenges, all four virtual social labs finally succeeded in engaging diverse stakeholders and achieving significant outcomes addressing food safety challenges.

Art and Science of ‘Escape’

As authors we draw from our experience of hosting two virtual design and imagination labs, where we took a deep dive into the evolution of our economic system with a diverse group, and had a profound collective experience imagining possible alternatives that promote wellbeing and flourishing of people and planet. These labs were convened by the David Suzuki Foundation in Turtle Island/Canada during the pandemic. In each Lab, approximately 60 participants were invited from across government, First Nations communities, civil society, academia, and activism. Both the process of inviting, and the lab design and process, were carefully curated with an intention to bring different world views and perspectives to take a deep dive into re-imagining our economic system. As pracademics and systems change practitioners, we reflect on what is required to make visible the underlying conditions (including worldviews, myths, and metaphors) that keep our current systems in place, and what might be needed to free ourselves to imagine alternatives. We refer to this liberation as ‘escape’ and propose six elements of ‘escape’ for transformation. The process of unlearning and releasing ourselves from unhelpful limiting assumptions and worldviews applies to those ‘facilitating’ these processes of systemic change, as much as it applies to those participating in the labs. This form of collective practice requires constant vigilance, as no single methodology of framework is fit for purpose. We reflect on what this kind of methodological pluralism invites and offers, as we bring together different ways of knowing and different knowledge systems, and re-imagine alternatives that recognise the limitations and impact of our current economic system on people and planet.

Life cycle assessment as a driver for process optimisation of cellobiose lipids fermentation and purification

PurposeCellobiose lipids (CL) are biosurfactants produced by various Ustilaginaceae species in aerobic fermentations. They show high potential for application as alternatives to conventional oleochemical- or petrochemical surfactants. To ensure their environmentally friendly performance, we aimed to assess CL production from a life cycle perspective at an early developmental stage to identify process steps that have the highest impact on the environment. With this information, optimisation approaches can be derived.Materials and methodsFollowing a cradle-to-gate approach, we modelled the CL fermentation and purification process based on experimental data from the lab scale and process simulation data at a 10 m3 scale. For LCA, the impact categories (IC) abiotic depletion potential (ADP), eutrophication potential, photochemical ozone creation potential, global warming potential, acidification potential, and the primary energy demand were calculated for all process steps. Based on the obtained results, process bottlenecks were identified, and alternative process scenarios varying the related process parameters were simulated. These were used to assess the environmental impact reduction potential (EIRP) of an optimised process and draw recommendations for experimental process optimisation.Results and discussionThe obtained results showed that the fermentation caused ~ 73% of ADP and more than 85% of all other ICs. The major contributor was the electricity consumption for continuous fermenter aeration. Thus, reducing the fermentation duration from the initial 14 to 5 days would result in a decrease in all investigated ICs of up to ~ 27–52%. An increase in CL concentration results in a decrease in all ICs of a similar magnitude due to the higher yield per batch at comparable energy and material consumption. Although the share of purification process steps to all ICs is overall relatively small, implementing foam fractionation for in situ product recovery showed an additional EIRP of 18–27% in all purification IC shares.ConclusionsThe conducted LCA showed that overall, more EIRP can be achieved by optimising fermentation process parameters compared to purification process steps. This is mainly due to the long fermentation duration and large energy consumption for fermenter aeration. This highlights the importance of using LCA as a driver for process optimisation to identify process steps with high EIRP. While some of the results are specific to CL, other obtained results can be transferred to other fermentations.

Repairing Landscapes toward the Regeneration of Periurban Ecologies. A Living Lab process in the South of Italy

Contemporary metropolitan areas present landscapes in transition towards sustainability, showing a regenerative potential based on their own natural, aesthetic, social, eco-systemic characteristics. This is connected to forms of landscape regeneration, taking into account different structures: spatial features, economic forces, but also communities’ perceptions and imaginaries. This paper unpacks this general question by making reference to some experimentations in the Campania Region in the South of Italy, and by investigating the ecological dimension within an Urban Metabolism approach and through a Living Labs methodology, to achieve communities’ and institutional engagement in the co-creation of knowledgea and regeneration strategies.

ENTREATY OF FUZZY INTERVAL-VALUED EDAS METHOD IN ORDER PREFERENCE OF CUSTOMERS FOR RANKING OPTIMIZATION.

The growing need of a research lab in automotive confirmatory tests is increasing day by day in the competitive market. Testing plays an important part in time and cost to meet the durability and quality requirements of the customers. Decision Making Models [DMM] with order preference supports well in optimizing the process scheduling time and utilization of machines. The analyzed data is of with multi-criterion constraints and unreliable parameters. As the constraints in analyzed data belongs to [-R, R], the problem is modelled with generalized Fuzzy Interval Valued set. The defined FIVs are justified using Novel Accuracy of Membership and Non-Membership values. The unconventionality of the work discussed in this paper is applying FIVs in the existing Evaluation by Distance Average Sum [EDAS] method. The weight values of the criterion are calculated using the Average Distance [AD] formula. In general, Fuzzy VIKOR and Fuzzy TOPOSIS helps in identifying the closeness co-efficient of the parameters. Particularly, VIKOR plays a vital role on group utility and TOPOSIS on Max/Min of negative and positive ideal solutions respectively. Here, the proposed FIVEDAS method is framed with the Relative Distance Values [RDA] and so it provides us an ideal ranking in order preference. The results are compared with the existing lab process utility time in First-Come-First Serve method.

Evaluating the attenuation of naphthenic acids in constructed wetland mesocosms planted with Carex aquatilis

Surface oil sands mining and extraction in northern Alberta’s Athabasca oil sands region produce large volumes of oil sands process–affected water (OSPW). OSPW is a complex mixture containing major contaminant classes including trace metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and naphthenic acid fraction compounds (NAFCs). Naphthenic acids (NAs) are the primary organic toxicants in OSPW, and reducing their concentrations is a priority for oil sands companies. Previous evidence has shown that constructed wetland treatment systems (CWTSs) are capable of reducing the concentration of NAs and the toxicity of OSPW through bioremediation. In this study, we constructed greenhouse mesocosms with OSPW or lab process water (LPW) (i.e., water designed to mimic OSPW minus the NAFC content) with three treatments: (1) OSPW planted with Carex aquatilis; (2) OSPW, no plants; and (3) LPW, no plants. The OSPW–C. aquatilis treatment saw a significant reduction in NAFC concentrations in comparison to OSPW, no plant treatments, but both changed the distribution of the NAFCs in similar ways. Upon completion of the study, treatments with OSPW saw fewer high-molecular-weight NAs and an increase in the abundance of O3- and O4-containing formulae. Results from this study provide invaluable information on how constructed wetlands can be used in future remediation of OSPW in a way that previous studies were unable to achieve due to uncontrollable environmental factors in field experiments and the active, high-energy processes used in CWTSs pilot studies.

Social labs as good practice for transdisciplinary engagement processes in research and innovation

This article discusses a ‘Social Lab process’ applied in the field of research and innovation as good practice for transdisciplinary processes, and elaborates upon the structure and dynamics of these processes. It sheds light on how engagement processes could be set up for a more inclusive and participant-friendly atmosphere, allowing for meaningful and sustainable outcomes. Supported by data from a qualitative analysis of 19 Social Lab experiences according to the thematic programmes of the European Commission Horizon 2020 research framework programme, this article outlines requirements that need to be taken into account when implementing a transdisciplinary process in a Social Lab. Based on the concept of transdisciplinary research and the experience of this one-and-a-half-year process, the elements of participatory approaches required for successful implementation of a Social Lab, starting with inviting participants to develop small implementation projects (pilot activities) are described. The qualitative analysis of the process documentations highlights the importance of a clear definition of the framework and purpose of the process. Concrete assignments of the lab teams and roles, and the implementation of pilot activities, further proved crucial for successful and sustainable results. On this basis, recommendations for a fruitful participatory process are formulated.

Clinicopathological Features and Expression of Ki-67 in Odontogenic Keratocyst, Dentigerous Cyst and Radicular Cyst

Background: Biological behaviour of Odontogenic Keratocyst (OKC) is aggressiveness than others Odontogenic Cysts (OCs) like Dentigerous Cyst (DCs) and Periapical Cyst/Residual Cysts (RCs). The aim of the study was to determine clinicopathological features and expression of Ki-67 in Odontogenic Cysts of the oral cavity.
 Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at de’Montmorency College of Dentistry (DCD from Feb, 2020 to Feb, 2022 after approval from Institutional Review Board (IRB) of DCD. A total 78 cases of OCs were collected from hospitals which are affiliated with the DCD. Routine lab process for Hematoxylin & Eosin and Immunohistochemistry was performed. Data entry and statistical analysis was carried out in SPSS 21. A Chi- square test was applied to observe the association between cyst and Ki-67. P value < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. 
 Results: Among total 78 cases the mean age was 25.08 ±14.5 years with an age range of 6-70 years. Most OCs (64.1%) were reported in males than females (35.89%). Most OCs were reported in mandible (56.4%. Ki-67 expression in OKC was high 7.7%, low in 76.9% and negative in 15.4%). Most of the DCs and RCs expressed low expression of Ki-67 (84.6% and 76.9% respectively). 
 Conclusion: Most of the odontogenic cysts expressed low expression of Ki-67 while few cases of OKC and DC expressed high expression.
 Keywords: Dentigerous Cyst, Odontogenic Keratocyst, Immunohistochemistry, Ki-67, Odontogenic Cysts, Periapical Cyst, Radicular Cyst.

Co-creating and evaluating social marketing programs: a living lab approach

PurposeThis paper presents a methodological analysis of the co-creation and evaluation of “Biobot Academy” social marketing program to promote socio-emotional skills and prosocial behaviour in children, using a Living Lab method. This paper aims to identify how using a Living Lab method can enhance the co-creation and evaluation of a gamified social marketing program with users and stakeholders. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to apply and further develop a Living Lab framework to guide social marketing program design.Design/methodology/approachUsing a case study method, the Living Lab process was applied during the development of the gamified social marketing program for promoting socio-emotional skills and prosocial behaviour in children. In total, 28 online and in-person sessions over a two-year period led to program co-creation. Guided by a mixed method approach, testing was conducted in a non-randomised waitlist control trial, while qualitative data from in-game data capture, classroom observations and recordings were collected.FindingsThe application of the Living Lab method warranted improvements, specifically to the front-end and back-end steps of the existing process. While the non-randomised trial indicated effectiveness of the social marketing program across all outcome measures (self-awareness, empathy and prosocial behaviour intentions) compared to control, qualitative findings showed program improvements were needed on three specific aspects, namely, interactivity, user experience and comprehension.Originality/valueThis study provides methodological guidance for the application of the Living Lab method in other social marketing settings to help co-create innovative social marketing solutions with diverse stakeholder groups.

Civic Engagement in a Citizen-Led Living Lab for Smart Cities: Evidence From South Korea

Smart cities have emerged in the hope of solving growing urban problems. In addition, unlike past citizen participation in tokenism, new technologies in smart cities have shed light on creating cities with high levels of civic engagement. However, contrary to expectations, technology-centric smart city development has resulted in a lack of opportunities for citizen participation. Consequently, smart cities are increasingly adopting a citizen-centric living lab methodology. Previous research on living labs has emphasized the significance of civic engagement and the potential as a collaborative platform for governments, businesses, and citizens. However, keeping individuals engaged and motivated during the living lab process might be challenging. This study examined the significance of citizens’ active participation and determined the elements that influence the level of participation in a living lab. In this study, the first citizen-led living laboratory in South Korea was selected as the subject of a case study. An empirical analytic approach was adopted and a survey was conducted among living lab participants regarding their level of participation and the sociocultural elements that may impact it. Our findings revealed that living lab activities were associated with enhanced civic self-esteem and positive attitudes toward smart cities. Moreover, they display the socioeconomic elements that influence the degree of participation. This study offers evidence that living lab activities encourage citizen engagement by giving participants a sense of empowerment during the co-creation process with multiple stakeholders, boosting civic competency through learning activities, and improving a sense of community ownership.

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

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.

Valorization of Sugarcane By-Products through Synthesis of Biogenic Amorphous Silica Microspheres for Sustainable Cosmetics.

Ashes from sugarcane by-product incineration were used to synthesize silica powders through alkaline hot extraction, followed by ethanol/acid precipitation or the sol-gel method. Both production methods allowed amorphous spherical silica microparticles with sizes ranging from 1-15 μm and 97% purity to be obtained. Water absorption ranged from 135-155 mL/100 g and 150-250 mL/100 g for precipitated silica and silica gel, respectively, while oil absorption ranged from 305 to 390 and from 250 to 350 mL/100 g. The precipitation with ethanol allowed the recovery of 178 g silica/kg ash, with a lab process cost of EUR 28.95/kg, while the sol-gel process showed a yield of 198 g silica/kg ash with a cost of EUR 10.89/kg. The experimental data suggest that ash from sugarcane by-products is a promising source to be converted into a competitive value-added product, minimizing the environmental impact of disposal problems.

Abstract 15657: Risk Based Scheduling for Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization

Introduction: Machine learning techniques can predict operational capacity needs and improve understanding of procedural risk in heterogeneous patient populations. Our goal is to combine machine learning and computer simulation to design scheduling formats for pediatric cardiac catheterization maximizing patient safety and system efficiency. Methods: Data for 13,115 pediatric cardiac catheterizations from 2010-19 were used to develop a simulation model including 3 catheterization interventional laboratories. Data on case time, patient and procedural complexity, and adverse events were used to determine statistical distributions on patient, procedure, and system factors for key components of the catheterization lab process. The simulation model was used to evaluate scheduling plans implemented for historical and synthetic populations of patients, comparing both system efficiency and total lab time spent where the system risk of an adverse event is high. Results: A simple scheduling heuristic model was developed where one lab worked cases from lowest to highest risk and another lab worked from highest to lowest risk. This scheduling heuristic was applied to all cases in 2018 and compared against the original schedule. Using thresholds of 10% and 20% probability of an adverse event to separate low, medium- and high-risk times. Implementing the sorting schedule resulted in the reduction of minutes spent at high-risk equivalent to 11.57 days per year. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that predictive analytics and simulation using simple scheduling heuristics results in reduced time at increased risk. Future work includes improving the fidelity of the model to include specific providers, case cancellations, and other system complexities.

Technology for societal change: Evaluating a mobile app addressing the emotional needs of people experiencing homelessness.

New technology that aims to tackle the systemic and societal problems face challenges bringing together diverse stakeholder perspectives effectively. We evaluate how an emotion-led approach, with a Living Lab process may be effective in these situations. We discuss findings and their implications for this in the context of the development and ongoing maintenance of a web app called "Ask Izzy". Ask Izzy supports people who are homeless or are otherwise disadvantaged by providing information and consequently improving their everyday life and wellbeing. We present a mixed-method evaluation of the web app: firstly, we evaluate impact of key design decisions upon engagement. Secondly, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 participants who are either homeless, ex-homeless or service providers and used content analysis. Then we demonstrate that our emotion-led approach brings a novel perspective on concerns from key actors influencing the refinement of the app. The results section outlines emotional goals such as a feeling of control that were important to consider in order to meet the needs of both end users and the wider service provision network. Our study provides recommendations and an approach that may inform others in developing and delivering similar health care and related systems and services.

Efforts and Barriers Shifting a City Region Towards Circular Transition – Lessons from a Living Lab from Pécs, Hungary

A Circular Economy is usually seen as achieving ‘zero waste’ and closing the material flow loops. However, multiple governance, economic, legal, socio-spatial, cultural, and behavioural barriers may easily hamper the transition. This study summarises the lessons learned from the waste flow analysis and living lab (LL) of a case study from the H2020 REPAiR project. It shows how the results of a waste flow analysis created for an urban area can help decision-makers to co-create new place-based eco-innovative solutions and hence shift the city towards circularity. At the same time, during the living lab process, it became clear that the decision support method alone is not enough to co-create or co-design new innovations, in addition the regulatory environment and the peculiarities of governance may also present multiple obstacles. The centralised governance in Hungary and the centralisation tendency in waste management and secondary resource use hamper efficient local resource management. The work in the LL showed that a centralised governance structure hinders not only the co-creation of new solutions but also the transfer of good practices from other peri-urban areas. This is important because a society that is generally less innovative and less developed at the beginning of sustainability transition is innovating for the first time via the transfer of eco-innovative solutions. Our paper shows that the governance structure of a given spatial unit (i.e. a city region) may be a significant factor in the successful or unsuccessful adoption of good practices and for the circular transition, as may system adaptability, the level of local technological development, the level of integration of actors, strategies, interests, and policy interventions.

MAPA Social Innovation Lab

The purpose of this commentary is to invigorate the theoretical approach used by the MAPA Social Innovation Lab in its effort to elaborate a gender equality narrative for the 21st century. To this end, I examined the intersection of Otto Scharmer's Theory U with the main postulates of Paulo Freire's critical pedagogical method, as reflected in the MAPA Social Innovation Lab process. The discussion passes through three axes: the construction of collective consciousness, the role of culture, and the theory-praxis dilemma for social transformation. I make the case that Scharmer (Thoery U) and Freire agree that the search for authentic or generative consciousness is an indispensable step in the reshaping of society. Freire offers a comprehensive methodology for the understanding of culture and social transformation which can been seen as complementary to Scharmer's co-sensing. Taken together they address the issue of "historical viability". The aim of these reflections on the intersection of Theory U and Freire is that they will nurture MAPA´s—and other social innovation labs'—action research, political activism, and praxis towards a vigorous gender narrative for the 21st century.

Reckoning with Reality: Reflections on a Place-Based Social Innovation Lab

This is a reflection upon a social innovation lab process used to establish and build an ongoing culture of sustainability (COS) within a new multi-tenant commercial office building. It seeks to answer two key questions: (1) what are the design tensions that emerge when constructing co-design processes meant to encourage social innovation in a complex system while working from inside that complex system; (2) in building commons governance structures in a complex system, what are realistic expectations for the voluntary participation when multiple organizations with different core mandates are involved? This paper’s primary results come from reflecting upon the COS development coming from the social innovation lab process and adaptations process needed for it to work within a place-based context. The COS intervention itself is still in process and was disrupted by COVID-19, so these findings are still preliminary. Participatory co-design research often involves a great deal of complexity and tacit knowledge, so the key finding here is the surfacing of four core sources of tension that arise when developing a co-design process for the management of a commons: the allocation of costs for co-ordinating collective action, balancing a homogeneous platform for action with heterogeneous participants, physical building infrastructure and social co-design approaches, and between-tenant organization leadership and co-design approaches. This paper’s key contribution is in clarifying core challenges that participatory process designers face when developing and implementing co-design processes.