Living Labs and Urban Smartness

Urban Living Labs are socio-digital innovation environments in realistic city life conditions based on multi-stakeholder partnerships that effectively involve citizens in the co-creation and co-production of new or reformed public services and infrastructures. This chapter explores the growing phenomenon of Urban Living Labs and analyses the nature of related innovations in the perspective of ‘City Smartness' – a mantra for local governments worldwide which are having to address increasingly complex problems with fast diminishing financial resources. It goes on to briefly overview the urban governance models emerging in such environments and finally focuses on the challenges posed by these models as result of integration between the ‘technology push' Smart City vision and the ‘human pull' Urban Living Lab concept and approach.

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Living Labs and Urban Smartness

Megacities and Rapid Urbanization ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-9276-1.ch013 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 274-287

Author(s):

Grazia Concilio ◽

Francesco Molinari

Keyword(s):

Local Governments ◽

Urban Governance ◽

Urban Living ◽

City Life ◽

Life Conditions ◽

Living Lab ◽

Living Labs ◽

Governance Models ◽

Stakeholder Partnerships ◽

Multi Stakeholder

Urban Living Labs are socio-digital innovation environments in realistic city life conditions based on multi-stakeholder partnerships that effectively involve citizens in the co-creation and co-production of new or reformed public services and infrastructures. This chapter explores the growing phenomenon of Urban Living Labs and analyses the nature of related innovations in the perspective of ‘City Smartness' – a mantra for local governments worldwide which are having to address increasingly complex problems with fast diminishing financial resources. It goes on to briefly overview the urban governance models emerging in such environments and finally focuses on the challenges posed by these models as result of integration between the ‘technology push' Smart City vision and the ‘human pull' Urban Living Lab concept and approach.

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Urban Living Labs, Circular Economy and Nature-Based Solutions: Ideation and Testing of a New Soil in the City of Turin Using a Multi-stakeholder Perspective

Circular Economy and Sustainability ◽

10.1007/s43615-021-00011-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Grazia Sveva Ascione ◽

Federico Cuomo ◽

Nicole Mariotti ◽

Laura Corazza

Keyword(s):

Circular Economy ◽

Stakeholder Management ◽

Participant Observation ◽

Green Roofs ◽

Exploratory Research ◽

Urban Living ◽

Natural Systems ◽

Living Labs ◽

Multi Stakeholder ◽

The City

AbstractIn the attempt to foster circular economy (CE), cities are increasingly adopting urban living labs (ULLs) as sites of co-production aimed at testing alternative solutions based on the reuse of products, reduction of consumption and recycling of materials. Taking this perspective, our study adopts an exploratory research design to discover the pragmatic implications emerging from a case study. The City of Turin joined proGIreg, a European project that entails the regeneration of former industrial districts by means of nature-based solutions (NBS). Ranging from aquaponics to green roofs, seven NBS have been experimented in Turin, which rely on the use of natural systems to tackle social, economic and environmental challenges efficiently and sustainably. Among them, the most promising is related to the production and test of the ‘new soil’, a blend obtained by mixing earth materials coming from construction sites with compost, zeolites and mycorrhizae. The case herein presented is interesting to analyse for the multi-stakeholder management setting used, where public institutions, private companies, research institutions, citizens and associations collaborated in the co-creation and testing phase of the NBS. Consequently, the data collected through participant observation and direct interviews allow researchers to describe multi-stakeholders’ dynamics and how they work. Thus, this paper narrates a micro-contextual experience while providing a critique. Results include an analysis of the unique combination of different stakeholders, which strongly impacted on the management and the effectiveness of the entire project. By consequence, the paper offers both theoretical contributions to the relational branch of stakeholder theory and practical evidence in demonstrating the importance of the relational branch of the theory over a more traditional transactional view.

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Applying an RRI Filter in Key Learning on Urban Living Labs’ Performance

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11143833 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (14) ◽

pp. 3833 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marina Van Geenhuizen

Keyword(s):

Power Distribution ◽

Real Life ◽

Urban Setting ◽

Urban Living ◽

Learning Framework ◽

Research And Innovation ◽

Living Lab ◽

Living Labs ◽

Responsible Research ◽

Practical Implications

Urban living labs is a practical methodology in improving sustainability in cities by facilitating collaborative learning and innovation in a real-life environment, thereby mainly responding to the needs of users (citizens). The paper aims to filter a list of key learnings on urban living labs through the lens of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). One of the motivations is that key learnings on urban living labs are mainly derived from means-goal effectiveness (MGE) thinking while the urban setting calls for a broader perspective due to complexity and tension from the multi-actor, multifunctional, and multi-scalar character of cities. The filtering reveals almost 40 learnings as ‘overlap’ and ‘exclusive for MGE’. Importantly, five learnings are identified as specific for RRI and potentially enriching living lab methodology: ethical and normative principles like health, safety, security, and equality between societal groups, and a wider distribution of benefits and risks of living lab outcomes, in particular, contradictory sustainability issues. The RRI filtering causes three practical implications: coping with uneven power distribution between stakeholders, limited feasibility of applying the comprehensive learning framework, and challenges of overarching platform structures enabling to better incorporate RRI concerns in living lab methodology. The findings as presented in an adapted list are new, as RRI values and concerns have seldom been applied to practical innovation and have never been explicitly applied to urban living labs’ performance beyond the borders of effectiveness thinking.

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Urban Planning by Experiment at Precinct Scale: Embracing Complexity, Ambiguity, and Multiplicity

Urban Planning ◽

10.17645/up.v6i1.3525 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 195-207

Author(s):

Darren Sharp ◽

Rob Raven

Keyword(s):

Urban Planning ◽

Literature Review ◽

Economic Activity ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Urban Transformation ◽

Urban Living ◽

Net Zero ◽

Living Lab ◽

Living Labs ◽

Empirical Illustration

Urban living labs have emerged as spatially embedded arenas for governing urban transformation, where heterogenous actor configurations experiment with new practices, institutions, and infrastructures. This article observes a nascent shift towards experimentation at the precinct scale and responds to a need to further investigate relevant processes in urban experimentation at this scale, and identifies particular challenges for urban planning. We tentatively conceptualise precincts as spatially bounded urban environments loosely delineated by a particular combination of social or economic activity. Our methodology involves an interpretive systematic literature review of urban experimentation and urban living labs at precinct scale, along with an empirical illustration of the Net Zero Initiative at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, which is operationalising its main campus into a living lab focussed on precinct-scale decarbonisation. We identify four processual categories relevant to precinct-scale experimentation: embedding, framing, governing, and learning. We use the empirical illustration to discuss the relevance of these processes, refine findings from the literature review and conclude with a discussion on the implications of our article for future scholarship on urban planning by experiment at precinct scale.

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A Methodology for Designing Smart Urban Living Labs from the University for the Cities of the Future

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21206712 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (20) ◽

pp. 6712

Author(s):

Nadhiely Martínez-Bello ◽

Mónica José Cruz-Prieto ◽

David Güemes-Castorena ◽

Alberto Mendoza-Domínguez

Keyword(s):

Solar Energy ◽

Residual Water ◽

Research Groups ◽

High Demand ◽

Global Trends ◽

Urban Living ◽

Living Lab ◽

Living Labs ◽

Smart Living ◽

The University

Cities have high demand and limited availability of water and energy, so it is necessary to have adequate technologies to make efficient use of these resources and to be able to generate them. This research focuses on developing and executing a methodology for an urban living lab vocation identification for a new water and energy self-sufficient university building. The methods employed were constructing a technological roadmap to identify global trends and select the technologies and practices to be implemented in the building. Among the chosen technologies were those for capturing and using rain and residual water, the generation of solar energy, and water and energy generation and consumption monitoring. This building works as a living laboratory since the operation and monitoring generate knowledge and innovation through students and research groups that develop projects. The insights gained from this study may help other efforts to avoid pitfalls and better design smart living labs and off-grid buildings.

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SDGs mainstreaming at the local level: case studies from Japan

Sustainability Science ◽

10.1007/s11625-021-00977-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hiromi Masuda ◽

Mahesti Okitasari ◽

Kanako Morita ◽

Tarek Katramiz ◽

Hitomi Shimizu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Case Studies ◽

Local Governments ◽

Local Level ◽

National Level ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Policy Integration ◽

2030 Agenda ◽

Stakeholder Partnerships ◽

Multi Stakeholder

AbstractThere has been increasing interest in local-level implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite the emergence of various initiatives undertaken by local governments, studies on the process of mainstreaming the 2030 Agenda within local contexts remain limited. This study is aimed at identifying possible approaches for supporting local governments in successfully mainstreaming the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. We developed an analytical framework covering key components for local-level mainstreaming of the SDGs based on our review of recent policy guidelines for implementing the SDGs and the policy integration and coherence literature. Subsequently, we applied this framework within case studies of two designated municipalities under the Japanese government’s “SDGs Future Cities” initiative aimed at localizing the SDGs. The analysis demonstrated how local governments could develop and apply key components of the SDGs mainstreaming process. Our findings suggest that the following approaches can facilitate local governments’ efforts to mainstream the SDGs: first, municipalities can foster local ownership to address the challenges they face. Second, existing policy resources can be linked with formal procedures. Third, multi-stakeholder partnerships can be developed. Fourth, vertical communication channels can be established with international and national-level organizations. Overall, the article contributes to a growing literature on SDGs implementation at the local level by identifying key components required for their mainstreaming, introducing perspectives derived from Japanese case studies.

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Urban Living Lab as a Circular Economy Ecosystem: Advancing Environmental Sustainability through Economic Value, Material, and Knowledge Flows

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052811 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2811

Author(s):

Anil Engez ◽

Seppo Leminen ◽

Leena Aarikka-Stenroos

Keyword(s):

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Circular Economy ◽

Economic Value ◽

Knowledge Flows ◽

System Level ◽

Ecosystem Structure ◽

Dominant Type ◽

Urban Living ◽

Living Lab ◽

Living Labs

Environmental sustainability is an increasingly relevant aspect of urban living labs. The objective of this study is to examine an urban living lab through ecosystem approach lenses and reveal the actor activities and diverse flows between them, enabling sustainable urban development. The study examines an urban area through four living lab projects in the Hiedanranta district in Tampere in Finland. We apply a qualitative research design strategy including semi-structured interviews reinforced with the project reports and websites. The collaboration and co-creation nature of living labs resembles an ecosystem structure, as both include diverse complementary actors and have distinctive coordination mechanisms, shared goals, and system-level outcomes. Building on the ecosystem analogy and circular economy ecosystem typology, our study examines living labs as ecosystems, enabling the economic value flow, material flow, and knowledge flow and pursuing the shared goal of improved environmental sustainability. The findings of the study demonstrate how the different ecosystem types manifest in urban living labs, and the actors, flows, and outcomes in these ecosystems. The study concludes that urban sustainability-oriented living labs comprise all main types of circular economy ecosystems. The dominant type of the activities (biased to economic value, material, or knowledge) determines the ecosystem type in an urban living lab, highlighting a key topic for future research: The contribution of collaborative projects to environmental sustainability in urban living labs realized through diverse ecosystem types.

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Co-creation Pathways to Inform Shared Governance of Urban Living Labs in Practice: Lessons From Three European Projects

Frontiers in Sustainable Cities ◽

10.3389/frsc.2021.690458 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Israa Hanafi Mahmoud ◽

Eugenio Morello ◽

David Ludlow ◽

Giuseppe Salvia

Keyword(s):

Shared Governance ◽

Urban Governance ◽

Sustainable Urban Development ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Urban Living ◽

Common Space ◽

Urban Transition ◽

Living Labs ◽

European Projects ◽

Support Evidence

Over recent decades Urban Living Labs (ULLs) have become a common space for co-creation processes' experimentation, whereby new approaches for sustainable urban development are highly connected to support evidence-based policy generation. Europe seems a particular 'hotspot' for this approach whenever it comes to public policy and specifically planning for urban transition. Systemic changes related to urban governance and different public participatory mechanisms, as in the case of ULLs, demand a growing interest from the stakeholders and deliberation in decision-making mechanisms. In this research paper, we analyze co-creation pathways and different shared governance mechanisms in three ongoing European projects: CLEVER Cities, Sharing Cities, and SUNEX projects from a practice perspective. This comparative study investigates stakeholder engagement (1) scales, (2) mechanisms, (3) methodologies of engagement, and finally the co-creation pathway challenges and pitfalls. From the analyzed ULLs' experiences, we identified key principles that suggest relevant clues to enable the consolidation of a forthcoming ULL 2.0 model and related innovation pathways for co-creating urban planning policies. We lastly reflect on the enablers and catalysts of co-creation processes to inform shared urban governance as major takeaways from our research.

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Urban Living Labs: how to enable inclusive transdisciplinary research?

Urban Transformations ◽

10.1186/s42854-021-00026-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Pia Laborgne ◽

Epongue Ekille ◽

Jochen Wendel ◽

Andrea Pierce ◽

Monika Heyder ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Exchange ◽

City Government ◽

Transdisciplinary Research ◽

Sustainability Transitions ◽

Building Capacity ◽

Research And Practice ◽

Urban Living ◽

Water Energy Nexus ◽

Living Lab ◽

Living Labs

AbstractThe Urban Living Lab (ULL) approach has the potential to create enabling environments for social learning and to be a successful arena for innovative local collaboration in knowledge co-creation and experimentation in the context of research and practice in sustainability transitions. Nevertheless, complex issues such as the urban Food-Water-Energy (FWE) Nexus present a challenge to the realization of such ULL, especially regarding their inclusiveness.We present ULL as a frame for a local knowledge co-creation and participation approach based on the project "Creating Interfaces - Building capacity for integrated governance at the Food-Water-Energy-nexus in cities on the water". This project aims at making FWE Nexus linkages better understandable to the stakeholders (citizens and associations, city government, science, businesses), and to facilitate cooperation and knowledge exchange among them. This paper focuses on and discusses inclusiveness as a key aspect and challenge of ULLs and on what literature and our experiences in this regard suggest for the advancement of the concept of ULL towards ULL 2.0. These findings often also relate to framing transdisciplinary research in a wider sense.

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