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Portrait Lea Fünfschilling. Photo: Emma Lord.

Lea Fünfschilling

Associate Professor | Senior Lecturer

Portrait Lea Fünfschilling. Photo: Emma Lord.

Impacts of urban living labs on sustainability transitions : mechanisms and strategies for systemic change through experimentation

Author

  • Timo von Wirth
  • Lea Fuenfschilling
  • Niki Frantzeskaki
  • Lars Coenen

Summary, in English

Urban Living Labs (ULL) are considered spaces to facilitate experimentation about sustainability solutions. ULL represent sites that allow different urban actors to design, test and learn from socio-technical innovations. However, despite their recent proliferation in the European policy sphere, the underlying processes through which ULL might be able to generate and diffuse new socio-technical configurations beyond their immediate boundaries have been largely disregarded and it remains to be examined how they contribute to urban sustainability transitions. With this study, we contribute to a better understanding of the diffusion mechanisms and strategies through which ULL (seek to) create a wider impact using the conceptual lens of transition studies. The mechanisms of diffusion are investigated in four distinct ULL in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Malmö, Sweden. The empirical results indicate six specific strategies that aim to support the diffusion of innovations and know-how developed within ULL to a broader context: transformative place-making, activating network partners, replication of lab structure, education and training, stimulating entrepreneurial growth and narratives of impact.

Department/s

  • CIRCLE

Publishing year

2019-02-01

Language

English

Pages

229-257

Publication/Series

European Planning Studies

Volume

27

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Topic

  • Other Engineering and Technologies

Keywords

  • cities
  • experimentation
  • sustainability transitions; diffusion
  • systemic change
  • Urban Living Labs

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0965-4313