Aim and purpose

The EmbedterLabs project has aimed to develop capacity for more synergistic urban planning for transformations towards sustainable and resilient urban areas. It deals with a key deficiency of current urban planning: the rather context-specific lessons of Urban Living Labs (ULLs) are poorly translated into citywide, integrated, transformative policy implications, leaving them having limited impact. To do so, it answers two questions: 1) how to orient labs and experiments to inform broader learning processes, and 2) how to align laboratory insights with established policy mixes to enable transformation? To achieve this, a novel approach will be developed, tested and refined through retrospective analysis of experiments in Gdansk, Stockholm and Maastricht followed by action research through ULL experiments in each city. The experiments will focus on mobility infrastructure and public space, one key dimension of urban sustainability. These activities will improve the learning processes of experiments and accordingly support the creation of transformative capacity for urban policy makers.  

The consortium (see below) is well-positioned by including universities with complementary knowledge, cities committed to experiment and learn to transform, companies developing innovations, and organizations representing stakeholder interests. All research and city partners have experience with multi-actor Living Lab and participatory approaches, and concrete experiments are already identified.

The EmbedterLabs contributes to the overarching aim of the call by developing capacity for more synergistic urban planning for transformations towards sustainable and resilient urban areas through a novel ULL learning approach. By focusing on ULLs (i.e. stakeholder co-creation & learning) concerning resilient urban public space and mobility infrastructure (in each of the three cities), it addresses the overlap of two call topics: (3) Robust and resilient urban infrastructure and built environment, and (2) Community-based developments and urban innovation ecosystems.  

In addition, the project:

• is forward looking, solution oriented: EmbedterLabs delivers a new learning instruments for generating policy options.  

• connects to earlier actions: EmbedterLabs builds on the experience from several former European (and JPI UE) Projects SmarterLabs, Urb@Exp (Maastricht), CRUNCH (Gdansk) and TRANS-PED (Stockholm) that addressed urban transformation and/or applied the Living Lab concept. EmbedterLabs learns from these and aims to make their approach more successful.  

• has transnational benefit: The project develops and shares knowledge, guidelines, policy briefs that can be internationally used.  

• is transdisciplinary, through key stakeholder involvement: EmbedterLabs will involve a variety of key stakeholders in a variety of different Living Lab contexts in a variety of cultural contexts. The transdisciplinary partnership of different universities and city departments will benefit the project and its results.

Method

The overall method is based on design science research (DSR) methodology (an adapted version of Peffers et al., 2007):

Within this meta-method, interviews and focus groups are used as qualitative methods.  

Results

This project has developed a practical learning tool for practitioners to enhance the impact of urban experiments to transformative urban planning for sustainability.

Why?

Urban experiments are popular, yet creating a transformative impact beyond the experiment is challenging. In many cases the learning process is neglected at the expense of “getting the project done”. This tool helps to feed experimental lessons into policy development for urban transformation.

Who?

The facilitators of an urban experiment employ the tool. These engage all relevant stakeholders around the experiment in a learning community to jointly formulate questions and answers about a policy challenge. The active engagement of stakeholders, with their diverse perspectives, knowledge, and skills, implies learning from and with others, a form of social learning.

How?

The tool is applied with relevant stakeholders in at least two reflections sessions (one before and one after an experiment.

For a general introduction of the tool, please watch this short video via https://www.embedterlabs.com.pl/results

References 

Peffers, K., Tuunanen, T., Rothenberger, M. A., & Chatterjee, S. (2007). A design science research methodology for information systems research. Journal of management information systems, 24(3), 45-77.