Facing Societal Challenges in Living Labs: Towards a Conceptual Framework to Facilitate Transdisciplinary Collaborations

Living labs are an extremely attractive open innovation landscape for collaborative research and development activities targeting the complexity of today’s societal challenges. However, although there is plenty of support for collaboration, we still lack clear guidelines to direct transdisciplinary stakeholder networks of academics and practitioners through collaboration processes in the living lab ecosystem. In other words, we lack answers to the question of “how to collaborate?” In the present paper we propose a conceptual framework defining relevant stages to initiate and facilitate transdisciplinary collaboration processes. We base our framework on collaboration challenges described in the literature, specifically the need for stakeholder alignment, as well as challenges experienced in practice, which we report through exploratory case studies. In the proposed conceptual framework, we advocate the application of co-creation methods, both at the level of the living lab (macro) and in projects (meso) within the living lab, in order to define, with all involved parties and stakeholders, the scope and strategy of the living lab and to facilitate stakeholder alignment. Additionally, we integrate an iterative approach and a feedback loop in order to account for the dynamic nature of the collaboration process and to enable reflection and evaluation

Systematic change: context, people, and technology: a methodological framework for research, design and education

In this paper we present our vision on how to bring about Systemic Change. We define the system and introduce achieving systemic change as an iterative, data-informed process consisting of four major phases. First, we state that Context Exploration and research in a real-life setting are crucial aspects when modeling and implementing systemic change through design interventions. Combined with prior knowledge, context exploration forms the base for both the derivation of scientific Hypotheses and the Design of technological interventions for societal transformation. Finally, continuous reflection and Validation of findings and results will induce effective design interventions. The use of data and a multidisciplinary approach are two driving forces in this process of achieving systemic change. Data plays a central role here, continuously providing insights, inspiration, evidence and possibilities. And because design for systemic change cannot be conducted in isolation, a multidisciplinary approach and collaboration are essential to its success

When Reality Kicks In: Exploring the Influence of Local Context on Community-Based Design

Social sustainability is becoming an increasingly important topic in design practice, calling for more contextual perspectives on the process of design for social sustainability. This paper presents a retrospective case study analyzing the design process of a serious game which aimed to empower teenagers to organize events to strengthen community bonds. The community context in which the collaborative project took place underwent significant contextual changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis using the Ecologies of Contestation framework shows the influence of multiple contextual levels (Socio-cultural, Power, Constructed, and Values-based) on the design process. Moreover, the paper discusses multiple contextual factors which influenced the design process and presents four suggestions for designers to anticipate and benefit from dynamics in these contextual elements. The suggestions regard (1) integrating the temporal dimension in the collaborative design processes, (2) carefully considering (value) alignment between actors, (3) leveraging values in the collaborative design process, and (4) acknowledging and responding to the multilayered nature of communities throughout the design process. As such, this paper explores the relationships between the community context and the collaborative design process to contribute to more resilient design practices.System Engineerin