Authors
- Anke Brons
- Koen van der Gaast
- Harrison Awuh
- Jan Eelco Jansma
- Claudia Segreto
- Sigrid Wertheim-Heck
This report presents a simple methodology for setting up urban living labs. It is based on an analysis of scholarly texts and documents and on an analysis of 90 local experimental projects in the Amsterdam region. The following chapters introduce a definition and a step-by-step approach to urban living labs: a living lab way of working.
Citizen engagement is heralded as essential for food democracy and equality, yet the implementation of inclusive citizen engagement mechanisms in urban food systems governance has lagged behind. This paper aims to further the agenda of citizen engagement in the transformation towards healthy and sustainable urban food systems by offering a conceptual reflection on urban living labs (ULLs) as a methodological platform. Over the past decades, ULLs have become increasingly popular to actively engage citizens in methodological testbeds for innovations within real-world settings. The paper proposes that ULLs as a tool for inclusive citizen engagement can be utilized in two ways: (i) the ULL as the daily life of which citizens are the experts, aimed at uncovering the unreflexive agency of a highly diverse population in co-shaping the food system and (ii) the ULL as a break with daily life aimed at facilitating reflexive agency in (re)shaping food futures. We argue that both ULL approaches have the potential to facilitate inclusive citizen engagement in different ways by strengthening the breadth and the depth of citizen engagement respectively. The paper concludes by proposing a sequential implementation of the two types of ULL, paying attention to spatial configurations and the short-termed nature of ULLs.
Universities are enhancing their contribution to a sus tainable world by developing sustainable campuses and by stimulating implementation of scientific findings, among other things. However, for university managerial, strategic or sup port staff responsible for this transformation, there is no appropriate, available material on how to do this. Instead, an abundance of material is available on why it is important and there are several reports in scientific journals on the expertise behind that. This puts great pressure on those staff members, who have scarce time and money and need to reliably generate results but have to learn on the job or gather information through peers in oral or case study form. The goal of this handbook is to help practitioners increase the speed of putting sustainability science and education into practice by maximizing the possibilities of campuses and to speed up sustainability in campuses by maximizing researcher and student input. The book builds on hands-on experience and analyzing operational practice in Living Labs on campuses and in the literature.
This book attempts to give guidelines as to:
• why we need to speed up innovation and sustainability implementation and why universities should lead the way and are positioned superbly for this role
• what sustainability is (in a nutshell) and what Living Labs are
• where to combine sustainability, Living Labs and university campuses into the approach of ‘Campus as Living Lab‘
• how to start and run a Living Lab and run a process and stakeholder approach
• when the vision of global sustainable campuses will come true.
The booklet takes a pragmatic approach; therefore, we have limited references to those necessary and given a mix of theoretical and scientific papers, workshop reports, websites and more experience-based books to guide interested readers and practitioners. While writing the booklet, we have assumed that your university already has some sustainability program in place. This booklet is the first version. The authors are fully aware of the wealth of experiences generated in universities around the world. Therefore, all remarks, comments and suggestions will be gathered through our website www.campusaslivinglab.org and will be discussed and used by practitioners and co-writers. As experience grows, we envision this handbook becoming part of the standard material for university sustainability coordinators around the world, staying up-to-date through their input and acknowledging the value of that co-creation process. We hope that it helps university sustainability offices as well as all stakeholders involved in sustainability education, innovation and implementation.
This text describes a living, shared framework and methodology, the ‘Campus as Living Lab’ learning system, created through global participatory workshops and Living Lab literature, aimed at supporting universities and their Sustainability (Coordinating) Offices in the development and monitoring of Living Lab projects. The framework includes seven categories of supportive data collection and three levels of details to meet different requirements of potential users. The Living Lab framework presented in this chapter, aims to create value and help universities maximise the benefit of Living Lab projects within an institution, support monitoring, reflection and learning from projects, and facilitate communication with stakeholders, and the sharing of practices and learning between peers across the globe. As a living shared, framework and learning system, the framework will adapt and develop over time and within different contexts. To provide feedback and fast (practical) learning from users, the system will be further developed to facilitate transparent peer reviewing.
This is a chapter in the book: "Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development: Supporting the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals", (Springer, ed. Leal, W. et al., 2018).
For reference:
Verhoef, L.A., Bossert, M., Newman, J. Ferraz, F., Robinson, Z.P., Agarwala, Y. Wolff III, P., Jiranek, P., Hellinga, C., (2020) Towards a Learning System for University Campuses as Living Labs for Sustainability. In: Leal Filho W. et al. (eds) Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15604-6_9
Based on a comparative case study of three innovation projects in a Living Lab in the city of Amsterdam, the claims of Living Labs regarding innovation and the different orders of learning they foster are analysed and discussed in this article. In this article it is argued that the processes of experimentation within Living Labs combining mechanisms of learning and innovation is key to promoting the development of particular local solutions.However, since the learning processes are especially concerned within a particular Living Lab learning setting, there is a mismatch between the expectations of policymakers, industry, citizens, and knowledge institutes, as well as how the lessons learned can be useful for other contexts.
Innovation is known to be an important and influential factor in fostering sustainable
development. Yet, there is a paucity of literature on the extent to which universities are successfully
implementing innovation in this field. This paper addresses this gap, by examining the role of
innovation in the field of environmental sustainability in universities, and by reporting on the results
of an international study, in which examples of successful experiences and good practice were
identified. The paper outlines the lessons learned from such examples, with the aim of motivating
other universities to engage in this rapidly growing field.
For reference:
Leal Filho, W.; Emblen-Perry, K.; Molthan-Hill, P.; Mifsud, M.; Verhoef, L.; Azeiteiro, U.M.; Bacelar-Nicolau, P.; de Sousa, L.O.; Castro, P.; Beynaghi, A.; Boddy, J.; Lange Salvia, A.; Frankenberger, F.; Price, E. Implementing Innovation on Environmental Sustainability at Universities Around the World. Sustainability 2019, 11, 3807