Toolkit Smarterlabs
SmarterLabs has develop a new toolkit consisting of ten constraints on upscaling and social inclusion in urban Living Lab experiments and ways to anticipate them. The current approach of Living Labs focuses on small-scale performance tests and technology-user interactions, mostly neglecting the larger social-institutional context. Therefore, successful implementation of new practices in the reality of a Living Lab does not warrant broader adoption outside the Lab (i.e. “upscaling”), required to reach their full innovative effect.
Another limitation is its focus on “smart citizens” as users and partners, namely citizens with both the cognitive and material resources to consume and co-produce the smart services. Citizens lacking these resources will normally not be included as co-creators in Living Labs, nor are they likely to be able to make use of the smart services once these are implemented on a largerscale.
The SmarterLabs project has developed practical ways to effectively anticipate these two limitations in the Living lab approach. Our toolkit discuss 10 typical constraints on upscaling or social inclusion and offer ways to anticipate them.
