Unlocking the potential of living labs: insights and strategies

What are the lessons that applied design researchers can take away from this book? What suggestions and recommendations can be derived from the experiences presented in the preceding chapters? On the one hand, it is clear that working with Living Labs offers unique opportunities to address some of society’s ambitious challenges. At the same time, it is also clear that it’s not necessarily that straightforward to deal with the dynamics of a Living Lab. In Chapter 1, Experimentation at the Heart of Societal Change, we presented our expectation that applied design researchers can play an important role in connecting different levels of the Living Lab and its surroundings. To explore this, we first discussed the Living Lab and its relationship with societal change processes. Second, we discussed the social dynamics that take place in the Living Lab itself. Third, we discussed the actual practices of applied design researchers within a Living Lab, for instance with regard to their engagement with tangible forms. In this final chapter, we present some of the overarching insights that can be drawn from the many reflections in this publication.