Stefan Bernat and Anna Ystrom, Linkoping University

Overview

This paper examines how stakeholder participation can be governed in urban Living Labs. It draws on 12 ELABORATOR Living Labs, where many participants, including users, sit outside the formal organisational boundaries of the projects. The authors propose adaptive governance as a way to respond to different interests, levels of engagement and local conditions. The approach offers a flexible alternative to linear project management when organising co-creation and collaboration.

Research highlights

• Living Labs depend on collaboration between diverse stakeholders, but many participants cannot be managed through conventional organisational authority.

• Differences in interests, motivation and engagement create an ongoing governance challenge.

• Adaptive governance allows engagement levels and working arrangements to change in response to the context.

• The study is based on the experience of 12 ELABORATOR Living Labs working on urban mobility interventions.

• The proposed model supports stakeholder participation throughout the co-creation process rather than treating engagement as a single project activity.

Practical relevance

The study gives Living Lab managers a governance lens for adjusting participation as projects evolve. It does not report final intervention impacts, but it identifies flexibility as an important condition for maintaining collaboration and supporting innovation across different city contexts.

Publication details

Published in Beyond Boundaries: Unleashing Innovation with Ideas, Springer, first published online in 2025, pages 269-280. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-96173-1_20.