How to find meaning: A journey toward a Living Lab for People

CGIAR News; May 5 2023

Figure By Birgit Habermann, Eva Marina Valencia Leñero and Ryan Nehring.

Sometimes projects introduce a new concept that has, at the outset, little meaning other than a word. And then through engagement of different scientists, stakeholders and partners working together, this word acquires real meaning and starts becoming an actionable concept. This process is not always smooth and requires a lot of patience, confidence and respect for each other’s different opinions, interests, schools of thoughts and positionalities – and if operating on a global level, also for different cultures. 

For us, a group of scientists in a work package dedicated to Living Labs (WP3) in the CGIAR Research Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems, the concept of a Living Lab is one such example. Although not new to others, it is new for us. Intrigued by the term, we embark on this journey of giving it a meaning, a meaning that serves to promote low-emission food systems in the countries with whom and where we are working.  

This blog explains the process we are going through to find a definition, and to agree upon principles for a “Living Lab for People” (LL4P). While the Initiative is working in China, Colombia, Kenya, and Vietnam, we focus only on Kenya and Colombia in this blog. The teams at these two sites started the process with similar backgrounds and assumptions, while in China and Vietnam, the understanding of the living lab was less clear at the outset- which also reflects the highly diverse interpretation of the living lab concept in the literature. 

Our descriptive term “Living Lab for People” (LL4P) stands for a more participatory concept than the original explanation of living labs in literature. For example, testing new technologies driven by external interests with citizens (a classic living lab approach) is not our focus. Instead, the LL4Ps should be owned by citizens and food system stakeholders and filled with their ideas and innovations based on a shared interest in a better future for the food systems in which they work and live.

In short, we understand living labs as a space for citizens and specific stakeholders to create and test new ideas, and to meet with other supporting actors, such as scientists and practitioners, to develop these ideas further.

We are asking ourselves: who could be part of the living labs? Who could support these innovations and modalities of governance?

Interviews with the site coordinators suggest that these can also be policymakers, market entrepreneurs or investors that can scale the local innovations, and even consumers that could use these innovations themselves. If we want an inclusive citizen-centric approachcitizen-centric approach, then this requires careful planning of citizen representation in the LL4P, to ensure inclusivity and equitable access on the one hand, but also sufficient consideration of what the actual users need and want themselves – ideally looking at what is already out there in practice amongst them.

Yet, each site in the Initiative’s four countries –China, Colombia, Kenya, Vietnam – adapts the LL4P for their specific contexts and needs. Here, we want to highlight the progress in Colombia and Kenya as emblematic of the LL4P concept we are developing. 

See more https://www.cgiar.org/news-events/news/how-to-find-meaning-a-journey-toward-a-living-lab-for-people/