Urban Living Labs as Instruments of Open Innovation: Examples of Sino–European Cooperation
This chapter analyses how Urban Living Labs may be used as instruments of open innovation. The analysis is based on on-the-ground experiences with Urban Living Labs in China (in the cities of Wuhan, Tianjin and Jingdezhen), in close contact with local stakeholders and European and Chinese experts. These experiences were paired with desk research, local stakeholder workshops and Sino-European expert workshops, in order to better understand the challenges that were identified in the Urban Living Labs, and to explore pathways towards addressing these challenges. Based on these methods, open innovation-based principles are discussed for Urban Living Labs to function as meeting arenas to support communities’ diversity, significance and connectedness, where participants can experiment with practical ideas and solutions towards more a cohesive, inclusive and sustainable every-day life.
