Beyond a Living Lab: Scaling Social Innovation

This paper reflects on experiences with practicing
and scaling a social innovation concept that was
co-produced between public and private partners
and citizens in a living design laboratory in
Denmark from 2009-2012. The concept is a public
service supporting ad-hoc exercise communities
for senior citizens in public parks, based on playful
activities. This paper builds upon follow-up studies
which have been made since the project ended. We
discuss how practicing the service unfolded over
time, and how two municipalities have attempted
scaling the concept. We deepen the understanding
of theoretical concepts of scaling with experiences
from practice by e.g., discussing ownership,
exchanges between formal institutions and
informal civic engagement, and a need for
clarifying new roles and responsibilities.