Living Lab: Format for rehearsing a new (service) practice

Citizen engagement and the citizens as a resource
are key concepts in rethinking the Danish welfare
system to meet the challenges of delivering better
services for the elderly, while simultaneously
reducing the cost of healthcare. In this method
paper, we address how the co-design of new digital
service platforms takes place in the format of
living labs. We characterize living labs as the
design of experiential spaces where ‘what is’ and
‘what could be’ are explored over a longer period
of engagement. The labs are staged to integrate
multiple stakeholders’ issues and resources and to
create new technologies, concepts, or service
designs. This paper unpacks the practices of living
labs with questions of what is being produced, not
only in terms of products, but also in terms of
changes in practices, roles, and relations. To
analyze and discuss this question the authors report
about their engagement in two co-design projects
that focus on a digitally mediated community
practice of sharing and exchanging.